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Apparently Black Friday is not going to slow down PokerStars when it comes to branching out into untapped markets across the globe, as the site has just announced the creation of the Brazilian Poker Tour –the latest addition to a long-line of poker tours that includes the LAPT, EPT, Eureka Poker Tour, ANZPT, and UKIPT. The BPT will attempt to cash in on the expansion of poker in South America started by the PokerStars Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT), which drew a huge crowd in its inaugural stop in Brazil.

The BPT currently has three tournaments scheduled, with the Grand Finale still yet to be determined in terms of date and location. Here is a look at the schedule thus far from the BPT website:

• BPT São Paulo: São Paulo, Brazil, 21-25, July, 2011

o   Buy-in — R$ 2,000.00 + 300 * (Approx. $ 1.400 USD)

• BPT Florianópolis : Florianópolis, Brazil, 06-10 October, 2011

o   Buy-in — R$ 2,000.00 + 300 * (Approx. $ 1.400 USD)

• BPT Grand Finale: Dates, location and buy-in to be determined

While not competing directly with the more established LAPT, the BPT will be more of an off-shoot league –similar to the European Poker Tour and the Eureka Poker Tour– as LAPT President David Carrion told the PokerStar blog, “The creation of the BPT is a natural step for developing poker in Brazil. The number of poker players grows every day and we see increased participation of Brazilians in tournaments across the world.”

Apparently small, local, “illegal”, tournaments are not the only poker games that are coming under scrutiny, as virtually every gossip magazine online is reporting on a story involving Toby Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and other celebrities and poker professionals involved in illegal poker games.

RadarOnline is reporting that hedge fund manager Brad Ruderman created a Ponzi scheme and used the money in part to gamble, including against the above celebrities. Radar sums up the story thusly:

“An FBI investigation into Ruderman, who is serving a 121-month sentence in a Texas jail, uncovered how he lost $25 million of investor money, including $5.2 million in the clandestine games held on a twice weekly basis in suites at the luxurious Beverly Hills hotel, Four Seasons and the Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard.”

With his victims attorneys looking for any viable means of retrieving the lost money the money Ruderman lost in the high-stakes games is one possible avenue of interest, although the chances of determining who won what, or how much, in a series of poker games is virtually impossible.

Other people named in the lawsuit according to RadarOnline are billionaire businessman Alex Gores, The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes, Welcome Back, Kotter star Gabe Kaplan, Paris Hilton’s infamous sex tape partner, Rick Salomon, record label owner Cody Leibel and Las Vegas nightlife entrepreneur and real-estate developer Andrew Sasson. The only poker pros named at this time were Dan and Adam Bilzerian, both of whom had plenty to say to RadarOnline.

For those of you who don’t know, the Sheets Energy Strip Company has some serious star-power behind it considering NBA MVP LeBron James is one of the company’s most prominent shareholders and co-founders.

According to the press release issued by wsop.com, Sheets was launched in May of 2011 as an alternative to energy drinks: “Sheets is a paper-thin, individually wrapped strip that you place on your tongue. The strip instantly dissolves and gives you hours of energy.”

Now Sheets will be marketed to a whole new audience as they have signed on as an official sponsor for the 2011 World Series of Poker. The Sheets Energy Strip logo will be featured prominently on all television tables at the 2011 WSOP, and Sheets Energy Strips will be available to the players at the Rio, with servers wearing Sheets branded clothing.

The WSOP was in dire need of new advertising blood after Black Friday dispensed with two of the biggest WSOP sponsors in Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, but the WSOP has soldiered on and in addition to Sheets Energy Strips has been able to form sponsorship deals with DearForms Slippers and other companies generally not associated with poker.

“We’re thrilled to be an official sponsor of the 2011 World Series of Poker and provide energy to the top poker players in the world,” said Sheets Energy Strips CEO Warren Struhl. “Poker is a game that requires you to be sharp and attentive every single hand, and Sheets will help players do that. We look forward to working with the World Series of Poker.”

Every year thousands of players play in WSOP events in Vegas in hopes of cashing in on their poker skills (and luck). While calling it a sporting event may be a bit of a stretch, one thing is for sure… there is no shortage of cash at the World Series of Poker.

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With all the developments in online poker recently, it will be interesting to see the turnout at the 2011 WSOP. On April 15th, the US DOJ seized control of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars’ domain names. The sites eventually reached an agreement for release of their domains, but they were forced to pull out of the US market. Since then, many other domains and bank accounts have been seized by the US DOJ. While online poker’s future remains uncertain, live poker has no choice but to thrive. This year will be a first for the WSOP in terms of coverage. According to ESPN, they will be covering more of the WSOP than ever and even showing poker “live” on a 30 minute delay. This will be much different than the coverage in the past that only showed notable hands.

A year ago this month, 27 year old Daniel Tzvetkoff, a little known Australian entrepreneur who started his first business at the age of 13 was arrested in Las Vegas. He was charged with money laundering, bank fraud, and wire fraud for illegally processing funds for online poker sites. The rumor being that PokerStars and FullTilt poker tipped the FBI off regarding his visit to Las Vegas as payback for Tzvetkoff allegedly stealing upwards of $100 million from them. In turn, it appears that Mr. Tzvetkoff has turned cooperator and is the entire reason the online poker industry is under the boot of the Federal Government. Or to put it another way, PokerStars and FullTilt handed Tzvetkoff over to the FBI on a silver platter, only to have it backfire… bringing their entire house of cards crashing down.

Since these events have taken place, Sportsbook Poker and Players Only have announced they are going to stop accepting US players. It’s just a matter of time before more sites decide the risk isn’t worth the reward and close their doors to US customers. While PokerStars and Full Tilt seem to be working towards refunding money to existing US players, we have yet to see anyone get paid. How has this affected you as a player?

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