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'The W3C doesn't get to be the boss of anyone, the decisions are going to be made at each of the browsers'

Google has updated the schedule for its introduction of "Privacy Sandbox" browser technology and the phasing out of third-party cookies.…

Learn how to democratise storage with this revolutionary webcast

Promo The laws of data are pretty universal. Every organisation needs advanced security, performance, and management features that improve over time.…

Fear not! Issue is at the 'highest level of escalation,' says ISP

A broadband customer from Leatherhead, Surrey, who was told to "speak to your MP" after his ISP failed to resolve repeated line disconnections has now been informed he can leave his contract without penalty after Openreach failed to resolve the problem.…

Makes sense really

Newly released data suggests South Korea is having a silicon and instant noodle renaissance, both thanks to COVID-19.…

End of March for ValueLicensing's jurisdictional defence

British software licence reseller ValueLicensing has a trial date for the first part of a £270m legal showdown against Microsoft after accusing the US behemoth of breaking UK and EU competition laws.…

v11 set for mid-August release

The Debian Project has set a release date of 14 August for Debian 11, also known as Bullseye.…

Plus: Facial-recognition upstart Clearview raises $30m

In brief Deepmind and the European Bioinformatics Institute released a database of more than 350,000 3D protein structures predicted by the biz's AI model AlphaFold.…

Litre of the office essential costs as much as £2,410 – up from £1,700 in 2003, finds Which?

Printer ink continues to rank as one of the most expensive liquids around with a litre of the home office essential costing the same as a very high-end bottle of bubbly or an oak-aged Cognac.…

The three horsemen of the borkpocalypse: CMOS error, XP and... death

BORK!BORK!BORK! Windows XP is coming up to a 20th birthday yet it is heartening to see that the OS can still be guaranteed to take its place as one of the three horsemen of the borkpocalypse.…

Promise of 'efficiencies' may be appealing to authority facing £100m COVID black hole

Kent County Council is inviting IT services companies and BPO specialists to bid for places on a £500m framework agreement set to offer a range of outsourcing services to the English public authority.…

You may know it better as Teams. Giddy up

Column You can spot a veteran of the Browser Wars a mile off. These fearsome conflicts, fought across the desktops of the world not 20 years ago, left deep scars. Just whisper "Best viewed in IE6" in any crowd of Generation 95'ers, and watch grown men and women weep like babies as their hands grasp for an invisible mouse to click on that long-gone Close Window.…

You don't mind if we record this, do you?

Feature Having shown you some top tips on how people screw up their CVs and interviews, we now move to the weakest link: the interviewer. This article draws on my own experiences from grunt programmer, CTO to headhunter with many years in the recruitment game. Names have been obscured to protect the guilty.…

Troubled Nauka might actually make it after four orbit corrections – since we left work Friday.

Russia's space agency spent the weekend trying to get one module to the International Space Station and deciding to ditch another.…

Praise be for Firewalls

Who, Me? Welcome to Who, Me?, where hallowed ground gets trampled as a reader inadvertently cleans up the collective act of the senior staff.…

Tom Corn heads to Open Systems as Virtzilla hints its SmartNIC push has borne fruit

Video VMware's security products boss has bailed.…

Plus: Microsoft responds to another NTLM relay attack technique, and more

In brief DEF CON's 'Spot the Fed' game is going to be a little easier than usual this year: the head of the US government's Homeland Security is giving a keynote.…

The case of “poker player” Mike Postle has taken another unique turn in the past week. Faced with having to pay off two people he had falsely accused of slandering him, Postle has allegedly gone on the run to avoid paying the two people. The problem with that is they can seize his property to seek redress (or payment).

Brill and Witteles Want Their Money

The money issue goes back to the $330 million defamation lawsuit that Postle filed against a host of people in the poker world. Two of those people, former Stones Live host Veronica Brill and poker professional/podcast host Todd Witteles, decided they would strike back against what they viewed as a frivolous lawsuit. Upon hearing that Postle had filed his massive lawsuit, the duo filed separate anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) cases, alleging that Postle was simply filing his case to try to squelch their statements in the poker community.

