Momentum, it seemed, was on the New York native’s side.

But in the end none of that mattered. Because once the ultra-aggressive Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko began catching cards, the final table was his to win. And the Ukraine-born professional didn’t let go of the stranglehold he had on his fellow final tableists until he was crowned the 2009 WCOOP Main Event champ.

“It’s a dream come true,” Timoshenko told Casino City. “To win the largest poker tournament in the history of online poker is a huge feat and I feel very blessed to have done it.

“It’s the largest online poker tournament every year, with an amazing structure allowing for lots of deep stacked play, even later in the tournament. Winning this event comes with a lot of prestige and accolades.”

Timoshenko, who had five cashes overall in this year’s WCOOP, came into Day 2 seventh in chips, but early on in the day he fell back into the pack. He said that forced him to play a little more cautious than usual.

“I tightened up, stayed patient and managed to come back,” said Timoshenko, who moved to the U.S. with his family when he was 8 years old and now lives in Seattle, Washington. “One big hand that got me back was one where I raised with J-J from middle position, and ‘ilvdnfl’ went all in on the button for 18 big blinds. I thought he could be making a play here a lot with worse hands because I had been very aggressive and showing down less than premium hands, so I made the call. He had A-A, but I flopped quad jacks to eliminate him and get back near the top. After that, I changed tables, and it was a much smoother ride from there.”

Timoshenko entered the final table in second place on the chipleader board with 10,490,143 chips, trailing Kelly, who had 12,245,301. But a bad run midway through the final table sent Kelly packing earlier than he expected as he got bounced in a big hand by Timoshenko and ended up finishing fourth for a prize of $643,000.

When the final table got to heads-up, Timoshenko held a 33,174,870-9,745,133 advantage over “Udon Wannit” and it didn’t take long for him to put him away for the title. Timoshenko won $1.7 million for his efforts while “Udon Wannit” – one of seven Americans at the final table – took home more than $1.2 million. “It’s a dream come true to win the largest and toughest online poker tournament ever assembled,” said Timoshenko, who cut through the 2,144-strong field in the $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

This isn’t the first time Timoshenko has won a multi-million dollar tournament. In April, he took home $2,149,960 when he captured the Season 7 World Poker Tour Championship. In addition to the WCOOP and WPT titles, Timoshenko also has an Asian Pacific Poker Tour title to his name.

The Main Event – which was completed over two days and took 23 hours of actual playing time – carried a whopping prize pool of $10.7 million. Overall, the eighth annual WCOOP series – which is sponsored by PokerStars – was a record-breaker thanks to a prize pool of $51,652,800, which was more than $11 million more than last year’s tournament series. Nearly 44,000 players from 140 different countries participated in the 45 events.

While the 20-year-old Kelly fell short in the Main Event, he was still crowned the 2009 WCOOP Player of the Year after an incredible three-week run that saw him cash 11 times, make three final tables and win the $215 Razz tournament and $10,300 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. event. As an added bonus for winning Player of the Year, Kelly also won a trip to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in January where all 2009 WCOOP bracelet winners will be awarded their bracelets at a ceremony. To date there have been 166 WCOOP bracelet events since 2002 with a total combined prize pool of $156,855,050.

Another player to enjoy a big WCOOP was French Team PokerStars pro Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, who outlasted a field of 1,269 to win the $530 No Limit tournament, and then two days later won the $215 No Limit tournament against a field of 9,220 players.

“The WCOOP is a great series to play and the prize pool is enormous. No other online series compares to the WCOOP but I’ve playing it five years now and had never won a bracelet,” said ElkY, who cashed a total of six times during the series earning more than $500, 000.

“When I won [the first bracelet] it was amazing – 1,169 players. But to win again two days later, I just couldn’t believe it. More than 9,000 players, the craziest field, but I did it. My goal now is to win a WSOP bracelet for the first time, and become the first player to win two European Poker Tour events.”

This year’s November Nine are currently in the midst of their four-month delay. And since the final table was decided back in mid-July, the participants have probably been getting advice from everybody they have come into contact with. But truth be told, there are really only nine other people in the world who know exactly what these guys are up against and that’s the 2008 November Nine.

So we turned to two members of last year’s November Nine – Darus Suharto and Scott Montgomery – to get some insight on their experiences last year

Suharto ended up finishing sixth at last year’s Main Event, which was the amateur’s second cash in the event. Overall, he has three WSOP cashes to his name that have earned him more than $2.4 million. Since last year he has left his job as the associate director of the internal audit department at York University in Toronto to begin his own consulting business, which has allowed him to focus more on poker.
Montgomery finished just ahead of Suharto last year in fifth place, which earned him $3,088,012. The poker pro from Canada has six WSOP cashes in his career.

