Daily Rewind: UKIPT's Spanish Jaunt, Borgata Finale, Bitar's Alleged Bribe

In today's Daily Rewind we preview UKIPT's latest changes, catch up with Matt Salsberg's Borgata progress and hear about an alleged $1 million bribe by Ray Bitar.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we discovered the following topics for you:

UKIPT going on holiday

UKIPT's new destination

PokerStars' UKIPT is breaking borders next season - despite being a UK-based tour, the organisers have decided to kick off their fourth season with a trip to Marbella, Spain.

Partnering with the Estrellas Poker Tour, the UKIPT will host a five-day series of tournaments on Spain's Costa del Sol between June 13 - 17.

From there the tournament juggernaut will make its way to Galway, Ireland, in August for a two-week poker extravaganza.

Hosting a range of events, including a UK vs. Ireland Heads-Up Championship, the Irish-based event will take place in a specially-constructed poker village.

Although UKIPT's third season still has two events left to run, the organisers are already touting the next incarnation as the best. In addition to two new stops, PokerStars are guaranteeing a prizepool of £500,000 for each Main Event which means that every winner will get at least £100,000.

WPT Borgata finale

Salsberg wants a second

After coming agonisingly close to his first major WPT final table, Cuong Phung brought the Borgata Winter Open's day to a close yesterday.

Having battled through more than 1,030 players, Phung eventually lost a flip to Matt Haugen and hit the rail just short of the final six.

While Phung headed to the cashiers' desk to collect $117,805, Andy Hwang was busy bagging up his table-topping 9,550,000 chip stack.

The American grinder will headline today’s final table ahead of a man aiming for his second WPT title: Matt Salsberg. The producer of Entourage took down the WPT Paris Main Event back in September and will start today's session as the short stack with 1,920,000 chips.

Reid implicated in Full Tilt bribe

Reid denies bribe allegation

A recent allegation by Jeremy Johnson has thrown the credibility of Senator Harry Reid into doubt.

Johnson, who has been indicted for marketing fraud and illegal payment processing, has alleged that Reid's positive intentions towards the game are false.

In an alleged conversation with Utah Attorney General John Swallow, Johnson outlined how he helped Ray Bitar and Full Tilt send Reid $1 million in return for publically supporting online poker.

According to the transcripts, Reid polled his constituents and they didn't like online poker because "it was bad for jobs in Las Vegas". Reid went on to champion a bill that would have seen the game regulated within the US.

Reid's office has strongly denied the claims, stating: "The allegations of bribery by Mr. Johnson, a man with a background of fraud, deception, and corruption, are absurd and utterly false."

Daily Signoff

It was the win that propelled his poker career and, with EPT Deauville on the horizon, Jake Cody is hoping he can bluff his way to another title.