Postle’s case began to unravel from the start. First, his attorneys walked away from the case, citing non-payment of fees as a reason for their recusal from the case. Postle then decided that he would serve as his own attorney, which would prove to be a complete mistake. Just before the case was set to go to trial, Postle withdrew his case from the California court system without the ability to refile.

That was enough for the judge in the cases of Brill and Witteles. With the withdrawal of the Postle lawsuit, Postle opened himself up for an automatic decision in the anti-SLAPP cases against him. In the Brill case, the judge adjudicated that Brill was to receive $27,745 for her attorney’s fees and Witteles would get $26,982 for his lawyers.

But the story doesn’t end there…

Postle Refuses to Pay

With the decisions against him, Postle is supposed to come up with the money. But he has been able to avoid being served with the final verdict in the case. Although he has been able to avoid the barristers to this point, that course of action is beginning to run out for Postle.

Attorneys for Brill and Witteles have filed motions for involuntary bankruptcy against Postle last week. These filings would allow the courts to seize the property – homes, vehicles, cash, furniture, basically anything of value that Postle owns – and pay off Brill and Witteles from the proceeds. In addition to the Brill/Witteles cases, it is alleged that Postle owes other creditors to the tune of $13,000 in credit cards, at the minimum. Any other money left after paying off these debts could also be held by the courts for any future litigation by some of Postle’s alleged victims.

It All Started with Stones Live

The case dates back to 2019 when Postle became the darling of the poker world through an internet stream broadcast by Stones Gambling Hall in Northern California. Stones Live featured $1/$3 No Limit Hold’em cash games, a lower stakes version of what Live at the Bike did from the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Postle quickly became a star of the program, making outrageous moves to win large pots and always knowing exactly when to fold when his opponents had the better of him.

This was mighty suspicious to Brill, who not only did commentary on the games on Stones Live but also would step forward to play in the game. She presented her thoughts to the poker world in 2020 and a litany of top pros and commentators, including Witteles, the sports juggernaut ESPN, several poker news sites and other professionals in the game, agreed on one thing: that Postle was using some sort of technology to know what cards his opponent was holding. Postle, Stones Gambling Hall and an employee of the casino vehemently denied the accusations, presenting what many have called a “sham investigation” that cleared all parties (the evidence was never presented in public).

Civil cases filed against Postle in both California (dismissed because gambling losses cannot be litigated in the court system) and Nevada (dismissed for lack of jurisdiction) didn’t go anywhere, leading Postle to take his defamation suit action. Stones Gambling Hall, while denying any involvement in the case, settled out of court with about 80 players who played against Postle and had filed a class action lawsuit in the California courts.

Whether this latest action will bring about the end of the Postle situation is unknown. Postle has until August 12 to respond to the involuntary bankruptcy motion and, if he does, it is entirely likely that litigation will extend into 2022. The situation doesn’t look good for Postle, however, who allegedly made as much as $300,000 in the Stones Live games and, by this point, has probably burned through those winnings.

The post “Poker Player” Mike Postle Allegedly Avoiding Attorneys Looking for Money appeared first on Poker News Daily.

Someone seems to have leaked a draft document that represented a radical reversal

The United States Department of Defence (DoD) has re-iterated that it thinks drones made by Chinese firm DJI represent a security risk, after an internal document suggesting the opposite leaked to the press.…

All levels of industry and government told to get moving, consumers encouraged to buy new Wi-Fi routers

China's Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and Cyberspace Administration have set out a plan for massive adoption of IPv6.…

After the debacle that was the 2020 “World Series of Poker” (first held online then having a “Main Event” in a half-assed live manner), EVERYONE has to be happy that the 2021 event is making its comeback. Earlier this year Caesars Entertainment, WSOP officials and the poker world breathed a sigh of relief that the 2021 World Series of Poker survived the COVID-19 pandemic and was scheduled, albeit later than its usual May timeline. Now, slightly two months out from the event, the specter of the virus is rising again and there are several ways it could affect the 2021 festivities.

Could the 2021 WSOP be canceled? Will they mandate vaccines? Masks? What are they going to do if someone comes up positive during the WSOP? Let’s take a look at these questions.