Both players were willing to speak to Casino City about last year’s November Nine and tell us how they dealt with the delay and the increased exposure and what they would change if given the chance again. Here’s what they had to say:

10. Get yourself a coach
Last week, 2009 final tableist Jeff Shulman announced that he was going to receive coaching during the final table delay from none other than 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. None of last year’s players made any kind of official announcement about a coach, but Montgomery said he wishes he got some professional advice during the break.

“I think it could have helped,” Montgomery told us from his hotel room in London last week as he was preparing to play in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event. “I decided not to work with anyone because I thought it might just be confusing listening to someone else’s thoughts and strategies. But looking back it would have helped if I worked with bunch of different people and talked to them about they would handle certain hands and certain situations.”

9. Study your opponents
Suharto told us that he wishes he spent more time last year researching the other final tableists. He said he did a little prep work, but not nearly enough.

“Sometimes it’s hard to find out a lot about your other opponents, but between TV coverage and talking to other people, I think I could of done a better job of studying the other guys’ tendencies,” he said. “For this year’s guys there’s plenty of info about there about how Phil Ivey plays. They should take advantage of it.”

8. Don’t get fooled by ESPN
While watching the Main Event coverage on ESPN during the break can be helpful, Montgomery said that he didn’t pay too much attention to it because it shows so few hands.

“[ESPN] has to edit the coverage down so much you really only see a few hands of each guy,” he said. “And the ones they show are the ones they usually win. So you really can’t take too much from it. It’s just too small of a sample to use it as valuable information.”

7. Don’t take too much time off
Suharto’s biggest regret about last year’s final table delay is that he didn’t play much poker at all during his time off. He was busy at work and he thought it might be a good idea to get away from the table and clear his head. But in the end he feels this was a mistake.

“I lost my edge,” he admitted. “I concentrated too much on my job and not enough on poker. At the time I thought that would be good for me, but once we started playing I really felt like I was off my game early on. I would definitely recommend that these guys play as much poker as possible during the break.”

Montgomery said that he did just that last year and it was definitely beneficial.

“I think it might help to take a little time off for some people, but for me it was important to keep playing,” he said.
6. Don’t get distracted by the media
Last year leading up to the final table, Dennis Phillips was interviewed by nearly 200 different media outlets (including us here at Casino City ). Others – namely Chino Rheem and namely Ylon Schwartz — weren’t so forthcoming.

Montgomery said that this year’s players should only do what they feel comfortable with.

“Some guys like to be interviewed and some guys don’t,” he said. “It’s that simple. If you think doing that kind of stuff is going to be a distraction, just do what’s required of you and that’s it. Don’t do more than you feel comfortable with.”

5. Get to Vegas early
Suharto strongly recommends that this year’s participants get to Las Vegas a day or two before they have to be there in order to “get grounded.”

“Once you get there they have a bunch of interviews for you to do and there’s a lot of TV stuff that needs to be done,” he said. “I think it would help to get there the day before they want you there and just get acclimated.”

4. Surround yourself with family and friends
Montgomery said that one thing that helped him remain calm during the days leading up to the final table was the fact that he had a small group of family and friends in Vegas with him.

“To some people that might be a distraction, but I thought it was great to have those people there with me,” he said. “It’s a huge moment in your life. You want to be with the people that care about you the most.”

3. Calm down
One thing that is very apparent about Montgomery is that he’s one laid back dude. He doesn’t seem to get rattled very quickly and he’s basically a soft-spoken type of guy. But even he said that the enormity of the November Nine was daunting.

“You really have to calm your emotions because when you walk out to that table it’s an amazing scene,” he said. “I’ve never seen that kind of crowd in one room to watch poker. It can be something that can throw you off so you have to do whatever it takes to calm you down.’

2. Don’t play tight early
Looking back at how the final table played out last year, Suharto wishes he got involved with more hands early on.

“I guess it was only natural for everyone to play a little tight at the beginning,” Suharto said. “But I should have known that was going to be the case and I should have played more hands. I think I could have picked up a few more small pots and that would have been a big help later on.”

Montgomery, however, made the point that this year the players may not be as tight since the payout structure is much different. Last year the difference between 9th place and 6th place was around $1.5 million, a nice chunk of change. This year the difference between 9th and 6th is only a little more than $300,000.

“I think you may see some guys taking chances early on because the structure is so different,” said Montgomery. “I know that’s what I’d be doing.”

