Disgraced Former Cricket Player Now Poker Pro?, by Anonymous - 25th October 2008
Only in the world of poker can someone viewed as a person of low moral character be seen as a hero.
The latest example?
A disgraced former professional cricket player from Australia is holding a charity poker tournament-at a major Australian casino!
According to media reports, retired Australian pro cricket player Shane Warne, along with Australian poker pro and 2005 World Series of Poker champ Joe Hachem, will host a charity poker tournament on Monday, October 27, 2008, at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.
The tourney is to benefit the Shane Warne Foundation, a charity that benefits sick and underprivileged children in Australia, the media reports said.
But wait a minute!
Isn't Warne a highly-disgraced ex-sports pro, at least in Australia and any place else where people know who he is?
You bet he is!
According to past accounts from newspapers in Australia and England and elsewhere, Warne, who was a top cricket player, was disciplined on numerous occasions by his sport for less than exemplary behavior.
The most serious incident was in 2004, when he was suspended from cricket for a year for using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
In 1995, he was fined thousands of dollars after getting caught passing inside information about upcoming cricket matches to a bookmaker.
In 1999, he got into hot water after making negative comments about a Sri Lankan cricket player. The brouhaha earned Warne a fine and a two-match suspension.
In addition, his sexual escapades and extra-marital affairs have been fodder for the cricket media, and he has been investigated by a British government agency for shilling a shady company that makes a hair-restoration drug.
What a guy!
Let's get him to run a charity tournament for poor and sick kids!
Only in the highly-dysfunctional world of poker.
It's akin to a charity poker tourney being held in the USA by steroid abuser Barry Bonds, wife beater Jose Canseco, gambler Pete Rose or all-around miscreant O.J. Simpson.
Then again, charity poker tournaments in the USA in recent years have featured child molesters Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston Jr. and "Sean" Sheikhan and drug dealer Mike "The Mouth" Matusow.
And just a few weeks ago, Phil "Poker Brat" Hellmuth Jr. was asked to host a charity poker tournament with disgraced former NFL star Paul Hornung.
Hornung was once banned from the NFL for a year for betting on NFL games.
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
Crown Casino To Host Charity Poker Tournament - 24th October 2008
On October 27th, Australian poker players (and anyone else who wants to make the trip) will have a chance to play poker with PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem as he hosts the "2008 Joe Hachem & Shane Warne Charity Poker Tournament" along with internationally renowned Cricketer Shane Warne.
This $1,000 buy-in tournament (with $500 rebuys) will be fully catered and will have a celebrity (mostly Aussie) at each and every table. Some of the celebrities expected to attend include Jeff Fenech, Brian McFadden, FiFi Box, Kevin Muscat and Billy Brownless. The winner of the event is guaranteed a $25,000 cash first prize.
All proceeds of the event will go to the Shane Warne Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising funds to help underprivileged and seriously ill children in Australia. The Shane Warne Foundation works as a conduit to many smaller organizations, distributing the raised money to help them buy equipment and run programs that benefit Australian kids.
For more information visit www.tswf.com.au.
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On October 27th, Australian poker players (and anyone else who wants to make the trip) will have a chance to play poker with PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem as he hosts the "2008 Joe Hachem & Shane Warne Charity Poker Tournament" along with internationally renowned Cricketer Shane Warne.
This $1,000 buy-in tournament (with $500 rebuys) will be fully catered and will have a celebrity (mostly Aussie) at each and every table. Some of the celebrities expected to attend include Jeff Fenech, Brian McFadden, FiFi Box, Kevin Muscat and Billy Brownless. The winner of the event is guaranteed a $25,000 cash first prize.
All proceeds of the event will go to the Shane Warne Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising funds to help underprivileged and seriously ill children in Australia. The Shane Warne Foundation works as a conduit to many smaller organizations, distributing the raised money to help them buy equipment and run programs that benefit Australian kids.
For more information visit www.tswf.com.au.
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Saturday, October 25, 2008
Online Poker 60 Minutes News Story
The topics for this Sunday’s edition of the CBS news program “60 Minutes” were revealed on Thursday and noticeably absent from the list was a feature on online poker. CBS News cameras have been scouring the poker community for information on the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker scandals as well as the recent developments in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where Governor Steve Beshear has tried to thwart internet gambling by forcing the forfeiture of domain names. The feature had been rumored to air this Sunday, October 26th.
More details as they come to hand.
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The topics for this Sunday’s edition of the CBS news program “60 Minutes” were revealed on Thursday and noticeably absent from the list was a feature on online poker. CBS News cameras have been scouring the poker community for information on the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker scandals as well as the recent developments in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where Governor Steve Beshear has tried to thwart internet gambling by forcing the forfeiture of domain names. The feature had been rumored to air this Sunday, October 26th.
More details as they come to hand.
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Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Poker pro urges casino smoking ban, by Liz Benston - Las Vegas Sun - 21st October 2008
A career poker player who pushed for smoking bans in poker rooms and tournaments is now leading a fight to prohibit smoking on casino floors across Nevada.
Tom McEvoy is the public face for a new grass-roots group, Gamblers Against Secondhand Smoke, which is pushing for a ban in the last bastion for smokers.
A Las Vegas man who has spent 30 years playing poker for a living, McEvoy isn’t exactly a mainstream celebrity. But if smoking is banned in Nevada casinos, as some advocates say is inevitable, he may become the gaming equivalent of the Marlboro man who campaigned against cigarettes.
He isn’t a paid advocate but a Stetson-wearing gambler who has hosted poker tournaments and written poker books. He’s on a first-name basis with casino executives. And he is prepared, he says, to fight a culture war with an inherently conservative industry so afraid of change it is willing to risk the health of its patrons and employees.
“I love Las Vegas. I love gaming. I’m not anti-casino. I’m anti-smoking in the casino,” he said. “This is actually going to help the industry in the long run.”
At first, McEvoy was upset about having to quit poker games because of allergic reactions to smoke. His outrage grew, he says, after the deaths of poker friends, including a nonsmoker, from smoke-related illnesses.
McEvoy is outspoken where health groups are careful. He is passionate where groups such as the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the Southern Nevada Health District are politically correct.
These groups supported a partial smoking ban in 2006 that exempted casino floors, which was viewed as a first step toward a complete ban.
Health groups have been quiet about such efforts. Though workers have advocated casino bans in other states, notably in Atlantic City casinos, employees have been silent here for fear of losing their jobs.
After the rapid spread of smoking bans in poker rooms, McEvoy set his sights on casino floors.
Gamblers Against Secondhand Smoke is the brainchild of Stephanie Steinberg, a gambler who was instrumental in getting smoking banned in Colorado casinos in January and who pushed for the ban in Atlantic City casinos.
Steinberg, who drafted McEvoy, isn’t a professional lobbyist or advocate either.
Her efforts began several years ago after conversations with casino workers in Colorado who said they didn’t want to work around smoke but were afraid to speak up. She founded Smoke-Free Gaming of Colorado, a coalition of casino workers and residents.
In 1999, McEvoy pushed for the first major smoke-free poker tournament in Las Vegas. He was also involved in an effort to ban smoking at the World Series of Poker, which went smoke-free in 2004. (McEnvoy won the World Series’ main event in 1983.)
Casinos have resisted smoking bans on the ground that they would lose business from gamblers who smoke. But the battleground goes beyond economics. The notion that gambling, drinking and smoking go hand-in-hand, and Nevada’s libertarian, live-and-let-live culture combined with Las Vegas’ escapist image appear to be tough obstacles.
“Casinos are afraid to offend the minority,” McEvoy said. “That’s being shortsighted. They’re on the wrong side of this issue and they know it.”
Attendance at the World Series of Poker and other tournaments has increased, in part because of the smoking bans, poker experts say.
“Tom was ultimately proven right,” said Nolan Dalla, media director of the World Series of Poker.
Dalla, a nonsmoker, was one of many gaming insiders who thought business would suffer if players were forced to walk outside for a smoke. So he and hundreds of tournament employees and players endured what observers dubbed “the World Series of Poker sickness” — the coughing, sneezing and weakened immune system that occurred after spending weeks in smoke-filled rooms.
Players — even smokers — complained by writing letters and confronting management.
Casino executives have a standard response to a total smoking ban: They already accommodate smokers and nonsmokers with smoke-free hotel rooms and other areas, such as banks of slot machines and individual tables.
“The industry says don’t mess with success, especially during these economic down times,” Dalla said. “Do we want to implement something that could drive away a certain percentage of business?”
Smoking is more of a problem in enclosed poker rooms, Dallas said, and smoke tends to dissipate better on the larger, high-ceilinged casino floor.
McEvoy said that’s not true for dealers and bartenders who breathe smoky air for hours on end. So, Gamblers Against Secondhand Smoke is spreading its smoking ban message primarily among casino workers — the people most affected by secondhand smoke.
The group has already enlisted the support of several casino dealers on the Strip, including Mario Ragazzo.
“The vast majority of gamblers don’t smoke, and those who do aren’t necessarily our best customers,” Ragazzo said. “But all casinos know is the status quo. Unless you put pressure on people, they’re not going to change.”
(Credit: Las Vegas Sun)
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A career poker player who pushed for smoking bans in poker rooms and tournaments is now leading a fight to prohibit smoking on casino floors across Nevada.
Tom McEvoy is the public face for a new grass-roots group, Gamblers Against Secondhand Smoke, which is pushing for a ban in the last bastion for smokers.
A Las Vegas man who has spent 30 years playing poker for a living, McEvoy isn’t exactly a mainstream celebrity. But if smoking is banned in Nevada casinos, as some advocates say is inevitable, he may become the gaming equivalent of the Marlboro man who campaigned against cigarettes.
He isn’t a paid advocate but a Stetson-wearing gambler who has hosted poker tournaments and written poker books. He’s on a first-name basis with casino executives. And he is prepared, he says, to fight a culture war with an inherently conservative industry so afraid of change it is willing to risk the health of its patrons and employees.
“I love Las Vegas. I love gaming. I’m not anti-casino. I’m anti-smoking in the casino,” he said. “This is actually going to help the industry in the long run.”
At first, McEvoy was upset about having to quit poker games because of allergic reactions to smoke. His outrage grew, he says, after the deaths of poker friends, including a nonsmoker, from smoke-related illnesses.
McEvoy is outspoken where health groups are careful. He is passionate where groups such as the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the Southern Nevada Health District are politically correct.
These groups supported a partial smoking ban in 2006 that exempted casino floors, which was viewed as a first step toward a complete ban.
Health groups have been quiet about such efforts. Though workers have advocated casino bans in other states, notably in Atlantic City casinos, employees have been silent here for fear of losing their jobs.
After the rapid spread of smoking bans in poker rooms, McEvoy set his sights on casino floors.
Gamblers Against Secondhand Smoke is the brainchild of Stephanie Steinberg, a gambler who was instrumental in getting smoking banned in Colorado casinos in January and who pushed for the ban in Atlantic City casinos.
Steinberg, who drafted McEvoy, isn’t a professional lobbyist or advocate either.
Her efforts began several years ago after conversations with casino workers in Colorado who said they didn’t want to work around smoke but were afraid to speak up. She founded Smoke-Free Gaming of Colorado, a coalition of casino workers and residents.
In 1999, McEvoy pushed for the first major smoke-free poker tournament in Las Vegas. He was also involved in an effort to ban smoking at the World Series of Poker, which went smoke-free in 2004. (McEnvoy won the World Series’ main event in 1983.)
Casinos have resisted smoking bans on the ground that they would lose business from gamblers who smoke. But the battleground goes beyond economics. The notion that gambling, drinking and smoking go hand-in-hand, and Nevada’s libertarian, live-and-let-live culture combined with Las Vegas’ escapist image appear to be tough obstacles.
