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Seminoles Sued over Hard Rock Casinos Buyout, a Poker Bad Beat?Wed, Jan 3rd, 2007 @ 12:00am Cordish Co., a Baltimore-based company who previously developed Hard Rock cafes with the Seminole Tribe, has sued Rank Group's Hard Rock Cafe International Inc. and the Seminole Tribe of Florida claiming the two companies colluded to leave it out of the recent bidding for the Hard Rock properties, which was awarded to the Seminole Tribe. Cordish has also sued Merrill Lynch for at least $75 million, alleging the Wall Street investment bank acted wrongly as a result of pressure from the Seminole Tribe, denying Cordish access to paperwork to complete their due diligence to reach a competitive bid price. The suit also suggests Merrill Lynch's relationship with the tribe may have given the Seminoles a leg up over other bidders for Hard Rock International, which they are buying for $965 million, noting reports that securities analysts were disappointed with the Rank Group purchase price. The Cordish Co. and its affiliate, Power Plant Entertainment, filed a lawsuit in circuit court in Broward County, Florida, challenging the planned $965 million purchase of the International Hard Rock brand by the Seminole Tribe through its subsidiary, Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment Inc., announced on Dec. 7. Officials with Cordish said they filed the lawsuit Dec. 30. The lawsuit says both Hard Rock and the Seminole Tribe "participated in collusion and bid rigging with respect to offers to purchase Hard Rock from" the Rank Group, the London-based company which owns the Hard Rock assets. Cordish officials said they were precluded from bidding for Hard Rock by the company "artificially fixing a value and price ... by eliminating, reducing or interfering with competition," a release said. In a response Tuesday, Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment said the lawsuit is part of a pattern of Cordish obstructing its successful enterprises and those of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. "It arises out of the Tribe's ongoing litigation with the Cordish and Power Plant Entertainment companies. The lawsuit has no merit," said the tribe's spokesman Gary Bitner in an e-mail. "The Tribe was awarded the right to buy Hard Rock International after a lengthy and open bidding process which included Permira, TDR Capital and Apollo Management. In a simple statement, this is just David Cordish being a sore loser," the prepared statement said. The Seminole tribe had sued Cordish in May, seeking to break their partnership on prior Hard Rock properties. But Cordish said it was never allowed to receive bid documents from Merrill Lynch, which was representing Rank in the process, according to the lawsuit. It claimed that Cordish executives were never allowed to access specific documents necessary to complete their due diligence of the Hard Rock chain, and if they had, company officials said they would've outbid the Seminole Tribe for the assets, the release said. Cordish tried to obtain bid materials twice between Sept. 1 and Sept. 7, according to the press release, but were told both times by Merrill Lynch not to provide documents to the company and that Rank would not consider a bid from Cordish. The lawsuit charges that Rank and the Seminole Tribe violated Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and is seeking unspecified financial damages, Cordish said in its release. Shareholders for the publicly held Rank Group are expected to vote on the Hard Rock sale to the Seminole Tribe Jan. 8. Read Related Articles:
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World Series of Poker Day 1A Welcome to the World Series of Poker Main Event Day 1A. This is the event that everyone has been waiting for all summer, and it is finally here. Thousands of people have registered to prove their skills in this world famous event, and today survival of the fittest comes into play. The buy in for this No Limit Hold'em event is a hefty $10,000, but that is chump change compared to the first place prize of several millions of dollars. The exact prize pool for this event will not be determined until registration is closed after Day 1D.
World Series of Poker: Ante Up for Africa The Ante Up for Africa Charity Tournament is one of the biggest poker charity events of the year. This charity tournament supports the refugees from the Sudan region of Darfur. After nine hours of play, Alexander (Alex) Bolotin was crowned the champion of the Ante Up for Africa tournament and won $177,730 for his first place finish.
World Series of Poker Event 56: Matt Hawrilenko Takes Down Bracelet and $1 Million The $5,000 Six Handed No Limit Hold'em event was the last event to be held at the World Series of Poker 2009 before the famous Main Event starts. Event number 56 saw 928 players register for their chance to win the last bracelet to be offered this summer. The next bracelet of the Series will not be awarded until November when the Main Event final table wraps up. Adding to the excitement of this event, there was a total prize pool of over $4.3 million, and the winner of the event was guaranteed to come out a millionaire.
