Doyles Room.com is an online poker room that is home to the legend of poker, Doyle Brunson. The online poker room recently made headlines when they signed poker pro Alec “traheho” Torelli as a sponsored pro to their online poker room. Torelli must be a great poker player if Brunson has faith in him and he recently proved his poker skills as he finished fourth in the Bellagio Cup V.

DoylesRoom features weekly Bounty Tournaments where he and his family members play in online tournaments where online players can try and take out the Brunson’s for extra cash. Torelli may be joining in these weekly Bounty tournaments now that he has signed with the online poker room.

Torelli was interviewed by Amanda Leatherman the hostess of WPT Live Updates recently and he told her how he was signed to the online poker room. Torelli commented that his agent know the Marketing Director of Doyles Room. He said they went to lunch and talked about Torelli signing with the poker room and everything went well.

Torelli then commented that they looked at him for a while and then it all worked out. He is very excited about joining the poker room and he likes everyone he is working with. But who wouldn’t be right?

Torelli has done quite well for himself recently. He finished sixth in the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament during the WSOP and he earned $329,000 for that finish. He also finished fourth in the World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup V where he earned $271,165 for his efforts.

So earning $600,000 and signing with a poker legend’s online poker room in a span of just a few weeks sounds pretty good to me. It will be interesting to see how Torelli does in the future in his poker career as he is sponsored by Doyles Room.

Official Poker Rankings (OPR) is a website where online tournament poker player’s statics are available for viewing in a searchable database.  OPR has information on players from four major networks including Full Tilt Poker.  Full Tilt Poker has demanded that OPR remove all tournament results and players statics from their website stating that the website “gives players an unfair advantage”.

OPR accepted the demand from Full Tilt Poker for now though OPR representatives have created several posts on different forums stating they do not believe their service gives players an unfair advantage. They believe since their site is free and anyone can do a search then it is fair.

OPR also stated that the data on their site is publicly viewable at the end of tournaments in the lobby of Full Tilt; pretty much stating it is already public knowledge. OPR also stated that they do not provide access to hand history or collect hand histories.

According to a report by Poker News Daily, Full Tilt has commented on the subject stating: “We are currently in communication with Official Poker Rankings to establish a set of guidelines that is in the mutual interest of all parties, including our valued players. We hope to have the matter resolved as soon as possible and appreciate your patience in the meantime.”

Other online poker rooms including PokerStars, PartyPoker and the Ongame Network still feed data and ranking reports to the front page of OPR. The information sent to OPR is from the last 120 days of game play. Users can take that information and look at their rankings, winnings and ratings.

Many have stated that Full Tilt Poker demands are unfounded as the information found at OPR is public information. The only difference is that OPR takes the information and processed it to create reports that people can easily read.

It will be interesting to see if OPR continues to keep Full Tilt Poker information off the website or if they decide to bring the information back. OPR does not violate any Terms of Service that can be found so they actually could begin to offer the information without Full Tilt’s permission.

FullTilt Poker recently announced in a statement given to ABC News that players who were subject to the seizure of player funds using their Instant eCheck option now have funds back in their accounts. The federal government froze over $30 million in accounts of payment processors that take care of the money earned by thousands of online players including those at Full Tilt as well as PokerStars last week. But now Full Tilt is saying the money has been returned.

The statement read: “In light of recent events involving the freezing of certain accounts, Full Tilt Poker would like to assure all players that their funds remain safe and secure. All players who were affected by the current situation have had their funds returned to their accounts,” stated Michele Clayborn, Full Tilt Spokesperson. 

ABC also spoke with an online player that goes by the name David who said he had qualified for the WSOP by earning $10,000 from PokerStars. When he went to cash his check it would not cash. He had to use his own savings to buy-in to the World Series event and once he gets his earnings he will use that to fill in the gap in his savings.  David was reimbursed and he earned an extra 10% credit into his account. 

This is just one of many online players’ stories. Another player, Sam Friedman, plays at Full Tilt and he recently found that the option he uses is no longer available. Sam deposits money directly into his Citibank account and now this option is no longer available. He commented: “there are lots of ways to deposit and withdraw money and payment options are always disappearing, but something didn’t seem right. I can’t believe the government is reaching into people’s bank accounts like this. For a lot of serious players this is their lifeblood. This is how they make ends meet.”

Although Full Tilt Poker says the earnings have been reimbursed to the players no confirmation has been made by players affected. It will be interesting to see how long it is before someone comes forward to confirm that they have or have not received their funds.