“Casinos are afraid to offend the minority,” McEvoy said. “That’s being shortsighted. They’re on the wrong side of this issue and they know it.”
Attendance at the World Series of Poker and other tournaments has increased, in part because of the smoking bans, poker experts say.
“Tom was ultimately proven right,” said Nolan Dalla, media director of the World Series of Poker.
Dalla, a nonsmoker, was one of many gaming insiders who thought business would suffer if players were forced to walk outside for a smoke. So he and hundreds of tournament employees and players endured what observers dubbed “the World Series of Poker sickness” — the coughing, sneezing and weakened immune system that occurred after spending weeks in smoke-filled rooms.
Players — even smokers — complained by writing letters and confronting management.
Casino executives have a standard response to a total smoking ban: They already accommodate smokers and nonsmokers with smoke-free hotel rooms and other areas, such as banks of slot machines and individual tables.
“The industry says don’t mess with success, especially during these economic down times,” Dalla said. “Do we want to implement something that could drive away a certain percentage of business?”
Smoking is more of a problem in enclosed poker rooms, Dallas said, and smoke tends to dissipate better on the larger, high-ceilinged casino floor.
McEvoy said that’s not true for dealers and bartenders who breathe smoky air for hours on end. So, Gamblers Against Secondhand Smoke is spreading its smoking ban message primarily among casino workers — the people most affected by secondhand smoke.
The group has already enlisted the support of several casino dealers on the Strip, including Mario Ragazzo.
“The vast majority of gamblers don’t smoke, and those who do aren’t necessarily our best customers,” Ragazzo said. “But all casinos know is the status quo. Unless you put pressure on people, they’re not going to change.”
(Credit: Las Vegas Sun)
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CBS "60 Minutes" Segment On Online Poker Cheating Scandals To Air Soon!
In addition to the buzz around the seizure of 141 internet gambling domains by the Governor of Kentucky, an upcoming story by CBS’ “60 Minutes” has also been the center of discussion at the CAP Euro Barcelona event. Poker News Daily has learned that the story by “60 Minutes” should air on Sunday, October 26th, just days before the general elections in the United States. The program will likely cover the user scandals at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, which have made headlines across the poker world in recent months.
The story by the longstanding news magazine will focus on the scandals that have rocked Ultimate Bet and may include the POTRIPPER issues at its sister site, Absolute Poker. In addition, the rumor around the industry is that “60 Minutes” is teaming up with a major newspaper for the story, which may be just weeks from airing. In its last update on the NioNio scandal that rocked the online poker site, Ultimate Bet listed additional user names that were involved: Crackcorn55, WhakMe, GrabBag123, gravitation, Bgroup, H_Curtis, Twenty 1, WacoManiac, Broke_In_L_A, ShaqTack, BlueBerry101, HolyMucker, 55WasHere, Xnomas, dannyboy55, Indy05, and SlimPikins2.
The cheating on Ultimate Bet began back in 2005, one year before its current ownership group, Tokwiro, purchased the site. Also in June, Ultimate Bet was scheduled to begin the refund process for players who were affected by the abuse. The transgressions surrounded the exploitation of an auditing tool which enabled its users to view the hole cards of every player at an online poker table.
In May, Ultimate Bet’s parent company released a statement that included the following: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty, and support, as well as for their understanding that we are doing everything we can to correct this situation. The staff and management of Ultimate Bet are fully committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our players and we want to assure customers of our unwavering resolve to monitor site security with every resource at our disposal.”
Since then, one of the accounts in question was linked to a Las Vegas owned home of Russ Hamilton, one of the former owners of the site. However, no admission has been given publicly by Hamilton. Over the summer, Team PokerStars Pro member Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok traveled to Hamilton’s residence. Greenstein came away from the interview feeling as if, by the time the truth was known, Hamilton would not be one of those indicted.
A $75 million claim filed against a software manufacturer was the subject of an article by MSNBC with the title “Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit.” The article, which was published last week, seemed to trump any momentum “60 Minutes” would have had, although the television station’s program is likely to be more visible.
The latest move in the Ultimate Bet investigation was the Kahnawake Gaming Commission naming Frank Catania, a former gaming regulator in the state of New Jersey, to lead a formal inquiry into the matter. His website, CataniaConsulting.com, states that he “serves as one of three independent directors of eCOGRA. He served as the first president of the International Masters of Gaming Law, a non-profit association dedicated to the education and advancement of gaming law, vice chair and chair, respectively, of the International Association of Gaming Regulators and past chairman of the Forum of American Casino Regulators.”
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In addition to the buzz around the seizure of 141 internet gambling domains by the Governor of Kentucky, an upcoming story by CBS’ “60 Minutes” has also been the center of discussion at the CAP Euro Barcelona event. Poker News Daily has learned that the story by “60 Minutes” should air on Sunday, October 26th, just days before the general elections in the United States. The program will likely cover the user scandals at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, which have made headlines across the poker world in recent months.
The story by the longstanding news magazine will focus on the scandals that have rocked Ultimate Bet and may include the POTRIPPER issues at its sister site, Absolute Poker. In addition, the rumor around the industry is that “60 Minutes” is teaming up with a major newspaper for the story, which may be just weeks from airing. In its last update on the NioNio scandal that rocked the online poker site, Ultimate Bet listed additional user names that were involved: Crackcorn55, WhakMe, GrabBag123, gravitation, Bgroup, H_Curtis, Twenty 1, WacoManiac, Broke_In_L_A, ShaqTack, BlueBerry101, HolyMucker, 55WasHere, Xnomas, dannyboy55, Indy05, and SlimPikins2.
The cheating on Ultimate Bet began back in 2005, one year before its current ownership group, Tokwiro, purchased the site. Also in June, Ultimate Bet was scheduled to begin the refund process for players who were affected by the abuse. The transgressions surrounded the exploitation of an auditing tool which enabled its users to view the hole cards of every player at an online poker table.
In May, Ultimate Bet’s parent company released a statement that included the following: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty, and support, as well as for their understanding that we are doing everything we can to correct this situation. The staff and management of Ultimate Bet are fully committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our players and we want to assure customers of our unwavering resolve to monitor site security with every resource at our disposal.”
Since then, one of the accounts in question was linked to a Las Vegas owned home of Russ Hamilton, one of the former owners of the site. However, no admission has been given publicly by Hamilton. Over the summer, Team PokerStars Pro member Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok traveled to Hamilton’s residence. Greenstein came away from the interview feeling as if, by the time the truth was known, Hamilton would not be one of those indicted.
A $75 million claim filed against a software manufacturer was the subject of an article by MSNBC with the title “Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit.” The article, which was published last week, seemed to trump any momentum “60 Minutes” would have had, although the television station’s program is likely to be more visible.
The latest move in the Ultimate Bet investigation was the Kahnawake Gaming Commission naming Frank Catania, a former gaming regulator in the state of New Jersey, to lead a formal inquiry into the matter. His website, CataniaConsulting.com, states that he “serves as one of three independent directors of eCOGRA. He served as the first president of the International Masters of Gaming Law, a non-profit association dedicated to the education and advancement of gaming law, vice chair and chair, respectively, of the International Association of Gaming Regulators and past chairman of the Forum of American Casino Regulators.”
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
World Poker Tour Enterprises Ends Relationship With Cryptologic
World Poker Tour Enterprises, the owner of the eponymous landmark poker tour since its inception seven years ago, announced on Friday that they will be terminating their relationship with Cryptologic, who had run their online poker room for slightly over a year.
WPTE filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 17th where details of the end of the relationship were offered. In the notice, WPTE announced that they had informed Cryptologic Incorporated and WagerLogic Limited - with whom WPTE had been working for just over a year - that they were terminating their contract and that the room would temporarily shut down on or around November 14th. At this time, WPTE is retaining rights to come back online at a future date but those options have yet to be fully detailed out.
The contract termination will cost WPTE a significant sum of money. The three year contract signed with Cryptologic in 2007 for operation of the poker room was for $750,000 with WPTE picking up any costs not covered by the room’s operation, according to previous SEC filings. Add into the equation the remainder of the contract, which will have to be picked up as well by WPTE, and the total costs for closing the room will potentially be around $2 million, if not significantly higher.
Sources at the WPT were not at liberty to confirm if the site will reopen in another network or independently.
The actual site that the WPTE was using for its online poker operation, WPTonline.com, seemed to have problems from the start. After spending several months trying to develop their own software and program in 2006, WPTE decided to abandon that effort and signed on with Cryptologic. Further adding into the difficulties for the site was the fact that it could not accept American players, as the gray area that is online gaming in the United States could have put WPTE in tremendous jeopardy if American action was accepted.
2008 overall hasn’t been kind to WPTE or any of its operations. Since last year, many of the tournaments on the schedule have seen declines in their numbers and the current seventh season of the WPT has actually seen a reduction in the number of tournaments for the first time in its history. This year has also seen WPTE move its tournament broadcasts for the third time, after its long relationship with the Travel Channel and its year long dalliance with GSN, formerly the Game Show Network. The current season, the WPT’s seventh, will be seen on Fox Sports Network in what appears to be a “time buy” situation.
WPTE’s stock has taken a tumble as well. Since it reached its apex at over $27 a share following the rumored buyout by a consortium headed by Doyle Brunson in 2005, the stock has fallen tremendously. Two months ago, NASDAQ sent a delisting notification to WPTE after its shares fell below a dollar and gave then 180 days to return above that $1 level for a ten consecutive day period. As of this writing, WPTE’s stock has continued to drop and sits at $0.46.
WPTE currently has no debts, and its assets total over $11 million, but the organization has only ever had one money making quarter. In that quarter, WPTE turned a profit due to the sale of stock in the electronic poker table company PokerTek in early 2006.
The move by WPTE seems to have no effect on the continuation of its other online poker site, Club WPT. This site, which is membership based and is accessible to American players as well as the world, looks to be the linchpin that WPTE will move on with in the online poker world, as it also is the basis of its latest broadcast efforts on the Fox Sports Network.
WPTE still has their popular Club WPT site as well as their current television deal with Fox Sports Network to stay viable in the poker world. With the temporary shutdown of wptonline.com, however, things could take a turn for the worse. Overall, it would be unfortunate to lose any part of the organization that has been a part of the resurgence of poker in the 21st century.
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World Poker Tour Enterprises, the owner of the eponymous landmark poker tour since its inception seven years ago, announced on Friday that they will be terminating their relationship with Cryptologic, who had run their online poker room for slightly over a year.
WPTE filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 17th where details of the end of the relationship were offered. In the notice, WPTE announced that they had informed Cryptologic Incorporated and WagerLogic Limited - with whom WPTE had been working for just over a year - that they were terminating their contract and that the room would temporarily shut down on or around November 14th. At this time, WPTE is retaining rights to come back online at a future date but those options have yet to be fully detailed out.
The contract termination will cost WPTE a significant sum of money. The three year contract signed with Cryptologic in 2007 for operation of the poker room was for $750,000 with WPTE picking up any costs not covered by the room’s operation, according to previous SEC filings. Add into the equation the remainder of the contract, which will have to be picked up as well by WPTE, and the total costs for closing the room will potentially be around $2 million, if not significantly higher.
Sources at the WPT were not at liberty to confirm if the site will reopen in another network or independently.
The actual site that the WPTE was using for its online poker operation, WPTonline.com, seemed to have problems from the start. After spending several months trying to develop their own software and program in 2006, WPTE decided to abandon that effort and signed on with Cryptologic. Further adding into the difficulties for the site was the fact that it could not accept American players, as the gray area that is online gaming in the United States could have put WPTE in tremendous jeopardy if American action was accepted.
