BREAKING: Poker Stars Pulling Its Sponsored Players From Poker After Dark

Poker Stars is no longer allowing its players to participate on Poker After Dark.

We received an email to the site today detailing how earlier this week Stars told its sponsored players that they will not be able to play on the popular late night show. The reason: the way Full Tilt Poker, who underwrites the production of Po ker After Dark, markets the show internationally.

While U.S. American broadcasts aren't overtly distinguishable as a Full Tilt production, foreign markets receive a more branded version of the program.

An initial request for a quote from Poker Stars was not returned in time for this post, however we will keep you posted if they do.

Hopefully this doesn't begin a Biggie/Tupac, East Coast/West Coast style fued between the two online poker giants, who have more or less co-existed comfortably for years. Last thing we want is Stars getting capped on the Vegas strip followed by Tilt pumped with a lead salad in LA. Nobody wins in that scenario, guys.

Nobody.

Poker News Link Dump Brought to You By Kim Cloutier

We unfairly rip on America's cap. We actually love Canada. Good people up there. One thing Canadians also don't get enough credit for is being a land filled with hot girls. Heck, we've been to Edmonton and even there the ratio of hot to not-hot girls was off-the-charts. So in honor of PCA Caribbean Adventure winner (and Canadian) Poorya Nazari, we bring you Kim Cloutier. Easily one of Canada's finest. View more here.

:: As noted above, Poorya Nazari wins PCA Main Event, banking three million f'in dollars. Obviously he doesn't train with Mats Sundin. But perhaps now he should consider changing his name from "Poorya" now to "Richya." Eh? Eh? Yeah that was horrible. But you fucking laughed and you know it. [link]

:: In other tournament news, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott wins the Irish Poker Championship, banking €33,000. Good to see Devilfish winning something, since he's voteless in the "Best Poker Song" debate. [link]

:: Tiltware files motion to dismiss Clonie Gowen lawsuit. [link]

:: The Best Damn Poker Show Season 2 (aka The Giant UB Ad Buy) begins today. [link

:: Speaking of UB, Annie Duke writes about getting back in poker after six months off (if you missed her, you'll see plenty of her when the Celebrity Apprentice kicks off March 1). And Annie, the dinner bet is still on. [link]

We Hope Mats Sundin Sits at Our Table

All right, Poker Stars. If you're gonna do these athlete celeb sponsors, let's lay down a couple rules: 1) no gingers (ah-hem), and 2) at least kind of sort of educate them on some poker basics.

Now we all know Canadians basic passions in life go something in order like ice fishing-->curling-->socialism-->Bare Naked Ladies-->hockey. So the entire nation of Canada then probably saw Mats Sundin on Hockey Night in Canada After Hours not able to answer a basic poker question from special call-in guest, Daniel Negreanu.

Go to about 2:30 in the vid. Guess Mats needs to spend more time on PokerVT.

Chino Rheem Wins WPT Copy+Paste Title

Looks like we were slightly off on which major tournament Chino Rheem was going to win.

Chino Rheem is running good.

After a poker career that for years wasn't too bad, wasn't too good, Chino has figured it out in 2008. He final tabled two WSOP tourneys (including the Main Event), and now, after never even having one World Poker Tour cash in his name, he has won the WPT Copy+Paste title.

Chino beat Justin Young heads-up for the win, banking $1,538,730. Young takes home $936,760.

Of note, Chino was NOT wearing a Poker Stars patch. Why? They dropped him. Chino had the biggest and most vocal support group at the final table and plenty of friends in the pro ranks, but behind the scenes he hasn't been worth the hassle for Stars, apparently. Like we always say though, can you really ever be mad at a guy named Chino?

The rest of the final table payouts were: Evan McNiff ($540,440), Steve Sung ($396,206), Amnon Filippi ($288,235), and Hoyt Corkins ($216,175).

Lee Jones to Join CardRunners.com as Chief Operating Officer

Bluff Magazine has broken a story that Lee Jones (not at right), the ex-poker room manager for PokerStars.com, will join CardRunners.com as its new Chief Operating Officer.

Jones had been working as host and organizer for EPT events, as well as its lead broadcaster.

"Team Cardrunners"  (Taylor "Green Plastic" Caby, Cole "cts" South, Brian "sbrugby" Townsend, Eric "p3achy_keen" Liu, Brian "Stinger885" Hastings, Mike "Schneids" Schneider, and Andrew "muddywater" Wiggins) recently joined the Full Tilt Poker roster.

Read the full story at Bluff here.

* Special thanks to Vikki Blows for making this post a little sexier. Get more Vikki Blows at the Vikki Blows blog. Vikki Blows Vikki Blows Vikki Blows.

ePassporte No Longer Accepting Online Poker Transfers

ePassporte is officially out as an option to deposit and withdraw funds for online poker players.

In a letter to Pitbull Poker and published on Compatible Poker, they state:

"We have been advised that the United State's Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is conducting a widespread investigation of internet gambling, including poker. All though [sic] we do not believe we have done anything illegal, we do not wish to be associated with anything that might be considered illegal by the United States government."

In the meantime, Full Tilt Poker has issued a letter to all of its users with the following option:

"As an alternative to ePassporte, we are pleased to offer you our newest, most efficient payment processing option yet - Instant eChecks."

Poker Stars offers eCheck as well, which directly withdraws and deposits money into your bank account.

See the full ePassporte letter here.

* Thanks to reader DrewOnTilt for the link.

Gavin Griffin, Chad Brown Sign with Poker Stars

Poker Stars continues to add to its growing stable of pros.

On the heels of signing with marketing and representation agency Poker Royalty, Gavin Griffin has now inked a deal with the online poker giant. Griffin was the first player to win the poker media created "Triple Crown" (a WSOP bracelet, WPT title, and EPT title) when he captured the WPT Borgata Poker Classic earlier this year.

Also landing with Stars is 2006 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Chad Brown. One of the most successful tournament players of the past few years, Brown is engaged to another Stars player, Vanessa Rousso, a woman, who also happens to be from Duke, in case you didn't know that already.

In completely unrelated news, possibly the funniest episode of South Park ever, Canada on Strike.