Last month a couple of legislators (Joe Barton and Barney Frank) introduced to the house a proposal to legalize online gaming. Federal legislation would provide consumer protection to online players as well as create jobs and tax revenue for individual states. The support for the gaming bill has been a little up and down but for the most part the poker community had always supported it. Now, AGA or the American Gaming Association, the largest poker organization in the county, is saying they want to propose an entirely different gaming law.
The AGA has a number of problems with the currently proposed legislation. For one thing, current proposals call for legalization of online gaming. AGA wants to narrow that focus to online poker play. Instead of the currently proposed national legalization of online gaming, meaning states would have to pass laws to be excluded, AGA proposes state laws to be included in the first place. [...]
As poker fans enjoy Father’s day we put another week of the WSOP Main Event to bed. Here’s where things stand Sunday night. But you know, it could all change in the space of a couple of hands.
Event #28: No Limit Holdem—there were 2,500 original entries for this one with a buy in of $1,500. It was Andy Frankenberger of New York who took home the first place prize of $599,153 after heads up play with Joshua Evans of Plano, Texas.
Event #29: $2,500 10-Game Mix / Six Handed—we are at heads up play on Day four of this event that had 431 entries. Left are Brian Haveson and Chris Lee with Haveson’s chip stack diminishing by the minute. I’m calling this one early for Chris Lee.
Event #30: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship—the $3.3 million prize pool reflects the 3,752 entries for the Seniors No Limit. Walter Shawne has a comfortable chip lead but just a [...]
We’ve reached the half way mark in the glorious poker filled 2011 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, Nevada. Of course its hard to watch several events at once unless you have way too many windows open and a major case of chicken head so here’s where things stand at just about the middle.
Event#24: No-Limit Hold’em Shootout—$1.8 million in prize money didn’t really match the scant 387 entries but Mark Radoja of Ontario really doesn’t care because he took home $436,568 of it not to mention a bracelet. A buy in of $5,000 probably kept the numbers down. Jeffrey Gross of Ann Arbor enjoyed the heads up play and Nicolas Fierrogottner of Chile took home third place.
Event#25: Seven Card Stud Hi-Low or Better—a relatively small (and I do mean relative) prize pool of $818,100 marked this annual event which had 606 original entries and a $1,500 buy in. Chris Viox enjoyed heads up play with [...]
Since the Black Friday incident back in April the world of real money online poker has pretty much died. Players are either tapping into European sites that accept U.S. players, returning to the physical casino rooms or playing on free sites. Online poker has for so long been dominated by the real money sites but now free play poker is turning out to be quite a lucrative business.
Online entertainment giants are letting players know that everything is going to be alright in the world of online poker and they should come visit their site where they play for free but still have a chance to win prizes and perhaps even free entry into land based tournaments. So why are companies doing this? What’s in it for them?
Well, turns out quite a lot.
The online poker community is well established and former Big Three players are looking for a new safe haven. Combine this with the money [...]
Since Black Friday the poker world has been in crisis mode with the future of online gaming up in the air. Predictions that intrastate poker legislation and consumer protection laws for online poker players and casinos will fail may not be true. Fred Heather, an attorney, spoke about the case against Pokerstars, Full Tilt and AB Poker stating Tuesday that the issue is fraud not poker.
According to the AP, the attorney spoke at the IGaming North America conference that took place in Las Vegas this week. His words meant to make the distinction between the individual indictments and the world of online gaming as a whole. Heather argued that because the federal government is allowing players to retrieve their money they are after the individuals and are not trying to shut down online poker. Well, that remains a matter of opinion. The future of online poker and poker legislation is very much up in the [...]
One of the many fallouts of the Black Friday affair is the fact that the U.S. online poker market is a pretty blank slate. Some, including Gary Loveman of Caesars Entertainment, are saying this is the perfect time to legalize the game and open up the U.S. market.
Fortune magazine online recently published an article written by Gary Loveman. Loveman is the entertainment manager over at Caesars Entertainment and like most on the ground casino folks has been against online legislation for fear of insurmountable competition. In this article however, Loveman showed a support for formal legislation for the game.
The article titled: “Online Poker: Legalize it!” discusses the recent seizures of the big three poker sites and the fact that despite that and despite the fact that the game remains illegal, more non U.S. sites are moving in to fill the gap left by the removal of Pokerstars, Full Tilt and AB Poker. But as Loveman [...]
Like most conservative politicians, senator Jon Kyl of Arizona has taken a hard stance on the legalization of online poker. He believes, like so many other republicans and some democrats, that legalizing online poker is in some way saying that addiction and money wasting is okay. But as his last months in office approach it seems he’s had a change of heart.
Or perhaps it has more to do with the money and faith his local constituents lost in the Black Friday debacle.
Now it seems the senator is seeing the light when it comes to online poker legislation (a tad too late perhaps?). He is willing to consider that the fact poker is a game of skill may outweigh the betting part of things and could possibly, maybe, perhaps be legalized in his state. This from the man who claimed not too long ago that online poker play could lead to broken homes and suicide.
I’m sure [...]
Every time you turn around another piece of the poker site scandal falls into place. This week, as details of the 16 financial institutions that have accounts frozen by the federal government come to light the lone credit union in the mix gives insight into the case. In fact after seizing the account thought to relate to the poker scandal, the Vensure Credit Union closed down.
This seems to be because the fees from processing poker fees was keeping the doors of the small credit union open.
It seems the struggling credit union accepted the job of processing the poker transactions in exchange for lucrative fees. The account attached to the fees is the Trinity Global Commerce Group which was apparently holding up the small credit union. The fact that no-one noticed the major discrepancy is worrying.
The Arizona state credit union folks, the ones that provide the checks and balances for the credit unions within their state [...]
Learning poker terms is a must for any player hoping to take their gaming to the next level. Knowledge is power and the concept stands for the world of poker. Here are a few more terms that are need to know at the casino.
Yeast—yeast is the ingredient in bread that makes the bread rise, when the term is used in poker it is a reference to the raising process. Someone may say “lets have a little yeast” as they raise the pot.
Ratholing— a very uncool thing to do during a poker game. This means to remove money from the poker table after it has been recognized to be there. This is illegal.
New Breed Player — if someone refers to you as a new breed player at the casino its certainly not an insult. This term refers to advanced concept players who know a thing or two about the game that the person using the term [...]
Everywhere I look this week new poker terms seem to pop out at me. The more terms I know the better and more confident I feel conversing with other players and posting on poker chat room sites. These are the poker terms that caught my eye today.
Neocheating/neo cheater— very simple but effective barely noticeable ways of cheating at poker and the folks that do them. Hard to spot at the game but a good thing to be aware of. Neo may mean new but that doesn’t mean all the techniques are modern. Sometimes the old ways are the most effective ways.
Backdoor—this is a common occurrence on TV poker where the announcer suggests the player is going to go one way with their cards and ends up going another way after the river card is called. For instance they may be going for a straight and end up with a flush.
Bad beat—to get continuously bad beaten [...]