2008 overall hasn’t been kind to WPTE or any of its operations. Since last year, many of the tournaments on the schedule have seen declines in their numbers and the current seventh season of the WPT has actually seen a reduction in the number of tournaments for the first time in its history. This year has also seen WPTE move its tournament broadcasts for the third time, after its long relationship with the Travel Channel and its year long dalliance with GSN, formerly the Game Show Network. The current season, the WPT’s seventh, will be seen on Fox Sports Network in what appears to be a “time buy” situation.
WPTE’s stock has taken a tumble as well. Since it reached its apex at over $27 a share following the rumored buyout by a consortium headed by Doyle Brunson in 2005, the stock has fallen tremendously. Two months ago, NASDAQ sent a delisting notification to WPTE after its shares fell below a dollar and gave then 180 days to return above that $1 level for a ten consecutive day period. As of this writing, WPTE’s stock has continued to drop and sits at $0.46.
WPTE currently has no debts, and its assets total over $11 million, but the organization has only ever had one money making quarter. In that quarter, WPTE turned a profit due to the sale of stock in the electronic poker table company PokerTek in early 2006.
The move by WPTE seems to have no effect on the continuation of its other online poker site, Club WPT. This site, which is membership based and is accessible to American players as well as the world, looks to be the linchpin that WPTE will move on with in the online poker world, as it also is the basis of its latest broadcast efforts on the Fox Sports Network.
WPTE still has their popular Club WPT site as well as their current television deal with Fox Sports Network to stay viable in the poker world. With the temporary shutdown of wptonline.com, however, things could take a turn for the worse. Overall, it would be unfortunate to lose any part of the organization that has been a part of the resurgence of poker in the 21st century.
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Monday, October 20, 2008
Internet Gambling Ruling - 19th October 2008
Last week in a monumental ruling, Kentucky District Judge Thomas Wingate refused to dismiss a case involving the seizure and potential forfeiture of 141 internet gambling domains. They include the websites of the largest online poker rooms in the industry that cater to U.S. customers, including Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, Cake Poker, and PokerStars. Late last week, Governor Steve Beshear, who initiated the seizure, issued his response to the ruling.
Beshear, in part to protect Kentucky’s horse racing industry and state lottery, ordered the 141 domain names in question to be seized. His actions have incited consternation from around the industry, including from industry groups like the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA), and Interactive Gaming Council (IGC). In addition, groups like the Bluegrass Institute have become involved in the issue because of the violations of freedom involved.
Nevertheless, Beshear was elated at the news that Judge Wingate had sided with him on the case. He commented in a press release available on Kentucky.gov, “I am very pleased with Judge Wingate’s ruling. The court validated our concern that there is illegal and unregulated Internet gambling in Kentucky. He has given these parties 30 days to effectively block any access to this illegal activity within the commonwealth of Kentucky or they may be forced to forfeit those domain names to the commonwealth.”
Judge Wingate’s ruling states that if internet gambling sites take action to block users in Kentucky from accessing the site using geo-targeting technologies, then they “shall be relieved from the effects of the Seizure Order and from any further proceedings in the instant civil forfeiture action.” The final forfeiture hearing is scheduled for Monday, November 21st at 10:00am ET.
Beshear reveals his reasons behind his order for seizure: “No one has been willing to step up and do anything about illegal Internet gambling until now. We must protect our people, especially our children, from this illegal and unregulated activity while also protecting our legal and regulated forms of gaming in Kentucky.” Beshear ran on a platform of expanding land-based casino gambling in the State.
Rich Muny, who is the State Director in Kentucky for the PPA, commented, “Judge Wingate’s order is a huge disappointment to the thousands of Kentuckians who play Internet poker. In essence, Governor Beshear and Judge Wingate are denying law-abiding citizens this form of recreation simply because it is enjoyed on the Internet. This is Internet censorship by judicial fiat, plain and simple.”
It’s a case that will set a significant precedent one way or the other. Due to the ruling last week, appeals are expected, although when they will be filed is currently unknown. The case has attracted worldwide attention, including from the Bluegrass Institute, a local organization aimed at preserving the freedoms set forth in the Constitution, and the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). The latter national organization is led by Grover Norquist, who has been active on Capitol Hill for the last 20 years. The ATR, according to its website, believes “in a system in which taxes are simpler, fairer, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today. The government’s power to control one’s life derives from its power to tax. We believe that power should be minimized.” The limitation of government is one of the primary reasons that the ATR is involved. The organization has also worked with the PPA on a national level, trying to push through pro-internet gambling legislation.
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Last week in a monumental ruling, Kentucky District Judge Thomas Wingate refused to dismiss a case involving the seizure and potential forfeiture of 141 internet gambling domains. They include the websites of the largest online poker rooms in the industry that cater to U.S. customers, including Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, Cake Poker, and PokerStars. Late last week, Governor Steve Beshear, who initiated the seizure, issued his response to the ruling.
Beshear, in part to protect Kentucky’s horse racing industry and state lottery, ordered the 141 domain names in question to be seized. His actions have incited consternation from around the industry, including from industry groups like the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA), and Interactive Gaming Council (IGC). In addition, groups like the Bluegrass Institute have become involved in the issue because of the violations of freedom involved.
Nevertheless, Beshear was elated at the news that Judge Wingate had sided with him on the case. He commented in a press release available on Kentucky.gov, “I am very pleased with Judge Wingate’s ruling. The court validated our concern that there is illegal and unregulated Internet gambling in Kentucky. He has given these parties 30 days to effectively block any access to this illegal activity within the commonwealth of Kentucky or they may be forced to forfeit those domain names to the commonwealth.”
Judge Wingate’s ruling states that if internet gambling sites take action to block users in Kentucky from accessing the site using geo-targeting technologies, then they “shall be relieved from the effects of the Seizure Order and from any further proceedings in the instant civil forfeiture action.” The final forfeiture hearing is scheduled for Monday, November 21st at 10:00am ET.
Beshear reveals his reasons behind his order for seizure: “No one has been willing to step up and do anything about illegal Internet gambling until now. We must protect our people, especially our children, from this illegal and unregulated activity while also protecting our legal and regulated forms of gaming in Kentucky.” Beshear ran on a platform of expanding land-based casino gambling in the State.
Rich Muny, who is the State Director in Kentucky for the PPA, commented, “Judge Wingate’s order is a huge disappointment to the thousands of Kentuckians who play Internet poker. In essence, Governor Beshear and Judge Wingate are denying law-abiding citizens this form of recreation simply because it is enjoyed on the Internet. This is Internet censorship by judicial fiat, plain and simple.”
It’s a case that will set a significant precedent one way or the other. Due to the ruling last week, appeals are expected, although when they will be filed is currently unknown. The case has attracted worldwide attention, including from the Bluegrass Institute, a local organization aimed at preserving the freedoms set forth in the Constitution, and the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). The latter national organization is led by Grover Norquist, who has been active on Capitol Hill for the last 20 years. The ATR, according to its website, believes “in a system in which taxes are simpler, fairer, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today. The government’s power to control one’s life derives from its power to tax. We believe that power should be minimized.” The limitation of government is one of the primary reasons that the ATR is involved. The organization has also worked with the PPA on a national level, trying to push through pro-internet gambling legislation.
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Push to teach students the odds of pokies, horse racing, by Melanie Christiansen - The Courier-Mail - 20th October 2008
Students would be taught the odds of gambling on the pokies or the horses in the school curriculum, under a proposal from the hotel industry.
The industry wants gambling education added to the national school curriculum.
Responding to concerns about problem gamblers, the Australian Hotels Association has written to a Senate committee suggesting there is a "genuine need" to teach factual information on all forms of gambling in classrooms.
"It is an unfortunate reality that many young people do not understand the odds when gambling, and overestimate their chance of success," the AHA submission said.
"At present, schools throughout Australia teach students about safe sex, the dangers of smoking and drugs and the responsible consumption of alcohol.
"To adequately prepare students for life after school, gambling education needs to be included in the national school curriculum."
The proposal follows a furore two months ago, when a Brisbane school teacher was accused of leading his students astray after taking them to a racecourse to help improve their maths skills.
While teenagers from Mt St Michael's College in Ashgrove spent an afternoon studying form guides, their teacher, Jim Dooley, placed some bets.
Queensland Teachers' Union president Steve Ryan said although most schools did not go to the extent of taking students to races, their maths courses already covered the concepts of probability and chance in data.
He said there was no need to add extra lessons on gambling into an already busy school program.
"Every time there is an issue in our society, it should not be expected that schools can solve it by including it in their curriculum," he said.
(Credit: The Courier-Mail)
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Students would be taught the odds of gambling on the pokies or the horses in the school curriculum, under a proposal from the hotel industry.
The industry wants gambling education added to the national school curriculum.
Responding to concerns about problem gamblers, the Australian Hotels Association has written to a Senate committee suggesting there is a "genuine need" to teach factual information on all forms of gambling in classrooms.
"It is an unfortunate reality that many young people do not understand the odds when gambling, and overestimate their chance of success," the AHA submission said.
"At present, schools throughout Australia teach students about safe sex, the dangers of smoking and drugs and the responsible consumption of alcohol.
"To adequately prepare students for life after school, gambling education needs to be included in the national school curriculum."
The proposal follows a furore two months ago, when a Brisbane school teacher was accused of leading his students astray after taking them to a racecourse to help improve their maths skills.
While teenagers from Mt St Michael's College in Ashgrove spent an afternoon studying form guides, their teacher, Jim Dooley, placed some bets.
Queensland Teachers' Union president Steve Ryan said although most schools did not go to the extent of taking students to races, their maths courses already covered the concepts of probability and chance in data.
He said there was no need to add extra lessons on gambling into an already busy school program.
"Every time there is an issue in our society, it should not be expected that schools can solve it by including it in their curriculum," he said.
(Credit: The Courier-Mail)
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$10m hasn't changed poker king - The Sydney Morning Herald - 10th May 2006
The old line about modest lottery winners says, if winning won't change your life then don't enter.
It's not advice that Australia's poker king Joe Hachem adheres to.
He insists the $US10 million won at last year's World Series of Poker (WSOP) has not changed his life.
Hachem is currently on a European tour ahead of defending his WSOP title in Las Vegas in July.
He appreciates the chance to travel, but has so far resisted moving from Melbourne to the United States.
"It's been a pretty tough decision because from a professional point of view, I should be in the United States but from a family point of view I need to be at home," Hachem said.
"My kids are 15, 13, 11 and 10 and it's an important time for their dad to be around - my family is my priority.
"The money hasn't changed my life at all.
"The fame and the social status has changed, but my life before I won the World Series was good anyway - I had a nice house, a nice life.
"The money didn't go to my head, I didn't suddenly go and buy a Ferrari or all that other stuff."
Hachem was a relative nobody when he attended the WSOP last year, but will be a walking target for big game hunters over the Vegas felt this July.
"I'm not just another player any more," Hachem said.
"When I go back, I'll be studied and scrutinised and watched, and others will have higher expectations.
"Now I'm a walking target.
"When I come to the table people want to take me down, bust me out of the tournament just so they can have a story to tell.
"To them, its worth their $US10,000 ($A13,043.76) entry fee to say I played against Joe Hachem today."
So why not quit while ahead then, why take the risk?
"To me, its a business," Hachem said.
"Over the long run, poker is close to 70-30 in terms of skill to luck.
"So, I'm not going back to see if I can get lucky."
Since his win, there had been a trebling of poker participation in Australian casinos and a global explosion in online play.
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The old line about modest lottery winners says, if winning won't change your life then don't enter.
