The Nightly Turbo: TwoPlusTwo Forums Back Online, The Micros' Comic Debut, and More
The online poker community got one of its favorite discussion boards back on Saturday. We'll cover that story, plus the return of The Micros, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
How did the Sunday Majors play out on PokerStars? Who took down the biggest score? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.
There wasn't a winner crowned in the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker on Sunday, but several big names were in position to claim massive scores on Monday. Get the details in the Day 8 SCOOP recap.
We all know what poker players do on the felt, but what about in "normal" life? In the latest from the Off the Felt series, we talk to Ronnie Bardah about his break from poker, Muay Thai training, and more.
What was Terrence Chan doing before he was playing poker professionally? Find out that and more in the latest edition of Seat Open.
Did you miss Sunday's World Poker Tour coverage on FSN? Read our WPT recap to get caught up.
TwoPlusTwo Returns
On Saturday, the nightmare ended for forum fanatics when TwoPlusTwo went back online after a two-week hiatus. The site was shut down to address the security breach that took place on April 26.
In an interview with the TwoPlusTwo Pokercast last week, owner Mason Malmuth said that he had no choice but to shut down the forum immediately upon learning that a hacker had infiltrated the site. Malmuth added that the necessary precautions had to be made before he could allow members to return.
TwoPlusTwo users were met with the following message when the site went back online:
Welcome Back! As most of you know, we had a problem that meant the forums had to be taken down for a little over two weeks. In order to log into the forums you must reset your password. To do this - enter the e-mail address for your forum account into the Password Recovery Form and then follow the instructions that are mailed to you.
Let the trolling and photoshopping recommence!
See You in the Funny Pages
It's been a long four months since we last heard from Chase, Max, Balls and the rest of The Micros gang. But according to co-creator John Wray, the popular animated series will be making its return in the form of a web comic until a new sponsor steps forward to fund the video production.
"As it turns out, animation is really 'spensive, so instead of struggling to put out an episode every few months we're going to post web comics featuring the same characters hopefully a few times a week," Wray said on the TwoPlusTwo forums on Saturday. "If and when we get sponsored we'll get back to making cartoons, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy these."
The first edition features ESPN commentators Lon McEachern, Norman Chad, and the rest of The Micros crew. It's good to have them back.
Visit the The Micros' Facebook fan page for more photos, including some teaser posters for the web comic.
Questions Loom in Spain
Controversy has emerged in Spain ahead of the new online gaming market set to open on June 1, 2012.
According to eGaming Review, the Spanish tax ministry is seeking back taxes from license applicants that operated in the country during the past four years. More than 60 online gaming companies have applied for licenses to operate under the new regime, but major companies like PokerStars and bwin.party are reportedly facing massive tax bills if they wish to conduct business in the new space.
The 11th-hour demand for back-dated taxes likely stems from Spain's increasing economic crisis. Operators were originally told that they would need to pay taxes dating to July 2011, but the government is investigating whether a number of online gaming companies are responsible for taxes before the Gambling Act was implemented in February 2011.
Now, Spanish poker players are left wondering what the future holds for online poker in the country. Sites like Bodog, Unibet and Microgaming already exited the market in recent months, and last week Titan Poker announced it would no longer be accepting deposits from players ahead of the new regulations.
Read more at eGaming Review.
Cleveland Rocks
Ohio's first casino opened in Cleveland on Monday morning, nearly three years after voters approved the project by a 53 percent vote. The $350 million Horseshoe Casino Cleveland features a 30-table World Series of Poker-branded poker room which is expected to host a WSOP Circuit stop in the near future.
Caesars and Rock Ohio began developing the Horseshoe as a joint venture after Ohio voted to allow casinos in 2009. The casino will have 100,000 square feet of gaming floor to hold 2,100 slot machines, 63 table games, and the poker room. The casino is expected to employ around 1,600 people.
Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, developed by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, is the first of four casinos launching in the state by the end of next year. Toledo is launching the Hollywood Casino next week, and Cincinnati and Columbus set to open casinos by next year.
Read more at Gaming Today.
*Photo courtesy of the Bullz-Eye Blog.
Waffle Crushing
Shaun Deeb took a huge lead in the 2012 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) leaderboard after winning his second title of the series on Saturday. He did so by defeating a stacked field of 68 players in the $2,000 Triple Stud event, and he followed that up by reaching the final table in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em 10-Max Shootout. Here's the replay of the shootout final table, courtesy of PokerStars.tv:
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