1. Be yourself
Montgomery may have had the best piece of advice when he said this year’s players should simply do what go them there, both at the table and away from it.

“With all the media and all the attention you’re getting, it’s easy to try and be someone you’re not and to change your approach to things,” he said. “But the way I look at it, you must have been doing something right to get all the way to the final table. Why change now?”

With most progressive jackpot games offering twenty or more reels, it can be a challenge to make the max bet on all reels in order to become eligible for winning the full progressive jackpot. And with Mayan Queen, nothing is different. Wagers can range from 1 penny to $5 per payline, which for the max bet on all reels, amounts to $125 (25 x $5). If you stick to the penny bet, you’re only looking at a quarter wager, while a quarter bet on all paylines amounts to a reasonable $6 wager.

Real Time Gaming already has a strong lineup of progressive jackpot online slots that pay a pretty penny - not to mention costing a pretty penny to play. But the fact of the matter is that this is what it takes to get the progressive jackpot up to the million dollar mark. It’s no different with Microgaming online casinos, Playtech nor Cryptologic (non of which are open to U.S. players). And since RTG has a large network of 100+ online casinos, which as mentioned, are very popular with U.S. players, there are several jackpots that consistently surpass the $1 million mark, not to mention payout.

Just this last weekend, RTG casinos helping build up the Aztec Millions progressive video slot, were home to the latest online gambling millionaire. The jackpot, which has a default value of $1 million to begin with, busted at $1.26 million for one lucky player now in the process of getting this life-changing check cleared. Since this is a wide area jackpot having just hit, it is still being determined which RTG casino the lucky player calls home. OCS is guessing it was at any of the online casinos listed on our RTG Casinos page, which represents the best of the best.

Two other RTG progressive jackpot games are still worth over $1 million. Jackpot Pinatas is reached the $1.4 million mark, while the popular Shopping Spree & Mid-Life Crises games are worth over $1 million.

As for Mayan Queen, notwithstanding the random progressive jackpot, it offers a max win of $150,000. A scatter symbol (the Emerald) triggers a free spins feature that awards 6 free spins when three or more Emeralds appear on the reels at once. In the free spin bonus mode, the Mayan Queen (wild symbol) is expanded across all paylines of Reel 3, thus facilitating further wins. As a multiplier, the scatter symbol can award up to 500 times the original wager.

In terms of the look and feel of Mayan Queen, a jungle-like theme invoking the Mayan culture and society sums up this slot. Symbols include Mayan jewelry, pottery, treasure and the sacred leopard. The color scheme is made up of yellow, shades of gold, and the iconic turquoise.

Official launch of Mayan Queen was on September 16, 2009, and can now be played at all Real Time Gaming online casino licensees via download or Flash.

On this occasion his opponent was Phil Ivey, and the big action came at the end of over 20 hours of hectic poker which saw names like Chris Ferguson, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham and Patrik Antonius mixing it up before leaving Dwan and Ivey in the epic confrontation, with blinds at $1 000/$2 000 with a $200 ante.

Following the success of its predecessors, the third incarnation of PKR Live will now see the three-day festival kick-off with a welcome party on Friday November 20. Lucky qualifiers will get to start their weekend at this exclusive event guaranteed to enhance what Loose Cannon Manager Roy Houghton calls ‘poker’s friendliest live event.’

The second day brings with it the $1,000 buy-in Main Event, where 150 players will take a shot at the predicted $40,000 top prize.

The customary PKR Bounty tournament will be held on day three, but this time a $200 buy-in will put $30,000 in the pot as well as the prizes and bragging rights for claiming a PKR Bounty scalp.

The popular festival is likely to sell-out fast with players and spectators expected to come from all over the world to participate. A wide range of satellites are already up and running offering the chance to win in every day for as little as $5.25. Direct buy-ins will be available closer to the event for anyone with an active PKR account.

Check out PKR.com for further information and click here to see the action from PKR Live I and PKR Live II!

The Gaming Control Board Technology Division, using internal resources and staff to develop the process, created the program, which went live this month.

Under Nevada law, casino employees, including dealers, count-room personnel, cashiers, and certain accounting and internal audit staff are required to register with the Gaming Control Board before working for a Nevada gaming licensee.

Local law enforcement agencies, such as the Metropolitan Police Department in Clark County, handled the work card process until January 2004. During the 2003 legislative session, lawmakers switched the job duties over to the state gaming regulators.

The Gaming Control Board Enforcement Division now processes an average of 30,000 new applications and 18,000 change requests per year statewide.

Before the new online program, all applications and change requests were manually processed.

“This allows us to be more efficient and more accurate in the process,” Gaming Control Board member Mark Lipparelli said.