It's not advice that Australia's poker king Joe Hachem adheres to.
He insists the $US10 million won at last year's World Series of Poker (WSOP) has not changed his life.
Hachem is currently on a European tour ahead of defending his WSOP title in Las Vegas in July.
He appreciates the chance to travel, but has so far resisted moving from Melbourne to the United States.
"It's been a pretty tough decision because from a professional point of view, I should be in the United States but from a family point of view I need to be at home," Hachem said.
"My kids are 15, 13, 11 and 10 and it's an important time for their dad to be around - my family is my priority.
"The money hasn't changed my life at all.
"The fame and the social status has changed, but my life before I won the World Series was good anyway - I had a nice house, a nice life.
"The money didn't go to my head, I didn't suddenly go and buy a Ferrari or all that other stuff."
Hachem was a relative nobody when he attended the WSOP last year, but will be a walking target for big game hunters over the Vegas felt this July.
"I'm not just another player any more," Hachem said.
"When I go back, I'll be studied and scrutinised and watched, and others will have higher expectations.
"Now I'm a walking target.
"When I come to the table people want to take me down, bust me out of the tournament just so they can have a story to tell.
"To them, its worth their $US10,000 ($A13,043.76) entry fee to say I played against Joe Hachem today."
So why not quit while ahead then, why take the risk?
"To me, its a business," Hachem said.
"Over the long run, poker is close to 70-30 in terms of skill to luck.
"So, I'm not going back to see if I can get lucky."
Since his win, there had been a trebling of poker participation in Australian casinos and a global explosion in online play.
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Phil Ivey Profile - World Poker Tour
Some kids dream of becoming astronauts. Others want to play guitar for a living. Most grow up and set their sights slightly lower as they reach adulthood. It was a different story for Phil Ivey, for two reasons. First off, his dream was somewhat unconventional for a child – he wanted to gamble for a living. Secondly, he didn't give up on that dream until it became a reality. Fast forward to the present day, and you can see that right from an early age, Phil's instincts were right. One of the most successful poker players in the game today, he's mastered a variety of styles and launched himself to the forefront of poker's ever-growing media coverage.
Phil was born in Riverside, California, but the Ivey family upped sticks and relocated in Roselle, New Jersey when he was three months old. Some would say that living in close proximity to Atlantic City would increase anyone's chances of getting involved in poker, but Phil had some extra help. His grandfather taught him how to play five-card stud at a young age, apparently dealing from a dodgy deck in an attempt to warn Phil about the potential pitfalls of real-money gambling. An important lesson indeed, but if it was an attempt to steer Phil clear of a life of high-risk card play then, clearly, the message lost something in translation.
The story goes that Phil would announce with absolute certainty to family members and teachers alike that he was going to become a professional gambler. They would routinely laugh such talk off, but Phil stayed focused on his goal. He would sit in on home games throughout his teenage years, and this further exposure to poker only added fuel to the fire. The time came when Phil was itching to play in the casinos, despite being younger than the minimum age of 21. At the time, Phil was working in telemarketing raising money for the Fraternal Order of Police. He got talking to an older colleague by the name of Jerome Graham and ended up striking a deal that would allow him to use Jerome's ID to play poker. Jerome got $50, Phil got to go to Atlantic City.
Phil passed himself off as someone else for a number of years; he played a lot of poker, to the extent that he earned the nickname "No Home Jerome" because of the amount of time he would spend at the tables. Phil learned his trade throughout those early years, and although he wasn't yet able to make enough money to turn pro, he was gaining the valuable experience that would allow him to step up several gears later in life.
On turning 21, Phil came clean about his fake ID exploits. It was a risky move, but he'd built up a reputation as a decent player – and, importantly, as a true gentleman – so casino bosses welcomed him back with no repercussions.
Despite the fact that he was now playing legitimately, Phil was still failing to build a significant bankroll, a problem he puts down in retrospect to bad money management. As he matured, he learned to handle his winnings more successfully. Where previously he would play Blackjack and Craps until his pockets were virtually empty, only to grind it out at the poker tables to build the cash back up, Phil now took a much firmer line with himself. It worked. It wasn't long before he was able to wave goodbye to his day job and realize that boyhood dream of becoming a poker pro.
The next couple of years saw Phil learn what it takes to make a living from full-time poker, all the while adding ammunition to his ever-growing arsenal of table skills. He increased his ability to read tells and remember patterns in his opponents' play, taking information from hands he had lost in order to gain those stolen chips back tenfold further down the line. As well as making his name in cash games, Phil managed to increase his tournament experience along the way – and it was here that real recognition was to arrive.
In 2000, at the age of 24, Phil played at the World Series of Poker with great success. First off, he played in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event, narrowly missing out on the final table by finishing 12th. Five days later, he went one better, making the final table of the $2,000 No Limit Hold 'Em tournament – he ultimately finished fifth, earning more than $35,000.
Five days after that, Phil went the whole way in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha event, despite finding himself on a final table that would make most grown men tremble. He out lasted a host of respected names, including Amarillo Slim, Phil Hellmuth and Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott to claim his first WSOP bracelet and nearly $200,000.
In just 14 days, Phil had shown the wider poker world that he could do the business, not only in one poker variant, but in a whole host of disciplines. People were sitting up and taking notice – and with good reason, too.
A year later, Phil entered the 2001 WSOP and made another final table in the process. This time it was the $5,000 Omaha high-low split Eight or Better event, where he finished sixth for winnings of $18,000. Not bad at all, but 2002 was to be on another level entirely for the young pro. Things started nicely in February, with a win at the LA Poker Classic $1,000 No Limit Hold 'Em event, where Phil beat out 214 other runners to claim top spot and $80,000.
This was a nice lead into the 2002 WSOP, where Phil would enjoy a phenomenal run of form, making seven cash finishes, five final table appearances and ultimately three top spots. The first of these came in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event, while the second and third came in the $2,500 Omaha high-low split and $2,000 SHOE events respectively. It was another clear indication of Phil's remarkable ability to master any game he puts his hand to.
From that year's WSOP festival alone, he had claimed three coveted bracelets (levelling with Phil Hellmuth and Ted Forrest for the most WSOP wins in a single year) and winnings that totaled more than $415,000.
It continued to be a lucrative year for Phil, with two more tournament wins at the Los Angeles Legends of Poker series, and his first WPT final table in the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods. He finished fourth in that particular tournament behind eventual winner Howard Lederer. Phil's WPT form continued into 2003 with final table appearances at both the World Poker Open in Tunica (finishing second) and the Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic (coming third). And in the two weeks leading up to that April Bellagio final table he won a couple of other tournaments at the same venue – one in seven-card stud, the other in Omaha high-low split.
Within a month, the 2003 WSOP had arrived, and it was the start of another successful time for Phil. He cashed four times, including a second place finish in the $5,000 Razz event and third place at the $5,000 seven-card stud tournament. All in all, Phil left the 2003 WSOP with winnings of more than $180,000. The next year brought a further two WSOP cash finishes, a WPT final table and a $500,000 pay day, following Phil's win in the $10,000 No Limit Hold 'Em Championship Poker event held in Verona.
Predictably enough, 2005 was another vintage year for Phil. He managed another two WPT final tables for a combined prize of $428,000. He also cashed at two WSOP circuit events in addition to three tournaments in the WSOP proper. One of these, the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event, brought Phil his fifth WSOP bracelet despite a final table that boasted such poker greats as Phil Hellmuth and Allen Cunningham.
A WSOP in any given year would be a dream come true for many poker players, but it wasn't enough to satiate Phil's quest for success. He entered the $25,000 No Limit Hold 'Em Monte Carlo Millions event with the full intention of winning it – and he did just that, coming away $1m to the good. Just a few days later, his pockets were a further $600,000 heavier after yet another win, this time at the Full Tilt Poker Invitational, again in Monte Carlo. Those two huge wins took his total tournament winnings for 2005 to well over $3.3m – a truly astonishing achievement.
Phil has made another million in 2006, thanks to three more cash finishes in the WSOP (including second place in the $5,000 Omaha high-low event and third in the $50,000 HORSE tournament) and the runner-up spot in the European Poker Tour's Barcelona leg. For a player who's so clearly at the top of his game in so many different variants of tournament poker, it seems strange to consider that Phil is actually better known as a cash game player in many quarters. He now lives in Las Vegas and plays regularly in the "Big Game" at the Bellagio, a $4,000 / $8,000 mixed cash game.
He also took part in a heads-up challenge in February 2006 on behalf of "The Corporation", a collection of professional poker players who pooled their resources to take turns playing billionaire businessman Andy Beal at super-high stakes. The most recent games in the series had seen Beal take The Corporation for more than $13m. Enter Phil Ivey. Within three days, playing at stakes of up to $50,000 / $100,000, Phil had won a staggering $16.6m from the Texan. Beal's reaction after the run-in? He claimed that he would be giving up poker for good.
So where does a player as supremely successful as Phil go from here? Well, he's not finished with those WSOP bracelets for a start. When asked if he could eventually overtake the current record holders Brunson, Chan and Hellmuth, who hold 10 bracelets each, Phil gave a typically reasoned response: "I want to win 30." While that might seem like an outlandish figure to aim for, remember this: Phil Ivey is a man used to reaching the targets he sets for himself. You'd be foolish to write him off.
He'd dearly love for at least one of those future bracelets to come from a WSOP main event. And while it's getting increasingly harder every year, with the continuing boom in entrants, it would be a gamble in itself to put money on it definitely not happening. Despite being faced with a record number of runners in recent years, Phil has finished in the top 25 of the main event three times out of the last five. Not bad going for a tournament boasting runners in the high thousands nowadays.
Whatever the future holds for Phil Ivey, you can be sure he'll take it in his stride, with a smile on his face. Here's a man truly at the top of his game, be it in tournament or cash play, in a variety of poker styles. Watch him play, and it's not hard to see why. Phil's intense concentration and incredible poker face – you won't see a difference if he's slow-playing the nut flush or bluffing audaciously with 9-2 off-suit – combine with an almost telepathic ability to tell when opponents are representing a better hand than they're actually holding, to create a formidable player.
Anyone capable of beating Phil has to be either a phenomenal poker player or lucky enough to dish out multiple bad beats. In the long term, though, it's safe to assume that someone of Phil Ivey's pedigree will come out on top. The scariest thing for his fellow professionals is that despite his talent, he'll only get better with time. At 30 years old, Phil still has a lot of learning ahead of him. Don't have nightmares, guys.
PHIL'S "BELIEVE IT OR NOT"
There's plenty more to Phil than you'd know from just watching him play. Read on for ten short snippets:
♠ Until the 2008 LA Poker Classic, Phil made seven WPT final tables but hadn't yet taken a first place. In fact, he's been knocked out of many of these events holding the same hand: A-Q.
♥ He's earned more than $7m just from live tournament winnings since turning pro.
♠ Phil reputedly isn't a fan of players who choose to wear sunglasses at the poker table.
♥ In fact, one story suggests that Phil lost a $100,000 pot during a WPT tournament after misreading his hole cards, because of the shades he was sporting at the time.
♥ He tends to play low stakes online for fun, and encourages fans to come and ask for advice.
♠ Phil once coached Annand "Victor" Ramdin, who has since cashed at the WSOP and won a WPT title.
♥ He's a big basketball fan, and often wears team jerseys from his collection at the table.
♠ Phil also loves to play golf, although he admits that here he still has a lot to learn.
♥ He's confident his swing will improve though; he's got a bet with fellow pro Erick Lindgren that he will be able to win over 72 holes with no handicap within 10 years.
♠ Phil lives in the gambling capital of Las Vegas with his wife, who was his childhood sweetheart, Luciaetta.
