April

When it comes to charities and poker, few can hold a candle to Ms. Annie Duke, one of the world's most recognizable players.

Some run for their lives. Annie Duke is running for the lives of an entire nation.

There’s a misconception about tournament poker that goes like this: Players need to try frequent sophisticated bluffs and make lots of risky moves to maintain an unpredictable image and to win. Well, there might be some truth to that in small buy-in tournaments, or even online poker tournaments where the blinds and antes escalate quickly. But on poker’s biggest stage, the World Series of Poker, nothing could be further from the truth.

The best tournament players actually try to avoid risky plays altogether. They prefer to wait for their opponents to make the risky moves. They’ll wait patiently until they catch a strong hand. When they do, they’ll take down their overly aggressive foes.

Titan Poker, the largest poker room on the iPoker Network, awarded three players with prize packages worth a combined total of $60,000 to the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo (EPT Monte Carlo) earlier this month. The players traveled from France, Italy and Germany to compete in this elite tournament, which marked the end of the EPT's fourth season and eight months of intensive poker across Europe's top cities.

All players won their seats at Super Satellites staged online at Titan Poker. For French player Vincent Marlard, 29, an investment of just $21 turned into a $20,000 prize package to the EPT Grand Final.

In an effort to bolster diminishing state coffers, New Hampshire legislators propose to take a piece of the state's poker action by adding a 10 percent tax on Texas Hold'em tournaments, which opponents claim will hurt charities that hold tournaments for fund raising purposes.

For several years it has been legal for only nonprofit organizations in NH to raise funds through gambling events. In April 2007, a bill passed permitting NH pari-mutuel commission to license space to charitable gaming operators, ranging from bingo to Texas Hold'em poker.

Sen. Robert Odell (R-Lempster) proposed the 10 percent tax, and incumbent governor John Lynch says he supports the bill.

$5-$10 MILLION ESTIMATED FOR STATE

For the fourth consecutive year, the ESPN Poker Club is offering a trip to the World Series of Poker Main Event. The winner will receive airfare to Las Vegas, hotel accommodations during the tournament and the chance to sit down and play against the poker world's best in poker’s most prestigious event.

Playing on the ESPN Poker Club free-play online poker software players will need to qualify for the Final Tournament in order to have a shot at WSOP glory. To qualify for the Final Tournament, held Sunday, June 15th, players will need to be one of the top 25 players one of three Sunday Qualifiers, held each Sunday until June 15th at 12, 5 and 9 pm EST. Players can earn their entry for the Sunday Qualifier in the following ways:

-playing 1500 hands in a single week.

Kahnawake-licensed TitanPoker.com has announced that Frenchman Thierry Barou has won a seat worth $3,000 to the upcoming EuroCity Poker Tour (ECPT) Madrid Open after triumphing during one of its satellite competitions.

This is the fourth time Thierry has walked away a winner thanks to TitanPoker.com, the largest virtual room on the iPoker Network, after previously winning a seat to the European Poker Tour in Prague last year. He also took home the $80,000 first-place prize during the site’s $500,000 Refer a Friend Freeroll in 2006 along with $75,000 for finishing in third spot at the Tournament Titan late last year, a one million dollar freeroll open to only 20 players.

Never underestimate the importance of preparation for any single poker session or tournament. Similarly, never dismiss certain scientific facts regarding the human brain's ability to function optimally. I've learned plenty of valuable lessons as a 15-year professional poker veteran and none is more critical than the importance of preparation. It's a lesson I call: The Rules of Eight.

SAN FRANCISCO--blinkx, the world’s largest video search engine, today announced a partnership with The Poker Channel (www.pokerchanneleurope.com), the world’s first television channel dedicated to poker and gaming entertainment. Hundreds of clips from Europe’s largest library of poker programming are now easily accessible at www.blinkx.com. Leveraging its unique AdHoc platform, blinkx will also place contextually relevant advertising against the footage and share the resulting revenue with The Poker Channel.

Baseball has always had its colorfully nicknamed players, from Enos “Country” Slaughter and Stan “The Man” Musial to Willie “The Say Hey Kid” Mays and Roger “The Rocket” Clemens.

Football has had its share of colorful nicknames, too, including William “The Refrigerator” Perry, O.J. “Juice” Simpson and Adam “Pac-Man” Jones.

FSU Daily Grind Writer — "Shuffle up and deal!”

We’ve heard this slogan cross the nation, while watching the World Series of Poker tour. Texas hold ’em has taken over the entertainment business with a bang. How does one person begin to challenge himself and become a professional poker player?