Under the old system, casino employees working in one Nevada county would have to reapply for a work card if they transferred to casinos in a different Nevada county. The new system removes that hurdle.

The old registration system was totally manual and a paper-intensive process.

“Online registration should meaningfully improve filing accuracy, reduce processing costs and provide a more efficient process for gaming employers to verify employee registration,” Enforcement Division Chief Jerry Markling said.

Casinos are obligated to make sure employees have work cards as part of the hiring process.

Lipparelli said the control board staff met with casino operators during the system’s development to gather industry input on the process. Casino human resources officials can access the system to check on the work card status of an employee.

Training sessions on the system were conducted statewide.

Betsson joins a tier one group of gaming merchant clients that includes Unibet and Expekt, consolidating Ivobank’s position as a payment solution for online gamblers across Scandinavia.

Betsson’s customers will also enjoy the incremental benefits of opening an Ivobank account, which include:

* Secure, instant and discreet means of depositing into gaming accounts
* No loading fees on credit and debit card deposits until 30 August 2009
* Interest paid on gaming funds
* Fast and free withdrawals
* VIP Service for high rollers
* Government protected funds up to GBP 50 000

Ivobank was launched in 2008 as a specialist online bank designed with the gaming industry in mind. Since then the bank has created a successful niche for itself as the only FSA regulated bank to cater specifically for the needs of the online gaming industry.

Neil Cauldwell, Director of Business Development said: “Signing up Betsson as a merchant is a great win for Ivobank. It is one of the world’s leading gaming operators and its customer base is one of the largest in Europe. We’re looking forward to working with it in a mutually profitable partnership”.

Hans Martin Nakkim, Director of Sales and Marketing at Betsson says: “We are very happy our customers can now open an Ivobank account through Betsson. The ability is there for customers across Europe to manage their entertainment budget via a specialised bank account which charges no transfer fees, offers excellent value and unrivalled security”.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety had asked ISPs to block access, but instead will seek “to create clear and effective government policies concerning regulation of gambling.” The DPS notified 11 ISPs in April of its intent to block the content, including: AT&T Internet Services, Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, DirecTV, Dish Network, Embarq, Sprint/Nextel, Frontier Communications, Qwest, Verizon Wireless and Wildblue Communications.

The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association called the state’s decision to fold “a victory for Internet rights because what you had was a government administrative branch deeming a list of sites to be on a black list that should be censored.”

Why am I a degenerate? I’m a degenerate because I like to play games. Not just any games…but one particular game. A game that is as American as apple pie and cowboys. I’m a poker player. I’m one of an estimated 15 million Americans who regularly play poker online.

People who don’t play will tell you that poker is game of luck played in smoke-filled rooms by old men who curse as they lose their life savings on the turn of a bad card. People who don’t play will tell you tales of children who steal their parent’s credit card to run up enormous charges that cost them the family home. People who don’t play will tell you that it’s a sin to gamble because soldiers threw dice during the Crucifixion. (And any poker player will tell you that it’s one thing to figure odds on making a flush….but only crazy people bet dice!)

But the people I play with on line will tell you other stories. They will tell you how they work in remote locations and online poker is how they relax in the middle of nowhere. They will tell you that they are disabled vets from Iraq & Afghanistan and this is a sport they can still play like a man. They will tell you they live on a fixed income and the lower stakes tables available online (some as low as $0.01/$0.05) are affordable where a live casino is not. They will tell you they are college math majors who buy their books off of their winnings. They will tell you that if I am a degenerate for playing poker….there’s currently 35,980 fellow degenerates online with me on my favorite site as I type this!

There is a difference between games of chance and games of skill. When you walk into a casino you have many opportunities to try your luck. Slot machines, roulette, craps tables and even Blackjack are games that are played against the house. These house games have certain rules that can affect the outcome of the wager. Like the dealer stands on 17 in Blackjack or the slot machine is designed to pay out a certain percentage of the time. Poker is unique in that it is played against other players…not the house. You can win with a bad hand by betting large amounts at a player you know is too scared to call you. You can control your destiny on a poker table with a few good “reads” on your fellow players and rudimentary math knowledge. Because that’s what poker is all about…math and people. As the saying goes, “Play the people, not the cards!”

But in 2006, George Bush signed into law the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which the government insists prohibits my rights to play a game online that all participants entered willingly into.

The UIGEA was attached to the Safe Ports Act to satisfy the conservative religious base of the GOP. Its’ passage was justified because prohibition of internet gambling would keep minors from playing, prevent problem gamblers from gambling and poker sites could not be used to launder terrorist money! (Seriously that’s what it’s supposed to do!)