(Credit: World Poker Tour)
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Some kids dream of becoming astronauts. Others want to play guitar for a living. Most grow up and set their sights slightly lower as they reach adulthood. It was a different story for Phil Ivey, for two reasons. First off, his dream was somewhat unconventional for a child – he wanted to gamble for a living. Secondly, he didn't give up on that dream until it became a reality. Fast forward to the present day, and you can see that right from an early age, Phil's instincts were right. One of the most successful poker players in the game today, he's mastered a variety of styles and launched himself to the forefront of poker's ever-growing media coverage.
Phil was born in Riverside, California, but the Ivey family upped sticks and relocated in Roselle, New Jersey when he was three months old. Some would say that living in close proximity to Atlantic City would increase anyone's chances of getting involved in poker, but Phil had some extra help. His grandfather taught him how to play five-card stud at a young age, apparently dealing from a dodgy deck in an attempt to warn Phil about the potential pitfalls of real-money gambling. An important lesson indeed, but if it was an attempt to steer Phil clear of a life of high-risk card play then, clearly, the message lost something in translation.
The story goes that Phil would announce with absolute certainty to family members and teachers alike that he was going to become a professional gambler. They would routinely laugh such talk off, but Phil stayed focused on his goal. He would sit in on home games throughout his teenage years, and this further exposure to poker only added fuel to the fire. The time came when Phil was itching to play in the casinos, despite being younger than the minimum age of 21. At the time, Phil was working in telemarketing raising money for the Fraternal Order of Police. He got talking to an older colleague by the name of Jerome Graham and ended up striking a deal that would allow him to use Jerome's ID to play poker. Jerome got $50, Phil got to go to Atlantic City.
Phil passed himself off as someone else for a number of years; he played a lot of poker, to the extent that he earned the nickname "No Home Jerome" because of the amount of time he would spend at the tables. Phil learned his trade throughout those early years, and although he wasn't yet able to make enough money to turn pro, he was gaining the valuable experience that would allow him to step up several gears later in life.
On turning 21, Phil came clean about his fake ID exploits. It was a risky move, but he'd built up a reputation as a decent player – and, importantly, as a true gentleman – so casino bosses welcomed him back with no repercussions.
Despite the fact that he was now playing legitimately, Phil was still failing to build a significant bankroll, a problem he puts down in retrospect to bad money management. As he matured, he learned to handle his winnings more successfully. Where previously he would play Blackjack and Craps until his pockets were virtually empty, only to grind it out at the poker tables to build the cash back up, Phil now took a much firmer line with himself. It worked. It wasn't long before he was able to wave goodbye to his day job and realize that boyhood dream of becoming a poker pro.
The next couple of years saw Phil learn what it takes to make a living from full-time poker, all the while adding ammunition to his ever-growing arsenal of table skills. He increased his ability to read tells and remember patterns in his opponents' play, taking information from hands he had lost in order to gain those stolen chips back tenfold further down the line. As well as making his name in cash games, Phil managed to increase his tournament experience along the way – and it was here that real recognition was to arrive.
In 2000, at the age of 24, Phil played at the World Series of Poker with great success. First off, he played in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event, narrowly missing out on the final table by finishing 12th. Five days later, he went one better, making the final table of the $2,000 No Limit Hold 'Em tournament – he ultimately finished fifth, earning more than $35,000.
Five days after that, Phil went the whole way in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha event, despite finding himself on a final table that would make most grown men tremble. He out lasted a host of respected names, including Amarillo Slim, Phil Hellmuth and Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott to claim his first WSOP bracelet and nearly $200,000.
In just 14 days, Phil had shown the wider poker world that he could do the business, not only in one poker variant, but in a whole host of disciplines. People were sitting up and taking notice – and with good reason, too.
A year later, Phil entered the 2001 WSOP and made another final table in the process. This time it was the $5,000 Omaha high-low split Eight or Better event, where he finished sixth for winnings of $18,000. Not bad at all, but 2002 was to be on another level entirely for the young pro. Things started nicely in February, with a win at the LA Poker Classic $1,000 No Limit Hold 'Em event, where Phil beat out 214 other runners to claim top spot and $80,000.
This was a nice lead into the 2002 WSOP, where Phil would enjoy a phenomenal run of form, making seven cash finishes, five final table appearances and ultimately three top spots. The first of these came in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event, while the second and third came in the $2,500 Omaha high-low split and $2,000 SHOE events respectively. It was another clear indication of Phil's remarkable ability to master any game he puts his hand to.
From that year's WSOP festival alone, he had claimed three coveted bracelets (levelling with Phil Hellmuth and Ted Forrest for the most WSOP wins in a single year) and winnings that totaled more than $415,000.
It continued to be a lucrative year for Phil, with two more tournament wins at the Los Angeles Legends of Poker series, and his first WPT final table in the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods. He finished fourth in that particular tournament behind eventual winner Howard Lederer. Phil's WPT form continued into 2003 with final table appearances at both the World Poker Open in Tunica (finishing second) and the Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic (coming third). And in the two weeks leading up to that April Bellagio final table he won a couple of other tournaments at the same venue – one in seven-card stud, the other in Omaha high-low split.
Within a month, the 2003 WSOP had arrived, and it was the start of another successful time for Phil. He cashed four times, including a second place finish in the $5,000 Razz event and third place at the $5,000 seven-card stud tournament. All in all, Phil left the 2003 WSOP with winnings of more than $180,000. The next year brought a further two WSOP cash finishes, a WPT final table and a $500,000 pay day, following Phil's win in the $10,000 No Limit Hold 'Em Championship Poker event held in Verona.
Predictably enough, 2005 was another vintage year for Phil. He managed another two WPT final tables for a combined prize of $428,000. He also cashed at two WSOP circuit events in addition to three tournaments in the WSOP proper. One of these, the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event, brought Phil his fifth WSOP bracelet despite a final table that boasted such poker greats as Phil Hellmuth and Allen Cunningham.
A WSOP in any given year would be a dream come true for many poker players, but it wasn't enough to satiate Phil's quest for success. He entered the $25,000 No Limit Hold 'Em Monte Carlo Millions event with the full intention of winning it – and he did just that, coming away $1m to the good. Just a few days later, his pockets were a further $600,000 heavier after yet another win, this time at the Full Tilt Poker Invitational, again in Monte Carlo. Those two huge wins took his total tournament winnings for 2005 to well over $3.3m – a truly astonishing achievement.
Phil has made another million in 2006, thanks to three more cash finishes in the WSOP (including second place in the $5,000 Omaha high-low event and third in the $50,000 HORSE tournament) and the runner-up spot in the European Poker Tour's Barcelona leg. For a player who's so clearly at the top of his game in so many different variants of tournament poker, it seems strange to consider that Phil is actually better known as a cash game player in many quarters. He now lives in Las Vegas and plays regularly in the "Big Game" at the Bellagio, a $4,000 / $8,000 mixed cash game.
He also took part in a heads-up challenge in February 2006 on behalf of "The Corporation", a collection of professional poker players who pooled their resources to take turns playing billionaire businessman Andy Beal at super-high stakes. The most recent games in the series had seen Beal take The Corporation for more than $13m. Enter Phil Ivey. Within three days, playing at stakes of up to $50,000 / $100,000, Phil had won a staggering $16.6m from the Texan. Beal's reaction after the run-in? He claimed that he would be giving up poker for good.
So where does a player as supremely successful as Phil go from here? Well, he's not finished with those WSOP bracelets for a start. When asked if he could eventually overtake the current record holders Brunson, Chan and Hellmuth, who hold 10 bracelets each, Phil gave a typically reasoned response: "I want to win 30." While that might seem like an outlandish figure to aim for, remember this: Phil Ivey is a man used to reaching the targets he sets for himself. You'd be foolish to write him off.
He'd dearly love for at least one of those future bracelets to come from a WSOP main event. And while it's getting increasingly harder every year, with the continuing boom in entrants, it would be a gamble in itself to put money on it definitely not happening. Despite being faced with a record number of runners in recent years, Phil has finished in the top 25 of the main event three times out of the last five. Not bad going for a tournament boasting runners in the high thousands nowadays.
Whatever the future holds for Phil Ivey, you can be sure he'll take it in his stride, with a smile on his face. Here's a man truly at the top of his game, be it in tournament or cash play, in a variety of poker styles. Watch him play, and it's not hard to see why. Phil's intense concentration and incredible poker face – you won't see a difference if he's slow-playing the nut flush or bluffing audaciously with 9-2 off-suit – combine with an almost telepathic ability to tell when opponents are representing a better hand than they're actually holding, to create a formidable player.
Anyone capable of beating Phil has to be either a phenomenal poker player or lucky enough to dish out multiple bad beats. In the long term, though, it's safe to assume that someone of Phil Ivey's pedigree will come out on top. The scariest thing for his fellow professionals is that despite his talent, he'll only get better with time. At 30 years old, Phil still has a lot of learning ahead of him. Don't have nightmares, guys.
PHIL'S "BELIEVE IT OR NOT"
There's plenty more to Phil than you'd know from just watching him play. Read on for ten short snippets:
♠ Until the 2008 LA Poker Classic, Phil made seven WPT final tables but hadn't yet taken a first place. In fact, he's been knocked out of many of these events holding the same hand: A-Q.
♥ He's earned more than $7m just from live tournament winnings since turning pro.
♠ Phil reputedly isn't a fan of players who choose to wear sunglasses at the poker table.
♥ In fact, one story suggests that Phil lost a $100,000 pot during a WPT tournament after misreading his hole cards, because of the shades he was sporting at the time.
♥ He tends to play low stakes online for fun, and encourages fans to come and ask for advice.
♠ Phil once coached Annand "Victor" Ramdin, who has since cashed at the WSOP and won a WPT title.
♥ He's a big basketball fan, and often wears team jerseys from his collection at the table.
♠ Phil also loves to play golf, although he admits that here he still has a lot to learn.
♥ He's confident his swing will improve though; he's got a bet with fellow pro Erick Lindgren that he will be able to win over 72 holes with no handicap within 10 years.
♠ Phil lives in the gambling capital of Las Vegas with his wife, who was his childhood sweetheart, Luciaetta.
(Credit: World Poker Tour)
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Stars play poker at casino opening - 13th October 2008
Celebrities flocked to Connecticut to celebrate the opening of the new Casino of the Wind at Mohegan Sun last weekend.
The new facility has added 64,000 sq ft of space to the famous Mohegan Sun complex, with the room mainly filled by a high-end casino featuring 28 table games and 650 slots.
It also contains a 42-table live action poker room, which attracted performers such as Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines and Ugly Betty's Becki Newton during the opening weekend.
Other stars of stage and screen chose to head to the complex's nightclubs and bars, with some even indulging in the new $6,000 Windfall cocktail, which comes complete with a diamond and pink sapphire ring.
Bruce Bozsum, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe, said he was proud of the way the casino had marked the opening.
"Adding the new Casino of the Wind with Poker to our premiere gaming, spa and golf facilities continues to make Mohegan Sun one of the premiere gaming destinations in the country," he added.
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Celebrities flocked to Connecticut to celebrate the opening of the new Casino of the Wind at Mohegan Sun last weekend.
The new facility has added 64,000 sq ft of space to the famous Mohegan Sun complex, with the room mainly filled by a high-end casino featuring 28 table games and 650 slots.
It also contains a 42-table live action poker room, which attracted performers such as Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines and Ugly Betty's Becki Newton during the opening weekend.
Other stars of stage and screen chose to head to the complex's nightclubs and bars, with some even indulging in the new $6,000 Windfall cocktail, which comes complete with a diamond and pink sapphire ring.
