04 Feb 12

Daily Rewind - Greenstein FTP Debt Interview, "Timex" Lecture, GSOP Final Table

In today's Daily Rewind we get the latest from the Greenstein's FTP debt situation, hear Mike "Timex" Macdonald lecture at MIT and check out the GSOP Salzburg final table. All that plus some high stakes news and another Daily Signoff.

Greenstein Clarifies His Position

After revelations came to light about a $400,000 debt owed by Barry Greenstein – and various other pros – to Full Tilt, the PokerStars pro has decided to clarify his position in the situation.

Barry’s first response to the statement made by Groupe Bernard Tapie lawyer Benham Dayanim came in a 2+2 post and was followed by a barrage of questions. Although Greenstein responded in the best way he could, his answers still left the poker community wanting to know more.

Following the forum thread, PokerNews moved to further investigate the situation by interviewing Greenstein.

Among the answers given throughout the interview, Greenstein described how he “played on BarryG1 [on Full Tilt]” and that he “told PokerStars at the time” but, “it wasn't explicitly forbidden” in his first contract.

He also outlined his thoughts on the debt situation as a whole, stating: “There are a couple of things that are a little curious about this. I just had this feeling like if I dealt with them, they'd be real easy to deal with, money would go to them, and then I could just see them totally disassociating from the U.S. players.”

The interview finished off by giving Barry a chance to address the community and give his personal opinion on GBT and their Full Tilt acquisition.

Timex Schools MIT

It was a case of book smarts meets table smarts this week as tournament expert Mike “Timex” Macdonald gave a poker based lecture to a group of MIT students. 

Thanks to CardRunners pro and MIT PHD student Will “HalcyonDays” Ma, the prestigious American university is now offering a course on Poker Theory.

The class currently has 150 students registered and each is required to achieve 10 points in their online league hosted on PokerStars.net.

The thrice weekly lectures are conducted by Ma; however, he has also used his community contacts to bring in some of the game’s brightest minds.

This week it was the turn of Macdonald who gave the class an insight into the nuances of post-flop play.

Butzhammer Plays it Cool in Salzburg

Thomas Butzhammer will stand head and shoulders above his final table compatriots during today’s GSOP Salzburg. The German has 1,019,000 chips going into the final which is over 250,000 more than his closest rival, Jari Rattya.

Butzhammer’s mammoth chip stack came courtesy of English player Gerard Barclay. With the field poised at 12 players the pair engaged in a pre-flop raising war which saw them eventually pile all their chips into the middle.

When the cards were exposed it was Butzhammer who had the advantage holding pocket tens, while Barclay held threes.

With no surprises from the dealer Butzhammer was able to scoop a huge post and move one step closer to the largest chunk of the €345,800 prizepool.

In total 247 players made their way to the Austrian city, which means that today’s winner will walk away with €62,760, plus a $5,000 seat to the GSOP Grand Final.

For live updates of the event, visit GSOP Live and for exclusive video interviews and reports check out WPT Magazine’s on location coverage.

High Stakes Corner

“patpatman” walked away from his computer yesterday with the largest haul after earning $108,435 over the course of 1,325 hands. The blistering performance at the virtual felt far eclipsed the profits of his nearest rivals “1-ronnyr3” and “tr1cky7” who banked $44,790 and $41,969 respectively.

In contrast to “patpatman”, “altiFC” wearily logged off yesterday after losing $145,353. It took 2,197 hands for the online grinder to put a sizeable dent in his bankroll. Just behind “altiFC” in the loser stakes were “ILIOS72” who dropped $65,786 in 1,523 hands and “ChaoRen160” who lost $55,624 during their session.

Daily Signoff

The European poker circuit is known for its breadth and depth of talent at the felt, but it also appears that it’s a hotbed for some slick dance moves.

With many of the poker community’s best currently in Deauville for the EPT event, the likes of Jake Cody and Arnaud Mattern have been strutting their stuff at the annual player party.

*Beware this video contains some dance moves that some viewers may find disturbing*