So let’s examine these claims of the benefits of prohibition. (Remember prohibition has such a wonderful track record of success in America.) Even with the passage of UIGEA, the U.S. still represents the largest percentage of Internet poker players world wide. And since the UIGEA offers no enforcement on mandatory age limits or limits players with gambling addictions, its’ usefulness is highly questionable. Its’ success relies on keeping people from participating. (Good luck with that!) Even Department of Justice attorneys will admit that the law they are trying to enforce is so poorly written that it creates more problems than it solves. For instance, while it differentiates between games of “skill” and games of “chance”, it doesn’t define either term. The lack of definition leaves poker in a legal limbo. But the religious right wants to make sure that I (and millions of Americans like myself) follow their personal religious beliefs in lockstep! And they don’t believe in Poker!

Now the only real issue that should be of concern to Americans as a whole (as opposed to issues of concern to those of us who actually play poker) is the aspect of money laundering for terrorists. This was actually what got the UIGEA passed originally. What politician up for re-election wants to vote against a law that keeps terrorists from getting funding? It never matters during a heated election that the law was a bad law, what matters is you are on the record as supporting Muslim terrorists if you vote against UIGEA. But again, success depends upon people not playing poker online….and millions do every day! (Sadly, the poker sites themselves can easily monitor games for discrepancies that would indicate money laundering, but UIGEA doesn’t require them to do that.)

During his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Holder was asked if he would enforce the UIGEA. His reply was that he would because it was the law of the land. And last week, the Justice Department seized an estimated $34-36 million dollars in online poker payouts.

Now I’m not complaining about that. It was to be expected. A court battle will help clear up the issue. Poker sites have replaced the money in the accounts of the recipients and alternate ways to distribute winnings will be made available. But this does bring to light one very important aspect of online poker that could have an impact on ALL Americans. That $36 million dollars was only one week of payouts. It is estimated that over $16 billion dollars is held in the accounts of online poker sites. That’s a lot of money being taxed overseas and not here at home. In fact, it is estimated that over $3 billion dollars a year in tax revenues could be gained by legalizing online poker. (And that’s a conservative estimate!) With our country running record deficits, it only seems prudent to make use of this additional source of federal and state revenue.

Currently there is legislation pending in the House that would establish clear guidelines for internet poker. The Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2267) would: “establish a federal regulatory and enforcement framework under which Internet gambling operators could obtain licenses authorizing them to accept bets and wagers from individuals in the U.S., on the condition that they maintain effective protections against underage gambling, compulsive gambling, money laundering and fraud, and enforce prohibitions or restrictions on types of gambling prohibited by states, and Indian Tribes.”

Basically, this proposed law would not only provide protection to internet gamblers, it would also tax and regulate the industry providing much needed revenue for the Obama administrations many new programs. With the current push to “pay as you go” on all new programs, legalizing poker could be a definite win/win for all concerned.

So even if you are not a poker player, pick your favorite proposed program requiring funding. Then call your Congressman and tell them that you want your favorite program funded with poker money. All they need to do is to go “all in” with their support of H.R. 2267!

Weiler’s lawyer, Albert Freil, contends in the lawsuit he has filed on behalf of his client that Gizelle Weiler was solely responsible for her husbands gambling problem. The lawsuit claims that Gizelle frequently made deals allowing Richard to go to the casino if she could go shopping.

“My client has dealt with years of manipulation from his wife,” said Freil in a written statement on Saturday afternoon, “It is time that this sort of domestic persuasion is brought to the forefront in America.”

When asked whether he thought the lawsuit would hold up in court, Freil put a different spin on the situation. He claims even if his client does not win any monetary amount, the lawsuit could help lawmakers change existing casino laws, much like with smoking.

In one part of the lawsuit, it says, “men with wives should not be allowed in casinos, much like smoking has been banned, so too should men with wives. They both are equally as dangerous to the health of casino employees.”

The lawsuit sites several reported instances where casino workers were either punched, slapped, or body slammed by men who had come to the casinos to get away from their wives. There is also evidence, according to the lawsuit, that some of these men have lost extra amounts of money at the casinos just to piss off their nagging wives.

“Although this case has more to do with the manipulation aspect of marriage, it also hits upon the reason some men gamble in casinos. Their wives are nags, they shop to much, and subconsciously the husbands feel the need to get back at their wives by pissing away their life savings in a casino,” said Freil.

When we contacted Gizelle Weiler regarding the lawsuit, she had only this to say, “Just tell Richard to stop all this nonsense and be home by eight for dinner!”