Bruce Bozsum, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe, said he was proud of the way the casino had marked the opening.
"Adding the new Casino of the Wind with Poker to our premiere gaming, spa and golf facilities continues to make Mohegan Sun one of the premiere gaming destinations in the country," he added.
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PKR's Oktoberfest 2008 kicks off Friday - 15th October 2008
LONDON, England -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The hugely anticipated Oktoberfest 2008 kicks off on Friday! PKR.com players will be treated to twelve high-octane events with $270,000 in guaranteed prizes to be won.
With a wide range of games on offer, the second annual Oktoberfest is designed to appeal to all types of player with Hold'em and Omaha, deep stack and six-seater tournaments included on the schedule. The twelve days of intense tournament action will be crowned with the popular 'PKR Masters' which is expected to payout the biggest guaranteed sum in PKR.com history.
Satellites are up now on PKR.com and will run throughout the series with new lotteries offering the chance to qualify for as little as $3. In addition, final tables of several events are set to be televised, as is now customary for PKR.com, so players can vie for the extra incentive of TV stardom!
Cardroom manager Neil Wright said, "We're really excited as this will make our seventh festival on PKR.com. Our players really enjoy them and they keep getting bigger and better as a result. We also try to make sure we cater for everyone, which is reflected in the wide range of events and affordable buy-ins.
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LONDON, England -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The hugely anticipated Oktoberfest 2008 kicks off on Friday! PKR.com players will be treated to twelve high-octane events with $270,000 in guaranteed prizes to be won.
With a wide range of games on offer, the second annual Oktoberfest is designed to appeal to all types of player with Hold'em and Omaha, deep stack and six-seater tournaments included on the schedule. The twelve days of intense tournament action will be crowned with the popular 'PKR Masters' which is expected to payout the biggest guaranteed sum in PKR.com history.
Satellites are up now on PKR.com and will run throughout the series with new lotteries offering the chance to qualify for as little as $3. In addition, final tables of several events are set to be televised, as is now customary for PKR.com, so players can vie for the extra incentive of TV stardom!
Cardroom manager Neil Wright said, "We're really excited as this will make our seventh festival on PKR.com. Our players really enjoy them and they keep getting bigger and better as a result. We also try to make sure we cater for everyone, which is reflected in the wide range of events and affordable buy-ins.
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
60 Minutes Story on Ultimate Bet Scandal May Air October 26th - Poker News Daily - 29th September 2008
In addition to the buzz around the seizure of 141 internet gambling domains by the Governor of Kentucky, an upcoming story by CBS’ “60 Minutes” has also been the center of discussion at the CAP Euro Barcelona event. Poker News Daily has learned that the story by “60 Minutes” should air on Sunday, October 26th, just days before the general elections in the United States. The program will likely cover the user scandals at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, which have made headlines across the poker world in recent months.
The story by the longstanding news magazine will focus on the scandals that have rocked Ultimate Bet and may include the POTRIPPER issues at its sister site, Absolute Poker. In addition, the rumor around the industry is that “60 Minutes” is teaming up with a major newspaper for the story, which may be just weeks from airing. In its last update on the NioNio scandal that rocked the online poker site, Ultimate Bet listed additional user names that were involved: Crackcorn55, WhakMe, GrabBag123, gravitation, Bgroup, H_Curtis, Twenty 1, WacoManiac, Broke_In_L_A, ShaqTack, BlueBerry101, HolyMucker, 55WasHere, Xnomas, dannyboy55, Indy05, and SlimPikins2.
The cheating on Ultimate Bet began back in 2005, one year before its current ownership group, Tokwiro, purchased the site. Also in June, Ultimate Bet was scheduled to begin the refund process for players who were affected by the abuse. The transgressions surrounded the exploitation of an auditing tool which enabled its users to view the hole cards of every player at an online poker table.
In May, Ultimate Bet’s parent company released a statement that included the following: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty, and support, as well as for their understanding that we are doing everything we can to correct this situation. The staff and management of Ultimate Bet are fully committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our players and we want to assure customers of our unwavering resolve to monitor site security with every resource at our disposal.”
Since then, one of the accounts in question was linked to a Las Vegas owned home of Russ Hamilton, one of the former owners of the site. However, no admission has been given publicly by Hamilton. Over the summer, Team PokerStars Pro member Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok traveled to Hamilton’s residence. Greenstein came away from the interview feeling as if, by the time the truth was known, Hamilton would not be one of those indicted.
A $75 million claim filed against a software manufacturer was the subject of an article by MSNBC with the title “Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit.” The article, which was published last week, seemed to trump any momentum “60 Minutes” would have had, although the television station’s program is likely to be more visible.
The latest move in the Ultimate Bet investigation was the Kahnawake Gaming Commission naming Frank Catania, a former gaming regulator in the state of New Jersey, to lead a formal inquiry into the matter. His website, CataniaConsulting.com, states that he “serves as one of three independent directors of eCOGRA. He served as the first president of the International Masters of Gaming Law, a non-profit association dedicated to the education and advancement of gaming law, vice chair and chair, respectively, of the International Association of Gaming Regulators and past chairman of the Forum of American Casino Regulators.”
We’ll have further information for you as it develops.
(Credit: Poker News Daily)
Greg Tingle comment
I generally agree with FoolsGold. People and corporations see and know what they want to see and know, at a time that suits them. I once save a client of mine over $10,000 in over billing at a major Australian telco and I was told off my direct management! I did the right thing for the customer, the right ethical thing, the right thing for the industry, but I cost the telco $10,000 (which they were not entitle to). Online gaming is known for its fair share of bad apples and once in a while one of them gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar! By the way, the Australian who came across the untoward things in that poker room was Michael Josem. He’s either a genius of a tech head with too much spare time. Did anyone give him a rewards, or were the international news headlines, and perhaps some poker consulting work on the side, reward enough. I do media analyst and gaming analyst work and something tells me that Josem and The Sydney Morning Herald also know more than they are saying, as in the public domain. Great to see the massive news media coverage by the likes of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Media Man Australia, 60 Minutes and Poker News Daily.
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Poker and Casino News
In addition to the buzz around the seizure of 141 internet gambling domains by the Governor of Kentucky, an upcoming story by CBS’ “60 Minutes” has also been the center of discussion at the CAP Euro Barcelona event. Poker News Daily has learned that the story by “60 Minutes” should air on Sunday, October 26th, just days before the general elections in the United States. The program will likely cover the user scandals at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, which have made headlines across the poker world in recent months.
The story by the longstanding news magazine will focus on the scandals that have rocked Ultimate Bet and may include the POTRIPPER issues at its sister site, Absolute Poker. In addition, the rumor around the industry is that “60 Minutes” is teaming up with a major newspaper for the story, which may be just weeks from airing. In its last update on the NioNio scandal that rocked the online poker site, Ultimate Bet listed additional user names that were involved: Crackcorn55, WhakMe, GrabBag123, gravitation, Bgroup, H_Curtis, Twenty 1, WacoManiac, Broke_In_L_A, ShaqTack, BlueBerry101, HolyMucker, 55WasHere, Xnomas, dannyboy55, Indy05, and SlimPikins2.
The cheating on Ultimate Bet began back in 2005, one year before its current ownership group, Tokwiro, purchased the site. Also in June, Ultimate Bet was scheduled to begin the refund process for players who were affected by the abuse. The transgressions surrounded the exploitation of an auditing tool which enabled its users to view the hole cards of every player at an online poker table.
In May, Ultimate Bet’s parent company released a statement that included the following: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty, and support, as well as for their understanding that we are doing everything we can to correct this situation. The staff and management of Ultimate Bet are fully committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our players and we want to assure customers of our unwavering resolve to monitor site security with every resource at our disposal.”
Since then, one of the accounts in question was linked to a Las Vegas owned home of Russ Hamilton, one of the former owners of the site. However, no admission has been given publicly by Hamilton. Over the summer, Team PokerStars Pro member Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok traveled to Hamilton’s residence. Greenstein came away from the interview feeling as if, by the time the truth was known, Hamilton would not be one of those indicted.
A $75 million claim filed against a software manufacturer was the subject of an article by MSNBC with the title “Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit.” The article, which was published last week, seemed to trump any momentum “60 Minutes” would have had, although the television station’s program is likely to be more visible.
The latest move in the Ultimate Bet investigation was the Kahnawake Gaming Commission naming Frank Catania, a former gaming regulator in the state of New Jersey, to lead a formal inquiry into the matter. His website, CataniaConsulting.com, states that he “serves as one of three independent directors of eCOGRA. He served as the first president of the International Masters of Gaming Law, a non-profit association dedicated to the education and advancement of gaming law, vice chair and chair, respectively, of the International Association of Gaming Regulators and past chairman of the Forum of American Casino Regulators.”
We’ll have further information for you as it develops.
(Credit: Poker News Daily)
Greg Tingle comment
I generally agree with FoolsGold. People and corporations see and know what they want to see and know, at a time that suits them. I once save a client of mine over $10,000 in over billing at a major Australian telco and I was told off my direct management! I did the right thing for the customer, the right ethical thing, the right thing for the industry, but I cost the telco $10,000 (which they were not entitle to). Online gaming is known for its fair share of bad apples and once in a while one of them gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar! By the way, the Australian who came across the untoward things in that poker room was Michael Josem. He’s either a genius of a tech head with too much spare time. Did anyone give him a rewards, or were the international news headlines, and perhaps some poker consulting work on the side, reward enough. I do media analyst and gaming analyst work and something tells me that Josem and The Sydney Morning Herald also know more than they are saying, as in the public domain. Great to see the massive news media coverage by the likes of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Media Man Australia, 60 Minutes and Poker News Daily.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Make yourself a cool million, by Alex Lavelle - The Age - 10th October 2008
At last, a chance to get some decent sports such as darts and poker into the paper. The final table of the world series takes place in Las Vegas on November 11 with the lucky last nine battling for a share of a cool $US32 million ($A46 million). The winner, poor soul, will pocket $US9.1 million and the others become instant millionaires.
The players on the final table are all virtual unknowns, but the most successful and experienced of them in tournament poker is 28-year-old American David "Chino" Rheem. He is seventh in chips and has less than half the stack of leader Dennis Phillips, but the pressure at the final table will be intense and his 10 years as a professional will hold him in good stead.
In a poll on the world series of poker website, 31% say the Chino man has the best chance to win, so the $10 on offer from TAB Sportsbet looks a steal.
If you put $100,000 on Rheem and he happens to win, you too would become a millionaire.
And in darts, another sport in which the competitors have faintly ridiculous nicknames and sweat profusely despite there being no physical activity whatsoever, Phil "The Power" Taylor is still the undisputed king of the oche. He is a $1.80 chance to win his 14th world championship in January, and since he is as likely to win again as Santa Claus is of coming to town sometime in December, you might as well invest the cash grandma gives you at Christmas on Taylor.
(Credit: The Age)
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At last, a chance to get some decent sports such as darts and poker into the paper. The final table of the world series takes place in Las Vegas on November 11 with the lucky last nine battling for a share of a cool $US32 million ($A46 million). The winner, poor soul, will pocket $US9.1 million and the others become instant millionaires.
The players on the final table are all virtual unknowns, but the most successful and experienced of them in tournament poker is 28-year-old American David "Chino" Rheem. He is seventh in chips and has less than half the stack of leader Dennis Phillips, but the pressure at the final table will be intense and his 10 years as a professional will hold him in good stead.
In a poll on the world series of poker website, 31% say the Chino man has the best chance to win, so the $10 on offer from TAB Sportsbet looks a steal.
If you put $100,000 on Rheem and he happens to win, you too would become a millionaire.
