Phil Laak begins a comeback, online poker may come to Ohio, and another way to blow some money while betting football on DraftKings in Michigan are some of the short stacks CardsChat picked up in its latest orbit of poker news.
Phil Laak emerged from the shadows and scored a career-best in a $560 buy-in event at the Mega Millions XXVII held at Parkwest Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles last week. He won $380,050 by outlasting an enormous field of 3,817.
Laak, who achieved poker stardom and B-celebrity status during the poker boom of the mid-aughts, has slipped out of the spotlight in recent years, but the 51-year-old still pops up every once in a while to play in mid-level buy-in events. This is his biggest cash since he won the William Hill Poker Grand Prix in 2005 for $265,290.
Still, he can’t be doing all that bad. He’s been with actor and high-stakes TV poker aficionado Jennifer Tilly since then. Hey, she even took the victory picture.
The win pushed him over the $4 million lifetime tourney cash mark.
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Phil Laak | $380,050 |
| 2 | Behzad Teranie | $250,075 |
| 3 | Amir Dehghan | $155,420 |
| 4 | Anne Bui | $116,050 |
| 5 | Leonid Vaisburg | $90,930 |
| 6 | Anthony An | $71,685 |
| 7 | Ararat Abramyan | $56,325 |
| 8 | Wonseok Heo | $43,435 |
| 9 | Daniel Schunk | $31,150 |
Online poker coming to Ohio?
An Ohio General Assembly member is trying to “kickstart” online poker to life in his state. Sen. Niraj Antani submitted a bill earlier this month that would not only allow the existing casinos and racinos in Ohio to open online poker rooms, but would allow them to link-up with other states by joining the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA).
But citizens of the Buckeye State should beware — even Antani thinks the odds of his bill passing is a long-shot.
“I really do think this is a long way off from truly getting legalized in Ohio, but I think it’s time we start the process,” Antani told the media outlet PlayUSA. “We’ve been talking about starting the process for over a year now. Someone has to kickstart it and I think it’s time to go.”
Hey, sometimes all it takes is for the ball to start rolling. After all, the state does have a very healthy online sports and casino industry, so anything is possible.
DraftKings introduces Electric Poker to Michigan
DraftKings in Michigan launched its first offering of peer-to-peer online poker through its online casino this week with Electric Poker, a three-handed sit n’ go format that randomly offers players different pay-outs depending how lucky the get when they register.
The winner-take-all prize is randomized at the start of the game and could be anywhere between two and 10,000-times the buy-in. At the highest buy-in, $25, the jackpot can be $250,000.
Most online sites have a form of this game. PokerStars, for example, calls it Spin & Go, while WSOP Online calls their version BLAST.
Believe me, it’s fun until you realize that most of the “jackpots” — as usual — fall short.
