Weekly Flop: Poker Pro steals Dresses, Negreanu questions PLO Rake, Seidel nets €2m

After busting his bankroll in Malta, a Serbian poker player stole €10,000 worth of dresses as an apology present to his wife. Unfortunately, he may need another apology present after getting caught...PokerStars players aren't happy about PLO rake being much higher than in other games. And Daniel Negreanu has heard their concerns and discussed the matter with Stars...Erik Seidel, the same guy who was shown on "Rounders" taking second in the 1988 WSOP, has truly proven to be ageless. And his latest feat includes winning over €2 million at the 2015 EPT Grand Final.

Poker player busts bankroll, steals dresses to make up for it

There are really no poker tips for how to handle your angry spouse when you've just lost your bankroll in another country. But if there ever were such a tip, it would be to do the opposite of what Vladimir Ivljanin did.

The 34-year-old Serbian poker player moved to the poker haven of Malta in hopes of making lots of money. Why he chose a small island country where many skilled poker pros call home (friendly online poker laws), we'll never know. But it's obvious that things didn't turn out too well since he lost all of his money and decided to steal three dresses worth over €3,000 each from a Hugo Boss outlet store. The idea here was to give the dresses to his wife and appease her anger over him losing so much money.

This was certainly no small legal matter, given the value of the stolen items. However, Ivljanin's lawyer, Roberto Montaldo, was able to get a relatively light 16-month jail sentence (3 years suspended) for his client. Montaldo argued that the theft was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and, as proven by video footage, Ivljanin was planning on returning the dresses.

Negreanu voices player concerns over insane PLO rake

A recent TwoPlusTwo thread pointed out the injustice that is PLO rake at PokerStars. For one example, rake per 100bb in $0.10/$0.25 PLO is 112% higher than NLHE games, and PLO Zoom rake is 74% higher than NLHE Zoom. The OP urges Negreanu to step in and take action in the mission to get this PLO rake more in line with other games.
Kid Poker heard the call loud and clear, posting that he's "totally on board and has been for some time on this issue," and would talk with PokerStars' management (Amaya Gaming) about the subject. But Negreanu added that he has no actual power to make these decisions, so he can't guarantee anything will happen.

Aside from Negreanu not actually having an executive position at Stars, the problem here is that Amaya is comfortable charging more rake as long as the games are "healthy," a point they've made in the past. Even still, it's nice to see Kid Poker battling for the players and trying to help out the large segment of PLO grinders who aren't happy.

Erik Seidel wins 2015 EPT Grand Super High Roller and €2m

Erik Seidel could never cash in another live tournament again, and he'd still be known as one of the greatest poker players ever. But this doesn't seem like an option since the 55-year-old continues turning out impressive results in a career that's spanned four decades.
The former stock broker's latest accomplishment involves topping 59 players in the EPT Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller. Seidel battled through an elite field and survived a heads-up showdown with Polish pro Dzmitry Urbanovich to net the €2,015,000 ($2,222,222) top payout.

2015 is definitely shaping up to be a good year for Seidel since he had already collected scores worth $395,070 and $427,519 in two Aussie Millions high rollers. With his latest victory, Seidel has made over $3.2 million this year already. That said, it'll be interesting to see what the 2015 WSOP has in store for the eight-time gold bracelet winner.