Indian businessman detained in 70-man police raid

The Bangkok Post reports that a police squad of 70 men were deployed this week to arrest an Indian businessman accused of involvement in an international online gambling organisation with a turnover of billions of baht.

Crime Supression Division commander Pongpat Chayaphan led the raid at a luxury condominium of property developer Karan Singh Thakral on Soi Thong Lor 3 road in Watthana district.

The suspect was charged with hosting Internet football gambling.

Police Maj-Gen Pongpat said 39-year-old Thakral was part of the online gambling network of one Abubakar bin Sulaiman. The network’s turnover to date is alleged to be more than 3.2 billion baht, with police suspecting that the enterprise was additionally involved in other [unspecified] illicit businesses.

Police seized computers, bank records and documentation from the suspect’s office at President Park building on Sukhumvit soi 24 and from his room at Lumpini Place building in Yannawa district. The raiding party also found correspondence warning other partners that police had arrested members of their network in related actions.

Maj-Gen Pongpat said Thakral had pleaded not guilty to the charge, but he was confident that the police had enough evidence from previous and related arrests to prosecute him.

Police seized 865 bank accounts belonging to 432 people in the gambling network. They said 361 bank accounts belonging to 231 people, containing a total of 302 million baht, had been frozen.

Thus far, 47 suspected gamblers in the network have been brought before the courts, and summons have been issued for 37 other suspected gamblers and 127 witnesses for questioning.

The gambling network is allegedly headed by two Malaysians, Chin Pengwong and Martin Ialunglim, who are the subject of Thai arrest warrants.

Police revealed that the Abubakar network merged with Thai partners in February last year. The principals are believed to have left Thailand early last month to escape police attention, and are probably hiding in Malaysia, Maj-Gen Pongpat said.

Absolute Poker and UltimateBet online poker network sets new record

Sometimes it pays to lose, notably when the poker player is in action online at a badbeat jackpot table. The advantages of losing were illustrated this week when the Cereus Poker Network, home to Tokwiro Enterprises’ online poker sites Absolute Poker and UltimateBet revealed that over $32 million in badbeat jackpots have been paid out since the system was introduced in 2007.

15 002 players took advantage of the offer to play at badbeat jackpot tables, with the latest loser who won $132 888.80 listed as “Hiplo”….lucky enough to be unlucky at the end of January by losing a hand of Texas Hold ‘Em holding four nines whilst playing at Absolute Poker.

Bad Beat Jackpot is like regular Texas Hold’em but with a slight twist. When seated at a Bad Beat Jackpot table, if a player loses a hand holding four 8s or anything better, they’ll win a large piece of the Bad Beat Jackpot.

To help the jackpot build, 50 cents is collected from qualifying hands at Bad Beat Jackpot tables. The jackpot keeps growing until someone hits a qualifying bad beat, at which time a large percentage of it is distributed amongst the bad beat victim and the participants in the online poker hand. The next player to lose a hand holding four 8s or anything better will win a large piece of the new jackpot. The participants in the bad beat hand also share in the jackpot.

Absolute Poker introduced Bad Beat Jackpot to its lineup of online poker games on June 22nd, 2007. UltimateBet followed with its own offering just a few months later.The Bad Beat Jackpot data released this week by Cereus reveals the following numbers:

* $32 665 751.03- The total value of Bad Beat Jackpot payouts at both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet

* $1 605 573.30 - The total Bad Beat Jackpot winnings handed out so far in 2009

* $ 16 435 623.88 - The amount of money handed out to the recipients of bad beats

* $ 8 272 211.92 - The amount of money won by hand winners of qualifying bad beats

* $ 7 957 915.23 - The amount of Bad Beat Jackpot money shared by players seated at the table where the bad beats occurred or at tables with the same stakes

* $325 212.40 - The single highest Bad Beat Jackpot payout to a single player on the Cereus poker network

* 15 002 - The total number of players paid at both online poker sites to date

Neil Arce the best of 262

25-year-old Neil Arce, a well known face at the Metro Card Club in Manila had the support of the railbirds this week as he took down the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Philippines at the Dusit Thani Hotel.

Arce conquered a field of 262 runners representing over 40 countries to scoop the first prize of $185 000 after beating heads up opponent Steve ‘joonhee’ Yea from South Korea who repeated his 2008 second placing at the Macau event. Players or their sponsors paid a buy-in of $2500 + $200 to compete in the Main Event which offered a total prize pool of $635 500 with 27 places cashing.

“This is just great,” said Arce. “I always felt it would come down to me and Steve. For me the key to winning the tournament was position. I was so lucky that Steve was sat on my right – if he was on my left it would have been a completely different final table. I played with Steve all day yesterday when he was on a charge and kept out of his way. I knew that to get anywhere at the final table I had to keep applying pressure and my game plan worked perfectly.”

Arce had been chip leader after Day 1A and had even guaranteed Asian Poker Tour CEO Chris Parker before the event got underway that he would emerge victorious in the tournament. He was third in chips at the final table and faced some formidable opponents including the impressive Yea and internationally respected professionals Liz Lieu and Asian Poker Tour Macau 2008 finalist Kasey Castle.

The key hand came just after the talkative Arce had taken the chip lead from Yea. He showed willingness over a series of hands to up the pre -flop aggression. On the final hand, he made what had become a standard open for him of 100 000. Steve Yea re-raised to 300,000. Arce moved all in and Yea called in a shot. Arce held Ks Qs with Yea Ad Kh leaving Arce as 3 -1 underdog. The flop came 4s 6c 7h and Yea was two cards away from a massive double up. Then the turn came the Qh and the partisan crowd exploded. The river came 6h which was of no use to Yea and the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Philippines had itself a popular new champion.

After two consecutive Asian Poker Tour runner-up spots and a dominating performance over the last few days, a disappointed Yea said: “Next time I will do it.” Maybe he will prove the third time lucky maxim at the next APT event.

Chris Parker CEO of the Asian Poker Tour said: “We would like to congratulate Neil on his fantastic win and thank all the players for making the 2009 Asian Poker Philippines such a successful event. We’d also like to thank all our partners for making this all happen, including the regulator PAGCOR.”

Amongst those who were in the hunt were Nam Le, Quinn Do, David ‘Chino’ Rheem, Steve Sung and Kwang Soo Lee – all members of the Asian Poker Tour’s elite team of ambassadors - The Poker Pack. They joined a field that also included 2008 Asian Poker Tour Philippines winner David Saab, 2009 Aussie Millions Highroller event winner David Steicke, Michael Pedley, 2009 PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship winner Rory Rees Brennan, Brian Huang, Ivan Tan, Andrew Scott and 1990 WSOP Main Event winner Mansour Matloubi.

The Philippines was strongly represented in the field including WSOP bracelet winner Toto Leonidas. There were big contingents from South Korea and Japan, with 2008 Asian Poker Tour Philippines runner up Chris Roh and Yea leading the charge for South Korea and representatives from JBetPoker, Team J3PT and the Japan Poker League making up a formidable Japanese contingent that included Yasuhiro Waki and Yoshei Watanabe.

Coverage of this year’s Main Event will be televised and distributed internationally later in the year. The Asian Poker Tour is supported by the iPoker Network, Titan, DafaPoker, PKR, PartyPoker, JBet Poker, Everest Poker, Microgaming Poker Network, 888, 32 Red Poker, National Poker League and the Japanese Poker League.