And in darts, another sport in which the competitors have faintly ridiculous nicknames and sweat profusely despite there being no physical activity whatsoever, Phil "The Power" Taylor is still the undisputed king of the oche. He is a $1.80 chance to win his 14th world championship in January, and since he is as likely to win again as Santa Claus is of coming to town sometime in December, you might as well invest the cash grandma gives you at Christmas on Taylor.
(Credit: The Age)
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Friday, October 10, 2008
British Advertising Authority Bans Partouche Gaming Commercial 9th October 2008
Demonstrating the strength of regulating the online gaming industry, England’s Advertising Standards Authority has banned an internet ad from one of Europe’s leading gaming operations.
According to the Gaming Intelligence Group, French gaming operator Partouche Casino, which not only operates a poker room but is also the sponsor of the French-based Partouche Poker Tour (PPT), was running internet advertising that featured the catch phrases “Bet to forget” and “Click or regret”. In the view of the UK’s ASA, these statements were “irresponsible” in that they seemingly preyed upon people. The ASA said that the statements could possibly be construed as meaning that people should use gambling as a way to get away from personal issues.
Partouche responded that the ads were a way of getting to their British customers. The company simply stated they wanted to ease the pain that many in the UK felt from the national team not making it into the 2008 European soccer championships and that the line “Bet to forget” was only referring to that. In regard to the “Click or regret” statement, Partouche said it was trying to get people to its website after the ASA determined their first idea, “Bet or regret,” could be made out to imply gambling was indispensable in a person’s life.
The ASA determined that both statements that were used weren’t clear in their intents and that they would not be allowed for internet advertising. They based their findings on the regulatory sub-agency, the Committee of Advertising Practices, and sections 57.2, 57.4b and 57.4c of their regulatory codes.
The ASA has been quite vigilant in adhering to these gaming codes. In addition to the ads from Partouche, the organization has also taken on Poker Stars, PKR, William Hill, InterCasino, Paddy Power Poker and Ladbrokes over differing violations of their codes over the past year. Even with these high profile violators, the ASA does report that there is a nearly 99% rate of compliance with the advertisements that they have reviewed.
The CAP codes were put into effect in September 2007 to hold online gaming and poker rooms to higher standards than others in the advertising industry. The most important of these edicts was the ability to ensure that advertising was socially responsible and protected vulnerable and young people. With the ASA and other agencies diligently policing the internet gaming and poker world, it does demonstrate the ability to have a safely regulated industry.
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Demonstrating the strength of regulating the online gaming industry, England’s Advertising Standards Authority has banned an internet ad from one of Europe’s leading gaming operations.
According to the Gaming Intelligence Group, French gaming operator Partouche Casino, which not only operates a poker room but is also the sponsor of the French-based Partouche Poker Tour (PPT), was running internet advertising that featured the catch phrases “Bet to forget” and “Click or regret”. In the view of the UK’s ASA, these statements were “irresponsible” in that they seemingly preyed upon people. The ASA said that the statements could possibly be construed as meaning that people should use gambling as a way to get away from personal issues.
Partouche responded that the ads were a way of getting to their British customers. The company simply stated they wanted to ease the pain that many in the UK felt from the national team not making it into the 2008 European soccer championships and that the line “Bet to forget” was only referring to that. In regard to the “Click or regret” statement, Partouche said it was trying to get people to its website after the ASA determined their first idea, “Bet or regret,” could be made out to imply gambling was indispensable in a person’s life.
The ASA determined that both statements that were used weren’t clear in their intents and that they would not be allowed for internet advertising. They based their findings on the regulatory sub-agency, the Committee of Advertising Practices, and sections 57.2, 57.4b and 57.4c of their regulatory codes.
The ASA has been quite vigilant in adhering to these gaming codes. In addition to the ads from Partouche, the organization has also taken on Poker Stars, PKR, William Hill, InterCasino, Paddy Power Poker and Ladbrokes over differing violations of their codes over the past year. Even with these high profile violators, the ASA does report that there is a nearly 99% rate of compliance with the advertisements that they have reviewed.
The CAP codes were put into effect in September 2007 to hold online gaming and poker rooms to higher standards than others in the advertising industry. The most important of these edicts was the ability to ensure that advertising was socially responsible and protected vulnerable and young people. With the ASA and other agencies diligently policing the internet gaming and poker world, it does demonstrate the ability to have a safely regulated industry.
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Thursday, October 09, 2008
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Who's the girl in the $1m dress? - Stuff.co.uk - 8th October 2008
Security was on high alert at SkyCity Casino as all eyes stared at the girl in the $1 million dress.
The dress, modelled by Amber Peebles, was made out of 200 casino chips worth $5000 each, and required the MTV presenter to have her own security team following her around.
It was tailor-made to promote the inaugural SkyCity Festival of Poker, and had its first and only unveiling at the Lee Nelson and Brooke Howard-Smith Celebrity & Media Invitational poker tournament last night.
Peebles said she felt a little like celebrity socialite Paris Hilton when she put the dress on.
"When SkyCity first pitched me on the idea of the million dollar chip dress I thought it was very Paris Hilton," she said.
"But how many times does a girl get to wear a million bucks?
"When I saw the dress and how much trouble they’d gone to, I thought it looked really amazing."
The dress weighed more than two kilograms and last night was the only time it will be worn.
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Security was on high alert at SkyCity Casino as all eyes stared at the girl in the $1 million dress.
The dress, modelled by Amber Peebles, was made out of 200 casino chips worth $5000 each, and required the MTV presenter to have her own security team following her around.
It was tailor-made to promote the inaugural SkyCity Festival of Poker, and had its first and only unveiling at the Lee Nelson and Brooke Howard-Smith Celebrity & Media Invitational poker tournament last night.
Peebles said she felt a little like celebrity socialite Paris Hilton when she put the dress on.
"When SkyCity first pitched me on the idea of the million dollar chip dress I thought it was very Paris Hilton," she said.
"But how many times does a girl get to wear a million bucks?
"When I saw the dress and how much trouble they’d gone to, I thought it looked really amazing."
The dress weighed more than two kilograms and last night was the only time it will be worn.
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Poker and Casino News
2008 Aussie Millions Poker Championship
21-Year-Old Russian Young Gun Alexander Kostritsyn Crowned 2008 Aussie Millions Champion Melbourne, Australia Sunday 20 January 2008
The new king of poker was crowned this evening when, Alexander 'The Great' Kostritsyn won the No-Limit Texas Holdem ‘Main Event’ at the 2008 Aussie Millions Poker Championship held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino. He had to beat one of the toughest NL Hold'em tournament players in the world in Erik Seidel for the victory. Seidel walked away in second place with a cool AUD$1 Million.
Kostritsyn took home AUD$1.65 Million, the largest prize ever awarded in a live poker tournament in the Southern Hemisphere. 21-year-old Alexander Kostritsyn from Moscow, Russia was the youngest player and only European at the final table at 21, this Muscovite turned his attention to playing poker full-time as soon as he turned 18. His best tournament cash was third in the 2007 Russian Summer Poker Tournament (worth $8,900). He bought in directly to the Aussie Millions ‘Main Event’. He outlasted a record field of 780 players who anted up the AUD$10,000 buy-in for the ‘Main Event’, creating an unprecedented prize pool of AUD$7.80 Million.
The Main Event at Melbourne’s Crown Casino was the culmination of the 16 individual events, which this year generated more than AUD$10 Million in total prize money.
‘We congratulate Alexander Kostritsyn on his tremendous accomplishment,’ said Peter Mim, Executive General Manager of Table Games at Crown. ‘He played superb poker over a prolonged period against a record field that included virtually every top professional and hundreds of talented amateurs from Australia and around the world.’
Finishing third and collecting AUD$700,000 was Michael 'Mick the Greek' Chrisanthopoulos. Hailing from ‘Hachem territory’ in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, the 26-year-old brought a massive chip stack to the Final Table. Michael has been playing poker for three years, and recently won a qualified via a Crown $120 Satellite to enter into the Aussie Millions ‘Main Event’.
The remaining players at the final table were:
4th place: Peter Ling- $500,000
5th place: Nino Marotta- $400,000
6th place: Antonio Casale- $300,000
7th place: Peter Mobbs- $225,000
Following on from the enormous ratings success of the US screening of the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event, Crown and Fox Sports Net (FSN) will be partnering up for another year that will again see the Aussie Millions filmed for broadcast internationally from March 2007 as a 10 episode series with a reach of over 81 Million homes. A coup for Australian Poker, Crown’s collaboration with FSN further consolidates the prestige, recognition and credibility of the Aussie Millions, particularly in America, the home of Texas Holdem and a country that widely considers poker its national game.
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21-Year-Old Russian Young Gun Alexander Kostritsyn Crowned 2008 Aussie Millions Champion Melbourne, Australia Sunday 20 January 2008
The new king of poker was crowned this evening when, Alexander 'The Great' Kostritsyn won the No-Limit Texas Holdem ‘Main Event’ at the 2008 Aussie Millions Poker Championship held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino. He had to beat one of the toughest NL Hold'em tournament players in the world in Erik Seidel for the victory. Seidel walked away in second place with a cool AUD$1 Million.
Kostritsyn took home AUD$1.65 Million, the largest prize ever awarded in a live poker tournament in the Southern Hemisphere. 21-year-old Alexander Kostritsyn from Moscow, Russia was the youngest player and only European at the final table at 21, this Muscovite turned his attention to playing poker full-time as soon as he turned 18. His best tournament cash was third in the 2007 Russian Summer Poker Tournament (worth $8,900). He bought in directly to the Aussie Millions ‘Main Event’. He outlasted a record field of 780 players who anted up the AUD$10,000 buy-in for the ‘Main Event’, creating an unprecedented prize pool of AUD$7.80 Million.
The Main Event at Melbourne’s Crown Casino was the culmination of the 16 individual events, which this year generated more than AUD$10 Million in total prize money.
‘We congratulate Alexander Kostritsyn on his tremendous accomplishment,’ said Peter Mim, Executive General Manager of Table Games at Crown. ‘He played superb poker over a prolonged period against a record field that included virtually every top professional and hundreds of talented amateurs from Australia and around the world.’
Finishing third and collecting AUD$700,000 was Michael 'Mick the Greek' Chrisanthopoulos. Hailing from ‘Hachem territory’ in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, the 26-year-old brought a massive chip stack to the Final Table. Michael has been playing poker for three years, and recently won a qualified via a Crown $120 Satellite to enter into the Aussie Millions ‘Main Event’.
The remaining players at the final table were:
4th place: Peter Ling- $500,000
5th place: Nino Marotta- $400,000
6th place: Antonio Casale- $300,000
7th place: Peter Mobbs- $225,000
Following on from the enormous ratings success of the US screening of the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event, Crown and Fox Sports Net (FSN) will be partnering up for another year that will again see the Aussie Millions filmed for broadcast internationally from March 2007 as a 10 episode series with a reach of over 81 Million homes. A coup for Australian Poker, Crown’s collaboration with FSN further consolidates the prestige, recognition and credibility of the Aussie Millions, particularly in America, the home of Texas Holdem and a country that widely considers poker its national game.
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Celebrities chip up to the poker table, by Rachel Glucina - The New Zealand Herald - 8th October 2008
I almost didn't make it to SkyCity last night for the poker festival. I was running late from Newmarket in heavy traffic and pouring rain where I'd been hobnobbing at Kemp Rare Wines sipping the most expensive and exclusive wines from around the country. Yeah, ok, I'm bragging.
