Daily Rewind: Rounders 2 to be made, Prague final, fighters recover poker debt
Today we bring you news of Rounders 2, catch up with the latest action from Prague and use MMA fighters to extort money from poker players.
Rounders coming back around
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| It's on dude |
A new partnership between the Weinstein Company and Colony Capital will see the former reunited with the Miramax library of films for the first time since 2005.
What does this mean and why should the poker community care? Well, in a nutshell, it means that Rounders 2 will finally be put into production.
According to deadline.com the deal will see the creation and release of many previously shelved ideas, including a follow-up to the cult hit Rounders.
Commenting on the basic premise and timeline for Rounders 2, Harvey Weinstein said the production is likely to be "instantaneous" and that the movie will "start in Paris" and feature a "new super villain" which may be played by Robert De Niro.
EPT Prague Final Table set
Julian Track of Germany is the man to beat in Prague, as he leads the last EPT final table of the year with 7,405,000 chips. He is joined by British pros Max Silver and Stephen Chidwick, and olekonjole, who with this final table appearance has regained top spot in the Global Poker Index rankings.
EPT Prague
Final Table |
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| Place | Name | Chips | ||
| 1st | Julian Track | 7,240,000 | ||
| 2nd | Max Silver | 5,935,000 | ||
| 3rd | Stephen Chidwick | 4,935,000 | ||
| 4th | Georgios Sotiropoulos | 4,320,000 | ||
| 5th | Ka Kwan Lau | 3,005,000 | ||
| 6th | olekonjole | 2,400,000 | ||
| 7th | Zdravko Duvnjak | 1,225,000 | ||
| 8th | Jorma Duvnjak | 975,000 | ||
| Blinds: 20,000/40,000/5,000 | Players: 8 (1,007) | Price pool: €4,883,950 | ||||
While the EPT's Main Event cohort moved a step closer to the €889,000 top prize, more than 129 hopefuls sat down for the festival's €10,300 High Roller. Featuring some of Europe's top talent, the session was dominated by Georgios Karakousis who bagged up 407,200 chips to finish Day 1 as the chip leader.
As the action began to crescendo inside the Hilton Prague, across the city this year's local WPT Main Event was brining its second opening day to a conclusion. Jason Duval was the man in charge at the close of play as 43 of the 72 starters bagged up their chips.
Fighters threaten poker players
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| Give me the money |
In a plot that could be used for the new Rounders 2 movie, a Russian mobster reportedly used Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters to intimidate players in an illegal gaming operation worth $100 million.
Back in August Kirill Rapoport pleaded guilty to running poker games in Manhattan and, according to the FBI, he used trained fighters to recover debts from the high stakes losers.
Working alongside Arthur Azen, who recently pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and extortion, Rapoport allegedly kept brass knuckles and hired the services of local tough guys to enforce poker debts.
Rapoport is currently facing a five year prison sentence and is just one of 30 people implicated in the illegal poker ring.
'samrostan' finished atop of the latest high stakes chart after banking an impressive $625,355. The bumper haul came courtesy of a 1,173 hand session and was enough to put the mysterious grinder ahead of 'Lottenice' ($148,924) and Kyle 'KPR16' Ray ($137,235).
Feeling the force of 'samrostan' in the last 24 hours was Phil 'OMGClayAiken' Galfond. Despite his best efforts the American pro found himself down by more than $600,000 in the last 24 hours.
Question of the Day
With Rounders 2 being given the green light, we want to know your suggestions for the following question:
Which film stars and poker personalities would you like to see in the next Rounders?
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Daily Signoff
To whet your appetite ahead of Rounders 2, we thought we'd finish today with this classic clip from the original film.
