The Nightly Turbo: Annette Obrestad Joins Lock Poker, Full Tilt Developments, and More
Tuesday brought some major developments in the Full Tilt Poker saga, so if you missed anything be sure to check out the continuing coverage right here at PokerNews.com. In other news, Annette Obrestad found a new online poker home, and 888 showed a major revenue increase over last year. We've got those stories and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
The biggest buy-in poker tournament in Europe's history kicked off on Monday. Rich Ryan touches on that and more in the latest Five Thoughts piece.
The 2011-2012 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah��s St. Louis Main Event came to a close on Monday. Get all the details from the final table in our WSOPC recap.
In 2010, Jeff Forrest won the WPT World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Casino. What has he been up to since his big win? Chad Holloway finds out in the latest edition of Where Are They Now.
Tommy Vedes made his second straight final table at the World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown on Monday. To find out if he took it down, read our WPT final table recap.
Annette Lock'd Up
One of Full Tilt Poker's former employees, Annette Obrestad, has found a new place to call home. Lock Poker announced Tuesday that Obrestad is the newest member of the LockPRO ELITE team, joining players like Melanie Weisner, Chris Moorman, Tom West, Matt Stout and Casey Jarzabek.
Obrestad, 23, was one of online poker's brightest stars before winning the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event for ��1 million. She has accrued more than $4 million in live tournament cashes in her career to go along with millions more on the virtual felts.
"I'd heard amazing things about Lock Poker from all my friends and pros who play there, and I was thrilled when I got an offer from them," said Obrestad. "Being part of Lock is something I'm really excited about and it will be a great beginning of a new exciting relationship. Lock is the new generation of online poker where player experience drives the company with an incredible Pro team that I can hardly wait to work with."
For more, check out the Lock Poker press release.
PokerStars Enters the FTP Madness
On Tuesday, the poker world was stunned to learn that Groupe Bernard Tapie had ended negotiations with the Department of Justice to purchase the assets of Full Tilt Poker. While prior reports had suggested that a deal between the two sides was already in place, Tapie lawyer Behnam Dayanim said the agreement fell through because of "unresolvable" legal complications and failure to agree on player repayment plan.
Not only that, but PokerStars has allegedly come to an agreement to buy the beleaguered poker site for $750 million. The rumored deal would see $330 million go toward player repayments around the world, while the rest will settle the outstanding charges against PokerStars.
Eric Hollreiser, head of corporate communications for PokerStars, released the following statement regarding the rumors:
"We've had a lot of inquiries and there's lots of speculation on the forums, so I wanted to address the PokerStars chatter. As you know, PokerStars is in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on rumors. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so."
For more, read the full story at PokerNews.com.
888 on the Rise
On Tuesday, 888 Holdings released its financial statement for the first quarter of 2012. The report revealed a business-to-consumer revenue increase of 29 percent to $83 million in the first quarter, boosted by its casino and poker brands, the company said in a statement.
888poker revenues hit $21 million in the first quarter, an increase of 88 percent over the first quarter of 2011. The number of active poker customers increased by 83 percent over the past year to 405,000. 888poker ranks fourth in real-money online poker traffic worldwide, according to PokerScout.com.
Overall revenue rose to $94 million from $75 million a year earlier, according to the 888 statement.
��Our focused strategy has led to another excellent quarter, with ongoing strength in Poker driving March to the highest ever monthly revenues in the history of 888,�� said 888 CEO Brian Mattingley.
Reuters has more.
Girls on Film
Natalie Hof is the German presenter for the European Poker Tour TV production. To learn a little more about Natalie, Lynn Gilmartin caught up with her during the EPT Berlin Main Event final table.
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