Negreanu’s Knockback, Baazov’s Blip, Backing Bullets and Baccarat Bets

A quiet week in the world of poker came to life with a couple of stories hitting the headlines, the first involving ‘KidPoker’ and his failed attempts to spend $50,000, next up the one-time big man of PokerStars, David Baazov, plus a dubious-sounding tale which seemingly sees one of Aaaron Barone’s ‘horses’ taking a bullet to the leg. Add to this the rather troubling sight of $8million plus Main Event winner Qui Nguyen at a baccarat table and we have a worrying week in the poker world!

Let’s begin by looking at what happens when you’re the biggest tournament poker winner in the history of the game with $30million+ in the piggy bank and you fancy indulging in a little $50K buy-in turbo event…

Negreanu’s Knockback

Negreanu was in fine spirits, the thought of playing the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open when he tweeted…

Making the executive decision to go to shrpo tonight and get a good rest for the $50k Turbo.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) November 22, 2016

...but his mood changed quickly when he got there!

No 50k tourney for me I guess. Sent my wire to @shrpo, they received it, but won't release the money to me. Too steamed to borrow, buh bye.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) November 22, 2016

No “do you know who I even am?” naturally, Negreanu being the polite man of poker, if not politics, but he was not a happy man at being turned away, tweeting first…

My first trip ever to @shrpo and you'd be smart to bet a lot of money it was also my last. Off to Norway tomorrow night.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) November 22, 2016

…and then following it up with the sarcastic…

Common sense is often lost within large corporations.Did they think I was going to rob some random wire for $100k and steal from the casino?

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) November 22, 2016

As Ben ‘Ben86’ Tollerene went on to win the $459,228 top prize against 20 other high-stakes hopefuls, Negreanu was thrown a crumb of comfort by Dan Shak who tweeted…

@RealKidPoker@SavagePoker I have had the same trouble each time I've gone there. They have to fix it I won't go back till they do.

— Daniel Shak (@daniel_shak) November 22, 2016

So, not particularly good publicity for the SHR events, but Daniel will no doubt recover from the unintentional snub!

Negreanu, of course, is the poker face of the Amaya-owned PokerStars site, so let’s what naughtiness his former colleague David Baazov has been up to since he stood down as Amaya CEO back in August of this year…

Baazov’s Biggest Blip?

Being charged by Quebec securities regulator the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) with ‘insider trading’ and related offences which carry possible jail sentences of up to five years and financial penalties of $5million seemingly hasn’t halted the ambitious Baazov.

But yesterday’s news that one of the banks behind his new bid for the owners of PokerStars had never heard of him or the deal has thrown even more serious possible charges into the mix.

When KBC Aldini Capital Ltd, one of four financial backers Baazov had named in his $6.7billion SEC bid announcement, told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper today that it had “no involvement whatsoever” in the deal, it opened Baazov up to allegations of “potential securities fraud or manipulation claims”.

KBC have already lodged a complaint with the SEC, Amaya’ stock has plunged on the news, and law firm Block & Leviton ‘is eager to speak to anyone who purchased Amaya stock after November 14, 2016, the date Baazov filed his bid, and will be helping investors bring claims to recover their losses under federal securities laws,’ according to Cardschat.com’s Philip Conneller.

In a late update, Baazov claimed that:

"An equity commitment letter he received purporting to be from KBC Aldini Capital Ltd. was delivered without KBC's knowledge or consent.”

He admitted that the Dubai-based KBC “has not committed to provide financing for the deal. He says he intends to obtain replacement financing and sticks by his $6.7 billion US proposal to purchase Montreal-based Amaya, which would include its debt,” according to cbcnews in Canada.

My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that Baazov will soon be completely out of the poker world, and we’ll be all the better for it!

They Shoot Horses Don’t They?

A somewhat bizarre ‘story’ made its way onto 2+2 forum, and I’ll be honest with you when I say I have no idea if it’s a troll, a real event, or just random BS! But I’ll let you make up your own mind…

‘Scarmaker’, a poster from ‘Eastern Europe’, started a thread entitled ‘Staking in Russia? A Horse Gets Shot’, explaining:

" Poker social media is buzzing after a famous sit & go nit Aaron "abarone68" Barone posted a proof of stakees being shot at in the good ol' post-soviet Russia."

Well, as I stated, I can’t get any confirmation of any such thing happening in far-off Russia, but ‘Scarmaker’ continued:

"Abarone the Staker first refused to provide any further details on the unholy incident, only an unrepairable damage caused to the stakee's favorite legwear was mentioned. Thus, the main motivation for the bullet in the leg remains a mystery."

The post went on:

"Later on, Abarone was quoted as saying 'I didn't shoot him and have never shot any of my horses. Yet!' denying any involvement in this or any of the previous gunslings."

Here’s the photo….

…does anyone recognise the horse’s leg?

And finally…

Nguyen’s Winnings set to take a hit?

Qui Nguyen’s $8,005,310 scoop of the WSOP Main Event final table should really last him a lifetime if he’ careful, but he’s a professional baccarat player with a bankroll now – and he only really made $4,682,153 after the taxman took his share so for many it was a bit worrying to see him opening the LuckyDragon Casino in Las Vegas this week.

RT kelseycoop173: World Series Poker Winner @nguyenpoker is about to place the 1st baccarat bet at @luckydragonlv! pic.twitter.com/92FETtgVPj

— Kristi Smith (@AlaskaGal1) November 20, 2016

One poster on 2+2 described the newly-opened gambling house, saying

"I like the casino quite a bit, but it's damn small. No poker, no sports book, table games are 90% baccarat and pai gow."

Nguyen’s move to Las Vegas some 13 years ago was designed to allow him to become a poker professional, but he soon turned to baccarat as his main game.

His presence was no doubt a good publicity stunt for the Lucky Dragon, but for Nguyen himself? Hopefully he won’t go the way of some other Main Event winners, spewing their millions on the gaming tables, sportsbetting and elsewhere.