Steven Merrifield a 23 year old from Fairmont, has begun his own journey for poker fame.

“The first time I played poker was during my freshman year of college when some friends invited me to play in a $10 Texas hold ’em tournament,” he said.

With the World Poker Tour Championship winding up on Saturday, most of the high stakes cash games in Vegas likely dried up as well. This led to the return of multiple high stakes cash game players on Full Tilt Poker, including Phil Ivey.

Ivey wasted no time on Sunday, putting the boots to some of the best online cash game players in the world including Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Hac "Trex313" Dang and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond.

The Poker Players Alliance has been in full force, working to reach their goal of legalization of online poker. The group has been working toward this goal with the hope that online poker will become legal or at least see an exception to the current laws. This week the group is expected to announce that they have reached the one million member mark. The group is based in Washington DC and is a pro-online poker group.

With the announcement the group will also be releasing the information of their new political action committee and a voter registration drive as well. The Poker Player’s Alliance has a campaign titled “If You Play, Have a Say campaign.” The group has invested largely in lobbying on Capitol Hill.

David Chiu overcame a massive chip deficit in heads-up play to come back and shock Gus Hansen, denying the "Great Dane" of his fourth major World Poker Tour title. Chiu took home $3.39 million dollars for his first place finish, while Hansen took home a respectable $1.7 million dollars.

Campus recreations recently held the first Texas Hold’em Poker tournament on January 31st to encourage student participation in campus events. The event holders were predicting to have between 40 to 50 players but fell quite short of the mark. As the tournament started only half of the tables were filled.

With only 24 active players that participated in the event, the total turn out definitely fell short of what organizers had hoped for, but their hopes for successful tournaments are still high as there are many poker fans on campus who will help spread the word around and fill seats at future tournaments.

With the 2008 World Series of Poker only months away, there has been a marked increase in seat sponsorship promotions...and not just at the top independents like Poker Stars and Full Tilt who as usual are offering a slew of WSOP entries as tournament prizes.

This week Ultimatebet was offering tournament activity leading to $12,000 Main Event prize packages featuring the $10 000 WSOP buy-in and $2 000 for travel accommodations. One promo alone this week had 25 WSOP seat sponsorships in the prize pool.

Authorities running the 2008 Poker World Series (PWS) have announced that all games are to be played with an additional card, known as the 'race card' which will give instant victory to any player that chooses to play it.

"We heard a lot during the presidential elections about the race card being played so it was only natural that it found a way into our game here.' said PWS spokesman Doyle Negraneau. 'It's a game-changing technology'.

Players are outraged and claim any element of skill that the game had, has now been eliminated. ' I could get a straight flush but some guy plays the race card and I lose, go home empty handed and look like the bad guy' said Gus Gusstavssen last years champion.

Rumours the additional card is to be a spade are yet to be confirmed.

A Ventura man planned to be in Temecula today to compete in a poker tournament leading up to the card game's world championship.

Jeffrey Murray won a seat at Pechanga Resort & Casino's monthly Big Showdown tournament by coming out on top at a recent Conejo Valley fundraiser. The Kiwanis of Thousand Oaks' Charitable Foundation held its first Texas Hold 'em benefit at the local Borderline Bar and Grill.

More than 250 people watched the tournament and participated in other casino games as well as live and silent auctions, said Dave Klein of Westlake Village, Kiwanis co-chairman.

Jared Hamby’s life sounds like a dream. Sleep in, then play poker all day.

But the former Baylor University and McLennan Community College student says the professional tournament circuit — where the turn of a card can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars to change hands — can test the resolve of the strongest players.

“Poker is a brutal game, especially when you are dealing with the variance of tournaments,” Hamby, 26, said in an e-mail interview. “$10,000 buy-ins can add up quick if you are losing.”

Thankfully, Hamby says, he has seen many more ups than downs so far. The Midway High School graduate has amassed more than $1.3 million in tournament winnings.

Looking for an online poker room that takes the Euro? Look no further than ChiliPoker. ChiliPoker not only accepts the Euro but a whole host of other currencies from around the world.

Finding an online poker room that takes the Euro is especially significant these days as rankings now show ChiliPoker's network (iPoker) sitting in second place among the most popular Internet poker rooms in the world. iPoker does not accept US poker players, nor does Chili Poker for that matter.

Europe has become a hotbed for online poker activity over the past year.

