Naked Poker News

Hello and welcome to this week’s Poker News. I’m Gemma Healey.  A man who led an illegal high stakes poker club was yesterday sentenced to sixteen years in prison.

Forty eight year old Jeffrey Castardi was said to be the ringleader of the ‘Gin Rummy Club’, which began as an illegal gambling operation but soon turned into a loan-sharking and money-laundering enterprise.

Prominent businessmen, athletes, doctors and lawyers allegedly won and lost millions of dollars in high stakes games of Texas Hold ‘Em – and those that didn’t pay up were forced to by what the judge called a “complex, persistent and intimidating system of debt collectors”.

Sticking with the more unsavoury side of the sport, poker writer and reported mixed martial artist, Tony Korfman, has been accused of almost causing a riot in one of Vegas’ swankiest poker rooms.

Korfman had to be escorted off the premises after he lost his rag with a fellow opponent, grabbed the player by the neck and then attempted to choke him at the Bellagio.

Korfman has since posted a response to the incident on his website, in which he defended his actions and claimed that his young opponent deserved everything he got after accusing other players and the dealer of cheating.

One of Korfman’s book chapters is ironically called “How to make your opponent fear you” – and because of his angry actions at the table, Korfman now finds himself banned from the Bellagio until further notice.

In celebrity news, Twilight star Kellan Lutz has found himself at the centre of a strip poker controversy after pictures of him and an unnamed brunette were posted across the internet.

Kellan, who found fame as the vampire saga’s Emmett Brown, was snapped in 2005 after indulging in the L.A party scene having just arrived from his hometown in North Dakota.

Twilight fans can get a glimpse of the Hollywood heart throb stripped to his waist after the pair took off their clothes for the game – with the unnamed girl covering her modesty with nothing more than her hands.

Staying with celebrity poker news, Boyzone’s Shane Lynch will train to win an international poker tournament as he takes part in a new reality television series.

The Irish singer will be given a year to perfect his skills before he competes in the tournament that will be held in the Irish town of Killarney.

Shane has admitted to never having played poker before and the series will follow his journey as he learns from the best-known names in the business in an attempt to win big against the best.

Let’s hope that he’s as good at poker as he is at singing!

Well that’s it from Poker News today, Join me again next week for our special christmas poker review of the year.