Weekly Flop: Waiter's Poker Money frozen, Polk vs. Bot

What happens when you finally realize the dream of hitting a big score and becoming a poker pro, only to have your money frozen by a bank? Find out as we discuss the horrifying story of 'RuiDeck'....Four elite poker pros are testing their skills against the ultimate poker bot in a challenge that's being televised at Pittsburgh's Rivers Casino. Find out who has the upper hand at the moment...Spin & Gos may have been highly criticized by pro players for their obvious recreational angle. But you can't argue with the amount of millionaires that are being created, including another guy who won $1 million in just six minutes.

German Bank freezes Poker Player's €40k - Crushes a Dream

A Sicilian man living in Dresden, Germany thought that he'd achieved an incredible dream after finishing third and earning $59,480 (€54,700) in the PokerStars MicroMillions Main Event. Unfortunately, he's now living a nightmare instead after a German bank froze his €40,000 transaction.

This is especially disheartening when considering that the guy quit his waiter job and was hoping that the €40k would be his online poker bankroll. Initially, it seemed like the bank was merely ensuring that the funds weren't involved with moeny laundering. But after weeks of waiting, RuiDeck finally learned that his money had been confiscated due to illegal gambling.

This is truly an incredible dream turned into a nightmare since the man, who only had $11 in his PokerStars account, used 10 FPPs to satellite into the MicroMillions Main Event. And he describes his third-place finish as an "incredible joy," and one that he celebrated with friends and family back in Sicily.

But now, despite a letter from PokerStars to the bank, explaining that the transaction is legitimate, it looks like the money could be the government's. RuiDeck has vowed to fight this matter in court, but considering that Germany also took €63,490 from an online blackjack player back in January, this will be a tough legal battle.

Doug Polk, Other Pros take on Famed Poker Bot

There's been a debate for years over if bots will ever truly conquer poker and beat the best players. Well, that debate is being argued on the cyber felt now, with Doug 'WCGRider' Polk, Dong Kim, Bjorn Li and Jason Les all facing off against a bot named 'Claudico.'
Claudico is actually a new-and-improved version of 'Tartanian7,' which took first in the Computer Poker Competition last year. Developed by Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists, this program is believed to be the best ever made for heads-up NLHE. This billing will be heavily tested against the four pros, who will each play 20,000 hands against Claudico, with 750 hands played each day over a 13-day span.

The competition has already started and it's being streamed through Twitch. At the moment, Claudico is down $50,000 to the professionals, but there's still a long ways to go. And as anybody who's played NLHE can attest to, anything can happen in this game.

Russian Player wins $1m in PokerStars Spin & Gos

In recent months, PokerStars has been running a series of Spin & Go promotions where players can win a $1 million jackpot. Several millionaires (before taxes) have already been created through this promo, and in late April, a Russian player named 'CccpVodka' joined the party.

What's truly impressive about this is the short amount of time it took CccpVodka to go from a low-stakes player, to instantly rich. He bought into a $5 Spin & Go, then defeated his two opponents in only 6 minutes to win the $1 million jackpot. The two opponents, 'partalios' of Greece and 'shooLarr' of Russia, also collected $100,000 each for finishing second and third.

CccpVodka is actually just the 23rd player in history to win $1 million or more in a single online poker score. And there could be more players joining him in this club because the Spin & Gos $1 million jackpot promotion runs until May 24th.