Cancel the WSOP? No Way…

There is absolutely no way that the “powers that be” at the WSOP are going to cancel the 2021 event. They may adjust tournaments, they may set limits on the number of players that can take part, they may even set up a “special area” away from the tournament floor so that players may play the final tables of the preliminary events. But one thing they will not do is cancel the 2021 WSOP.

The effects of 2020 are strong in the mind. Although the online options played out in an acceptable manner – if you want to count two separate events, one for U. S. players and one for international players as “acceptable – the end of year decision to have ANOTHER “Main Event” was not a good decision. All it did was lessen the achievement of Stoyan Madanzhiev (who won the online “Main Event”) and cheapen the victory of Damian Salas (the live “Main Event” winner). Thus, there is no way that Caesars, WSOP officials, or even state and local officials (the Las Vegas economy is still reeling from the 2020 shutdown) want to go to that extreme again.

Mandate Vaccines? Not Gonna Happen…

For those who would think that the WSOP can mandate the vaccine, that probably isn’t going to happen. If the WSOP were going to do something along those lines, then they would have said it back when the September rebirth of poker’s greatest tournament was announced. Additionally, this late in the game, there arguably isn’t enough time for players to be able to get fully vaccinated (for the Pfizer shot, it takes three weeks for the two shots, then an additional two weeks after the second shot for the vaccine to take effect). Although they are a private entity and can do whatever they like, the WSOP is not going to mandate a vaccine.

Cut Tournaments? Possible…

The schedule for the 2021 WSOP is a bloated one, trying to make up for the loss of last year’s event. WSOP officials should be ashamed for putting out an 88-event schedule because, even in normal circumstances, that would be nearly unworkable load on players, employees, and staff. But hey, they’re trying to make up for the “lost year.”

It is entirely possible that the WSOP is going to have to cut events from this schedule. If it turns out that they have capacity limits on the number of people that can convene (a serious possibility in the current Las Vegas climate), the WSOP will naturally cut cash games first, then satellite tournaments and “cash” side tournaments before they get to dumping events from the 88-tournament roster.

Something that also isn’t being thought of (I am sure that WSOP officials are…I hope) is the factor of staffing. You need to have dealers that are going to step up for these events and side games. You need to have well-trained floor staff who are going to step up for these events. Many of the “traveling dealers” who have worked WSOP in the past have said they aren’t coming back (citing many different reasons non-COVID related). If you don’t have the dealers, you can’t have the games.

Sequestered Final Tables? Possible…

Is there potential to see final tables sequestered away from the normal tournament floors in the Rio? This is possible, since it would be an area that could be kept spotless and (relatively) free from viral contaminants. This would also allow the WSOP to do something that might rear its head during the two months of play.

The WSOP could, if they have this sequestered area, demand that people who enter this arena have been tested for COVID-19. If someone pops positive, they would not be able to enter the final table and would, like Upeshka de Silva last year, be prohibited from playing. The reasons this might not happen? WSOP might not want to pay for the COVID testing that needs to be done and it may be difficult to find enough room to have a sequestered area for such final table activities.

Mandated Masks? Entirely Likely…

When it comes down to it, the most likely thing that the WSOP will do is what is already being done in many areas – the reintroduction of a mask mandate. Currently it is only for employees but, in this version EVERYONE, regardless of vaccination status, would be required to wear a mask while on the tournament floor. If you don’t want to wear a mask, you don’t get to enter the tournament arena. Pretty simple, don’t you think?

It also makes a great deal of sense. Regardless of your stance on the vaccine, masks prevent people’s potentially viral emanations from being spread into the air – why else do you think surgeons wear them? It is also something that the WSOP can mandate with ease. Once again, as a private entity, Caesars can do whatever they want in this arena and arguably should.

There’s two months to go before the cards hit the air for the 2021 WSOP. There’s a chance that the current Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus can be curtailed. However, statistics from the last month aren’t showing a “curtailing” of any increase in infections. While they may not cancel the event, officials with the WSOP have some serious decisions still at hand before the tournaments even start.

The post Will the 2021 WSOP Be Held? Likely, But… appeared first on Poker News Daily.