All Japan Poker Championship (AJPC), the largest poker tournament in Japan, will be held from April 27th to May 18th, 2008. The inaugural event last year attracted hundreds of Japanese poker players, so this second year is much anticipated.

Although casinos are not yet allowed to operate in Japan, the government is considering their legalization. As it is currently prohibited to bet money on games or hold events such as a poker tournament which requires an entry fee, participants will not bet any money or pay the entry fee.

The AJPC is to be held in order to provide poker fans in Japan with an opportunity to enjoy Texas Hold'em poker, the most popular form of poker in the world today.

Hard poker rule: You must be able to put an opponent on a hand or a range of hands to know how to bet, even if it's the wrong read.

At the World Series of Poker $10,000-buy-in main event at Las Vegas' Rio Hotel in 2007, Gavin Griffin drew ace-7 suited in late position. With blinds at $100-$200, Griffin saw the player under the gun raise to $600 and decided to call.

"I don't always call with that hand," said Griffin, who won the $3,000-buy-in pot-limit hold 'em event at the 2004 WSOP, becoming at 22 the youngest bracelet winner at the time.

"It depends who I'm playing against. The guy who made the raise seemed like he was steaming and didn't seem like he was in the best state mentally.

Macau Sporting Club hosts €150,000 guaranteed game main event as part of popular week long summer festival.

Dublin, Ireland (PRWEB) April 25, 2008 -- Cork's Macau Sporting Club will host the sixth annual Irish Poker Classic Festival from Aug. 11 - 17, 2008. The main event is a €150,000 guaranteed €1500 + €100 no limit hold'em tournament taking place over three days from Aug. 15.

The main event has a 15,000 chip starting stack with 75 minute blinds and the Macau is guaranteeing eight tickets at the mega bonus satellite on Thursday Aug. 14th. Already confirmed for the event are Annette Obrestad, Roy "The Boy" Brindley, Mick McCloskey, Sylvester Geoghegan, Marty Smyth, Paul Lecky, Nicky Power, and John Keown.

The full line up for the festival is:

Gus Hansen is in position for his first World Poker Tour title since January 2004 as he holds the chip lead at the final table of the WPT World Championship at Bellagio. Hansen will begin the TV final table with 8,570,000, roughly 32 percent of the chips in the play.

Right behind Hansen is Cory Carroll. Known in the online poker world as “ugotpzd”, Carroll holds 6,670,000. His final table appearance comes nearly one year after his first live win at the World Series of Poker Circuit event at Caesars last May.

David Chiu, making his second appearance at a WPT final table, is in third with 6,050,000. Hansen was the first player to win three WPT titles and can set a new record by winning his fourth. He has made seven WPT final tables.

Thirty-three year old Thierry Barou prepares to compete in Madrid this May after winning fourth huge online tournament at Titan Poker.

Thierry Barou, from France, will represent Titan Poker, the largest poker room on the iPoker Network, at the Eurocity Poker Tour (ECPT) Madrid Open this spring. Thierry was awarded a $3,000 seat to the ECPT Madrid Open after winning one of Titan Poker's online Super Satellites.

The road to the $3.3 million dollar first place prize of the WPT Championship continues.

San Jose, Costa Rica -- Professional poker players were everywhere to be seen on Day 2 of the WPT Championship, accounting for more than two-thirds of the field. Day 2 started out with 421 poker players, the combined survivors from Day 1A and Day 1B. All in all, by the end of Day 2, there were 188 survivors left.

Poker is about much more than just your cards. It’s also about how your opponents play. Putting opponents on hand distributions is a big part of determining how your opponents play, but it’s only half of what you need to do when you read your opponents. You also need to predict how your opponents respond to your actions:

In America, the California Assembly Governmental Organization Committee (AGOC) unanimously passed Bill AB 2026 last week to study the possibility of offering online poker in the state.

The proposed legislation, entitled The Gambling Control/California Intrastate Online Poker Act, was introduced in February by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, Chairman of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, and will now make its way to the Assembly Appropriations Committee in advance of an eventual full vote.

It stars Burt Reynolds, Shannon Elizabeth and Bret Harrison. Scott Lazar, who finished sixth at the 2005 World Series of Poker main event, served as the executive producer and poker consultant on the film.

Harrison plays a young, cocky poker pro, and Reynolds is the veteran poker player who eventually comes out of retirement. He and Harrison face off at a World Poker Tour final table. Elizabeth, who finished third in NBC's Heads Up Championship in 2007, plays Harrison's love interest.