Ben Affleck banned from Vegas casino's blackjack tables

In today's Daily Rewind we report on Ben Affleck's gambling problem at a Las Vegas casino and get SCOOP 2014 underway.

Affleck's blackjack blackout

Ben the card shark

Poker enthusiast and Hollywood A-lister Ben Affleck recently ran into trouble at a Las Vegas casino following allegations of card counting.

The actor, who is friends with Rounders star Matt Damon, was told to stop playing Blackjack at the Hard Rock casino after security staff informed him that he was "too good".

An early report by celebrity gossip website TMZ stated that Affleck had been banned for card counting, but a public comment from the casino confirmed that Affleck "is not banned from the property" and card counting wasn't an issue.

However, it still seems that Affleck's skills were enough of a threat that the casino saw fit to force a premature end to his session.

SCOOP 2014 underway

Big money on offer

PokerStars' latest SCOOP series got underway yesterday and thanks to an overall prizepool of at least $40 million a slew of grinders took to the felt.

A 6-max Sunday special across three buy-in levels ($27, $215 and $2,100) kicked things off and when the registration desks were closed more than 30,000 entry fees had been collected.

While Events #1 and #2 were paused last night and left to play out today, Event #3 crowned the first SCOOP 2014 winners.

When the betting was over it was Turkey's 'GeoManousos' that scooped the day's biggest prize after netting $117,626 in the $1,050 Progressive Super Knockout.

SCOOP 2014 will continue today and throughout the week before the big money Main Events ($5 million total prizepools) take place next week.

Buonanno wins marathon EPT finale

Champion Buonanno

A mammoth heads-up battle between the UK's Jack Salter and Antonio Buonanno brought this year's EPT Grand Final to a conclusion over the weekend.

Having watched Salter boss the table for most of the day, the epic final battle became one of the longest in EPT history as Buonanno consistently thwarted Salter's chances to win.

Indeed, had it not been for three comebacks from Buonanno the match would have been over at least four hours before it finally concluded.

With Buonanno seemingly blessed by the poker gods he was eventually able to edge in front of Salter and in a final flurry of action he clinched the EPT Grand Final title after his was able to stay ahead of Salter's .

With that the 18-hour final table was brought to a conclusion and Antonio Buonanno was crowned the last EPT champion of Season 10.

EPT Grand Final Main Event Result
Place	Name	Prize
1st	Antonio Buonanno	€1,240,000
2nd	Jack Salter	€765,000
3rd	Malte Moennig	€547,000
4th	Mayu Roca	€419,000
5th	Magnus Karlsson	€332,000
6th	Sebastian von Toperczer	€258,300
7th	Kenny Hicks	€188,500
8th	Sebastian Bredthauer	€128,800
Players: 1 (650) | Prize pool: €6,500,000

Question of the Day

Do you think it's right that casinos have the right to stop players they suspect of using skilful play to beat their games?

Kyle Ray became the biggest winner of the day on Sunday after netting $172,814 over the course of 395 hands. That haul was enough for him to top the table ahead of Benny '1Mastermind' Chen and Eugene Yanayt who banked $130,366 and $89,228 respectively.

Falling to a $206,009 defeat and finishing as yesterday's largest loser was PokerStrategist hasufly. That loss came over the course of just 147 and was enough for him to finish above Phil Ivey and 'Sanlker' on the daily loss chart.

Daily Signoff

It seems that Ben Affleck's inability to avoid bad luck isn't just confined to the blackjack table as this clip demonstrates.

Friday's Daily Rewind: High stakes lifestyle floors Phil Hellmuth

Daniel Smyth has been working in the poker industry for six years as both a player and writer. He currently has a costly penchant for PLO and provides daily content for PokerStrategy.com. You can learn more about Daniel by clicking here. Follow Daniel Smyth on Twitter l Follow Daniel Smyth on Google+