World Series of Poker Event 54: Tony Veckey Wins Event 54 sold out in a hurry as 2,818 people gobbled up all of the seats for the last low buy-in No Limit Hold''m tournament of the World Series of Poker. This was a new event added to satisfy the enormous public demand for this level of event. $1,500 from each of the entrants produced a prize pool of $3,846,570, with payouts down to 297.
World Series of Poker Event 52: German Jorg Peisert Wins Jorg Peisert from Dusseldorf, Germany won the inaugural Triple Chance No Limit Hold'em event at this year's World Series of Poker. Peisert outlasted 853 other players who put up $3000 to play in this No Limit Hold'em event. The total prize pool was $2,357,040 and 81 players took home a cut. 81st place took home $5,892, but the lion's share, $506,800, went to Peisert. On the final day, Peisert started in 6th chip position and worked his way up to a chip juggernaut, eliminating players and collecting chips along the way. Notable players who cashed in this tournament include, Eric 'Rizen' Lynch (12th), An 'The Boss' Tran, Mike 'The Mad Genius of Poker' Caro (23rd), and Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari (24th).
World Series of Poker Event 53: New Orleans Resident David Halpern Wins David Halpern from New Orleans, LA won the $1500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or Better Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Halpern outlasted 467 other players to win $159,048 for winning the tournament. Halpern has already cashed once this year (Pot Limit Omaha), but this is his first WSOP bracelet. The $657,455 prize pool was spread out amongst 48 players who cashed. Halpern battled William Kohler for over three hour heads-up. Battled is a strong word, as both players seemed enamored of each other and even went to dinner together during the break. They traded the chip lead back and forth until Kohler seized it for good. Other notable players who cashed includes Chad Brown (4th), Matt Savage (5th), Andy Bloch (23rd), and Norman Chad (32rd).
World Series of Poker event 49: David Bach Wins $50K HORSE Event The 2009 $50,000 HORSE event attracted 95 of the world's best poker players. The number of entrants decreased from the previous year which attracted 148 entrants. As play began, player's speculated as to the reason why the numbers decreased so dramatically. Was it the economy? Was it Scotty Nguyen's drunken tirade last year? Many believed that it was ESPN's unfortunate decision to not televise this year's final table. Even though the field decreased, the players still had a full five days of play. 87 players would be eliminated on the way to a star studded final table. After 20 hours of play, David Bach was proclaimed the winner of the 2009 $50,000 HORSE event. He took home the bracelet, the Chip Reese Memorial trophy, and the $1,276,806 first place prize.
World Series of Poker Event 55: Abe Mosseri Wins First WSOP Bracelet Abraham Mosseri from New York City won the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Lowball (Limit) event at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Mosseri outlasted 257 other players to win $165,513 and the accompanying gold bracelet. This is Mosseri's first WSOP bracelet and third cash. This was his 2nd final table of this year's Series. Mosseri and others amassed a prize pool of $593,400. Only 24 players got a piece of it though. Mosseri ended Day 1 in 13th place with 39,100 in chips. By the end of Day 2, Mosseri was the chip leader with 447,000. Mosseri maintained his chip lead through most of the day. It would come down to him and Masayoshi Tanaka, who started the day with second most chips. Tanaka had the lead as heads up began, but it was meant to be for Mosseri who played aggressively and caught cards at the right time to eventually eliminate Tanaka. Notables at today's final table included three time bracelet winner John Juanda (4th), Blair Rodman (5th) and Nam Le (9th). Daniel Negreanu cashed in 16th and Hasan Habib finished in 18th.
World Series of Poker Event 51: Carsten Joh Wins Sold Out NLHE Event Carsten Joh defeated a sellout crowd to win his first bracelet in the penultimate $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event of 2009. Joh beat Andrew Chen heads up to bring home Germany's first bracelet of the Series. The event began with a largely amateur crowd, and the big names that made it to Day 2 quickly found themselves on the sidelines. Men Nguyen, Tony Cousineau, and Matt Brady outlasted most of the field but failed to make it to Day 3.
World Series of Poker Event 50: Greg 'FBT' Mueller Wins 2nd '09 Bracelet The $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout should put to rest any questions about the skill required to play Limit. By the time the event was down to two players, it was a heads up match between the owners of the last two Limit bracelets awarded at the WSOP. Greg 'FBT' Mueller defeated Marc Naalden to win his second bracelet of the year, making him the fourth person to claim more than one in 2009. Naalden now has 1st and 2nd place finishes in Limit tournaments this year. He also cashed in a Mixed Hold'em event. |
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