Poker pro Prahlad “Spirit Rock” Friedman earned his first World Poker Tour title when he defeated Kevin Schaffel heads-up at the Legends of Poker main event at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Friedman took home US$1,000,900 and an entry into the WPT Championship event at Las Vegas’ Bellagio Casino in May worth US$25,000. This victory also earned him his first million-dollar tournament win.

In an ironic twist, Mr. Friedman knocked out the first player at the TV table, longtime poker pro Mike Krescanko, when Freidman held pocket kings and Mr. Krescanko held ace-queen offsuit. He also eliminated his last opponent heads-up when he held ace-queen offsuit against Mr. Schaffel’s king-jack offsuit. The board was ten-high and Mr. Friedman’s ace-high hand held up to win the title.

Friedman’s win was also his first tournament title since he won his only WSOP bracelet in the US$1500 buy-in pot-limit hold’em event in 2003. The most cash he had won in a tournament previously was the US$495,000 he earned at the 2006 WSOP Main Event, where he famously clashed with 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro over a missing ante chip.

The only other player at the table besides Mr. Friedman to have a WSOP bracelet was long-time poker pro Toto Leonidas. Mr. Leonidas earned US$144,600 when Friedman eliminated him in fourth place. Friedman held ace-king offsuit and the flop paired his king. Leonidas went all-in on an ace-high flush draw. Friedman called, neither the turn nor the river filled Mr. Leonidas’ flush draw, and his day was done.

Schaffel, a member of the “November Nine” who will meet to determine the WSOP Main Event champion, finished second in the tournament and earned US$471,760. At the final table, either Friedman or Schaffel eliminated every player on their way to heads-up play. Mr. Schaffel already stands to earn at least US$1.2 million at the WSOP final table, with up to US$8.5 million if he wins.

A Canadian man who opened several US-based bank accounts to process online gaming profits for US customers is facing federal bank fraud and money laundering charges. Douglas Rennick opened accounts under corporate entities with names such as Check Payment Financial Company, Account Services Corporation and KJB Financial Corporation to disburse payments from overseas accounts to American customers of online gaming sites.

In the terms of the federal indictment announced this week, Mr. Rennick was charged with conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to engage in money laundering and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. If convicted on all counts, Mr. Rennick could face up to fifty-five years in prison and fines nearing US$2 million. Authorities also want to seize over US$566 million in the accounts that they claim were the revenues generated by the illegal gambling business.

American authorities state that Mr. Rennick and his associates claimed that the accounts were intended to disburse rebate checks, refund payments and other small payment processing jobs, thus defrauding the banks by lying about the true nature of the accounts. If the banks had understood that the accounts were to be used to disburse gambling winnings, the indictment states, they would not have authorized the opening of such accounts.

The authorities that worked on the investigation and compiled the indictment include Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mr. Lev L. Dassin and the Assistant Director-in-Charge for the FBI’s New York Office of the FBI, Mr. Joseph M. Demarest, Jr. Two Assistant US Attorneys, Arlo Devlin-Brown and Jonathan New, are supervising the prosecution. Another Assistant US Attorney, Jeffrey Alberts, is overseeing the account forfeiture. US District Judge Sidney H. Stein is set to hear the case. A trial date has not yet been set.