Online gaming opponents have been gearing up for federal legislation for many months and the future seemed bright. That was until Sheldon Adelson made his disapproval of online gaming public. Chairman of the Las Vegas Sands and campaign contributor, Adelson may hold up the passing of a national law.

Adelson is a fixture of the Las Vegas gaming community and unlike many of his colleagues he does not see the positives of legalized online gaming outweighing the negatives. He believes that legalizing online gaming would encourage underage play. Because of this he will not support the legislation. As a well known republican fundraiser Adelson does have the ear of some key politicians in the debate for online gaming.

In order for legal gaming legislation to pass, the bill will need support from both sides of the aisle. Maybe it will take more research and dissemination of online gaming facts to get folks looking at the positives. Because [...]

Well it is the season and even online poker addicts take a few hours off to enjoy the holiday season. But when it comes to gift ideas what does the poker enthusiast put on their wish list? Here are a few ideas for gifts to buy your friends or even yourself with all that holiday gift money.

Playing card themed wallpaper or laptop covers. Easy, cheap and bound to be noticed on a daily basis.

Poker room sign. Yes they can be a little cheesy but if you get a personalized one it can be cute.

Set of engraved glasses and decanter for the game room. Nice classy touch for the man cave.

A wrist brace or arm rest for computing. Something to counteract all those digital bets.

Poker apps and tracking software. Well…duh.

Poker mags subscriptions…Nice for those who want to keep up to date on the latest in poker.

Non greasy snacks for nibbling while online. Harder to find [...]

So by now we all know the background story on the Full Tilt Affair right? Full Tilt Poker was one of the three online poker sites shut down on Black Friday aka April 15, 2011. The casino and its trustees were accused of fraud, embezzlement and breaking the Wire Act and were investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Full Tilt received its operating license from the British licensing authorities and in September of this year had that license revoked by the Alderney Gaming Control Commission (AGCC). The AGCC has now begun its own independent investigation of their actions in regards to Full Tilt Poker.

Because the Full Tilt Affair has been so public and because the company still owes its former customers somewhere in the region of $300 million, AGCC seems to be concerned about how it handled their case. Representatives of AGCC stated that their decision to commission an independent review was based on [...]

Well any of you that know online poker know social network site Facebook offers a no money poker game. But did you know that the networking giant is thinking of offering cash money poker games? It seems the folks over at Facebook are retracting a very strict advertising policy to allow poker sites in the U.K. to use their site to promote online gambling.

According to Pokernews.com, Facebook U.K. is talking with Brit poker sites 888 Holdings and Gamesys. The thought is eight licenses will be offered by Facebook for UK online casinos to advertise on the social networking platform. It seems the poker sites are hiring additional employees in anticipation of the licenses becoming available in the spring of 2012.

Zynga Poker is Facebook’s current poker offering. The game is just for fun. Well they do offer cyber money to players to keep the game going but nothing illegal is happening. The advertising contract between Zynga [...]

Born in Chicago in 1954 Brian Greenstein is the 42nd inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame. Greenstein is known as the Robin Hood of Poker and has donated over three million dollars to charity since he became a professional poker player.

Barry Greenstein has three WSOP bracelets, two WPT wins and 46 money finishes with over $7.5 million in earnings. Greenstein has been hitting six figures consistently for almost a decade and enjoys high stakes poker tournaments. He came in 22nd in his very first tournament back in 1992.

Greenstein is a bit of a smarty pants having a undergraduate degree in computer science and completing all but his dissertation defense for a doctorate in mathematics. He has six children and has authored a poker book called “Ace on the River” which was published in 2005.

Here’s a look at Greenstein’s bracelet wins:

2004—$5,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw Earnings: $296,200

2005—$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Earnings: $128,505

2008—$1,500 Razz Earnings: $157,619

Barry has [...]

Former postal worker and current poker teacher, Linda Johnson was once called the “first lady of poker.” By all accounts the name is appropriate for this year’s female Poker Hall of Fame inductee. The inductees often get lost in the news of the final WSOP table so I decided to give them a blog each.

Linda Johnson was born in 1953 in Long Island. She currently resides in Las Vegas. She began playing blackjack on vacation when she still worked for the post office. Discovering she was good at cards she quit her job in 1980 and has played professional poker ever since.

Johnson received her WSOP bracelet back in 1997 for winning the Seven Card Razz. She has enjoyed seven final tables during her career. With over $300,000 in poker earnings alone. Johnson has certainly done well. Besides playing poker Johnson has held a number of poker related roles.

For eight years, Linda Johnson published Card Player [...]

For those cyber savvy geeks out there the term “bitcoin” is very well known. This virtual currency has been around for a couple of years now and is used by computer and tech companies and their customers to conduct online transactions. There are no backings, banks or bankers involved in the process and this week groundbreaking poker site, SwitchPoker.com became the first online casino to accept the currency for withdrawals and deposits.

The Bitcoin is created through the use of CPU cycles on regular computers but it takes a lot of power to create a single Bitcoin which is why there aren’t as widely known as they might be. Users of the Bitcoin operate on a P2P platform in which clear and free exchange takes place. The Bitcoin is anonymous but general statistics on the use of the Bitcoin are available in online public space. The Bitcoin software is a freeshare item encouraging participation.

It seems only [...]

At the end of last week the U.S. Department of Justice gave French investor Groupe Bernard Tapie the right to buy the ill-fated and often mentioned Full Tilt Poker empire. It has been several weeks since we first heard of Bernard Taipe’s interest in the fallen poker giant. They stated their intention was to get the virtual casino back on its feet but had to get passed government sanctions to do so. Seems as though they have with a purchase price of $80 million.

This is how it went down. The U.S. government had confiscated the assets of Full Tilt and several of its board members and employees back in April. These seized assets were Full Tilt’s excuse for not paying American players there casino deposits. Well it seems Full Tilt officially forfeited these assets so the government could turn around and sell those assets to Bernard Tapie.

Full Tilt has outstanding debt with American players totally [...]

After a long long night of poker play, we finally have a winner for this year’s 2011 WSOP Main Event. Pius Heinz fought hard for the title but somewhere around 2 in the morning he got it. Eight million in the bank, a gold bracelet and only 22 years old. It was a great battle to watch.

After a few hands we lost Player of the Year Ben Lamb to aggressive play from Czech Republic’s own Martin Staszko who went for a hip lead as fast as he could. And for a long time he held onto it, making Heinz a dangerously low short stack on several occasions. Half way through the battle most would have predicted Staszko the winner.

But laid back Pius Heinz wasn’t giving up. A few well paced bets and his chip count began to rise until he was nearly level with Staszko. For the next few hours, Staszko and Heinz traded the [...]

After a lighting speed elimination at the beginning of the final three of the final table, we are down to Staszko and Heinz. The first few hands seem to be a matter of getting comfortable. The pair are pretty evenly matched with just about half the chips each. Its quite an interesting match up: two Europeans 22 year old German online player Heinz against 35 Trinik Stasko amateur. I wonder how long these final throes of poker battle will be?

After a few hands aggressive play by Staszko has created a $48,500,00 pot. The chip lead is on the line. Heinz is taking his time. The cards are 9-5-8-Q-10. Heinz is over three minutes of thinking time. Heinz goes all in!!! Pot is $122,900!

Stasko folds!!! Heinz is up to a whopping $122,900 with a hand of 9-8 A-8 for Staszko who is down to $83 million.

A few hands where Staszko folds follows. Heinz is [...]