We finally got to SkyCity; parked in the maze they call a car park; ambled through the complex into the room where the celebrity festival was being played, when I got stopped by a security guard and harassed for ID. Apparently I looked too young to be in a casino. I'm thirty-five! I fished out my driver's licence, while Norrie, my pint-sized photographer was chortling with laughter. Finally, the guard ushered us through and into the room for the celebrity tournament.
(Here's some photos from last night's Festival of Poker at SkyCity.)
There were ten tables crammed full of well-known faces: Otis Frizzell and Dave Fane in fedoras were at the far table cavorting with horse racing couple Bridgette and Lance O'Sullivan; Aja Rock who was sporting some dramatic cleavage and a fascinator (maybe she thought she was at the races) was playing with Simon Doull; Neil "The Waka" Waka (what is it with Kiwi blokes and not-so-original nicknames?) was there looking like a poker ace donning a baseball cap and sunglasses - the only time you're legitimately allowed to wear shades inside, apparently - only he's not an ace. Nice bluff, Neil.
But Mike King is. He was on the same table as Nick D, Che Fu and Ali Williams, only unlike the awkward sports star, King looked like he knew what he was doing. He's a pro. He's won poker tournaments here and in Australia and has been playing the game for over 20 years. He looked the part last night, wearing dark sunnies and earphones so the chit chat around him wouldn't prove distracting. Not that he's opposed to the odd distracting tactic himself. "I pity anyone who sits at my table," King once said about the NZ Poker Championship at Christchurch Casino. "Whether I'm winning or losing, I'm constantly ribbing the other players - riding them like a horse." I didn't see much evidence of that last night. King was concentrating intently, and the only thing riding seemed to be his reputation. This was one celebrity competition Mikey couldn't afford to lose.
Ex-All Blacks AJ Whetton and Steve Devine were at another table; Auckland Blues flanker Daniel Braid (who's relocating to Queensland to play for the Reds) was at a table alongside - the same one Craig Parker, Phil Bostwick and Elemeno P's Dave Gibson were at.
Dean Lonergan admitted he didn't know how to play, though I suspect he wasn't alone. I'd heard from a poker tell-tale that Vicky-Lee, who was at the same table, had been up to 4am the previous morning learning the tricks of the trade, though if I was being honest, she didn't look like much of an apprentice. Perhaps, like King, she was opting instead for distracting tactics, if that's what you can call her not-so-subtle cleavage on display.
By contrast, Brooke McAlister (Luke's ex-wife) opted for the smart girl's guide to winning poker: sidling up to a professional by the name of Lee Nelson - the 2006 Aussie Millions Champion. It's no wonder, then, she's dumped the WAG role and moved into the entrepreneur arena and on to the arms of Eric Watson and Peter Huljich, respectively. Why expose your boobs, when a buddy in the business can be more helpful and less degrading?
Here's some photos from last night's Festival of Poker at SkyCity, but for all the piccies and a complete gossip rundown - including who won - check out Spy in the Herald on Sunday.
Rachel Glucina
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I almost didn't make it to SkyCity last night for the poker festival. I was running late from Newmarket in heavy traffic and pouring rain where I'd been hobnobbing at Kemp Rare Wines sipping the most expensive and exclusive wines from around the country. Yeah, ok, I'm bragging.
We finally got to SkyCity; parked in the maze they call a car park; ambled through the complex into the room where the celebrity festival was being played, when I got stopped by a security guard and harassed for ID. Apparently I looked too young to be in a casino. I'm thirty-five! I fished out my driver's licence, while Norrie, my pint-sized photographer was chortling with laughter. Finally, the guard ushered us through and into the room for the celebrity tournament.
(Here's some photos from last night's Festival of Poker at SkyCity.)
There were ten tables crammed full of well-known faces: Otis Frizzell and Dave Fane in fedoras were at the far table cavorting with horse racing couple Bridgette and Lance O'Sullivan; Aja Rock who was sporting some dramatic cleavage and a fascinator (maybe she thought she was at the races) was playing with Simon Doull; Neil "The Waka" Waka (what is it with Kiwi blokes and not-so-original nicknames?) was there looking like a poker ace donning a baseball cap and sunglasses - the only time you're legitimately allowed to wear shades inside, apparently - only he's not an ace. Nice bluff, Neil.
But Mike King is. He was on the same table as Nick D, Che Fu and Ali Williams, only unlike the awkward sports star, King looked like he knew what he was doing. He's a pro. He's won poker tournaments here and in Australia and has been playing the game for over 20 years. He looked the part last night, wearing dark sunnies and earphones so the chit chat around him wouldn't prove distracting. Not that he's opposed to the odd distracting tactic himself. "I pity anyone who sits at my table," King once said about the NZ Poker Championship at Christchurch Casino. "Whether I'm winning or losing, I'm constantly ribbing the other players - riding them like a horse." I didn't see much evidence of that last night. King was concentrating intently, and the only thing riding seemed to be his reputation. This was one celebrity competition Mikey couldn't afford to lose.
Ex-All Blacks AJ Whetton and Steve Devine were at another table; Auckland Blues flanker Daniel Braid (who's relocating to Queensland to play for the Reds) was at a table alongside - the same one Craig Parker, Phil Bostwick and Elemeno P's Dave Gibson were at.
Dean Lonergan admitted he didn't know how to play, though I suspect he wasn't alone. I'd heard from a poker tell-tale that Vicky-Lee, who was at the same table, had been up to 4am the previous morning learning the tricks of the trade, though if I was being honest, she didn't look like much of an apprentice. Perhaps, like King, she was opting instead for distracting tactics, if that's what you can call her not-so-subtle cleavage on display.
By contrast, Brooke McAlister (Luke's ex-wife) opted for the smart girl's guide to winning poker: sidling up to a professional by the name of Lee Nelson - the 2006 Aussie Millions Champion. It's no wonder, then, she's dumped the WAG role and moved into the entrepreneur arena and on to the arms of Eric Watson and Peter Huljich, respectively. Why expose your boobs, when a buddy in the business can be more helpful and less degrading?
Here's some photos from last night's Festival of Poker at SkyCity, but for all the piccies and a complete gossip rundown - including who won - check out Spy in the Herald on Sunday.
Rachel Glucina
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Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
Poker player plays cards right to go pro, by Neil White - The Times - 5th October 2008
An amateur who started playing two years ago joins the world’s elite after winning £81,000
Until recently, Chris Elliot delivered pizzas by night and played internet poker by day. But last week his life changed for ever when he won £81,000 after making the final table in Europe’s biggest tournament at the Empire casino in Leicester Square, London.
Elliot, 33, from Alloa, is living out the dream of the millions of hopefuls who play the game online. He started in a council flat bedroom and ended up a high roller playing against some of then biggest and most glamorous names in the game. Now he plans to go professional, travelling around the world’s top casinos with those elite players.
Elliot took up the card game two years ago to supplement his income. He was soon making more money playing poker than he had been delivering fast food to people in Clackmannanshire.
Then he put up £250 to enter an internet tournament that offered the chance to win a £10,000 ticket to the Betfair World Series of Poker Europe. From 1,200 entrants, he was one of 21 to end up, at 4am the next day, with a golden ticket.
In London he was one of 364 starters, including star players with the nicknames Kid Poker, The Devilfish and The Mouth. The casino was packed with players, spectators and the crew of the US sports broadcaster ESPN, which will televise edited coverage of the tournament later this year.
Elliot began playing last Sunday and had such low expectations of success in the five-day tournament that he failed to book accommodation in the capital beyond the following evening. So he found himself homeless on the streets of London at 4am on Tuesday, after his second 14-hour shift at the card tables and with his competitors falling by the wayside.
With his lone supporter, his cousin Scott Elliot, he jumped into a taxi and asked to be taken to a hotel for sleep before the game picked up at lunchtime the next day. “The driver was from another country and with that and my accent we didn’t really understand each other,” he recalls. “We ended up in the home of a Korean family who rented out their basement.”
After two hours’ sleep, he was back at the tables and with interest in the unknown Scot’s progress growing, Elliot battled through another day’s competition and found more comfortable lodgings.
By the end of Tuesday, the remaining players were guaranteed a cash prize of at least £34,000. By then he had played with some of the biggest names in poker and impressed them all. “This is my boy!” said Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, the three-times World Series of Poker champion, shaking Elliot by the shoulders. “I can’t win a hand against you,” said Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu, the leading money-winner on the world tour. Negreanu is famed for his ability to “read” his opponent’s behaviour at the table and decipher their cards from it. He was baffled by the Scotsman’s huge, tinted sunglasses.
“I bought them on the way to the casino on the first day,” said Elliot. “I thought if I looked at these guys during a hand I’d fall to pieces. With the glasses on they can’t see my eyes and they don’t know where I’m looking.”
By Wednesday the prize at stake was a place at the nine-man final table in front of a packed house and 14 cameras. Elliot was in danger of dropping out at the last. He bet all his chips in one hand and needed the dealer to show an ace or a king on the last card, or his tournament was over. The ace came, Elliot slammed his hand on the green felt table and yelled “That’s right! That’s right!” The casino erupted in support of a player they had adopted as the home favourite.
Elliot’s fortune was reversed at the final on Friday when he was knocked out in ninth position when his opponent got the card he needed at the last opportunity. “I had an 85% chance of winning the hand,” says Elliot. “That would have put me in a strong position to go even further and maybe even win it [the top prize with the tournament was more than £800,000]. They gave me a cheque for £81,000 though, a life-changing amount.”
In the world he is about to enter, leading players can earn millions. It’s as much a game of skill as luck. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, once a minor figure in the Hull underworld, has won more than £5m and is a former bracelet winner at the World Series in Las Vegas, the holy grail for professional players.
In the main event at the World Series, the winner gets £4.1m. Elliot plans to ring-fence some of his winnings so that he can go there next year. The event is a magnet for celebrities. He could well find himself playing with Hollywood stars such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Tily or Toby Maguire in one of Las Vegas’s famously raffish hotels.
For the world’s leading professionals it is a glamorous existence, but for the average plodder, poker can mean long hours at a computer screen or at best a trip to the local casino. Elliot has moved into a different league. He returned to his council flat on Friday with more money than he has ever known. He has also earned a seat at the same tournament in London for the next three years.
Elliot plans to play in a tournament in Blackpool next month. Then there is only one place to go — Las Vegas.
(Credit: The Times)
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An amateur who started playing two years ago joins the world’s elite after winning £81,000
Until recently, Chris Elliot delivered pizzas by night and played internet poker by day. But last week his life changed for ever when he won £81,000 after making the final table in Europe’s biggest tournament at the Empire casino in Leicester Square, London.
Elliot, 33, from Alloa, is living out the dream of the millions of hopefuls who play the game online. He started in a council flat bedroom and ended up a high roller playing against some of then biggest and most glamorous names in the game. Now he plans to go professional, travelling around the world’s top casinos with those elite players.
Elliot took up the card game two years ago to supplement his income. He was soon making more money playing poker than he had been delivering fast food to people in Clackmannanshire.
Then he put up £250 to enter an internet tournament that offered the chance to win a £10,000 ticket to the Betfair World Series of Poker Europe. From 1,200 entrants, he was one of 21 to end up, at 4am the next day, with a golden ticket.
In London he was one of 364 starters, including star players with the nicknames Kid Poker, The Devilfish and The Mouth. The casino was packed with players, spectators and the crew of the US sports broadcaster ESPN, which will televise edited coverage of the tournament later this year.
Elliot began playing last Sunday and had such low expectations of success in the five-day tournament that he failed to book accommodation in the capital beyond the following evening. So he found himself homeless on the streets of London at 4am on Tuesday, after his second 14-hour shift at the card tables and with his competitors falling by the wayside.
With his lone supporter, his cousin Scott Elliot, he jumped into a taxi and asked to be taken to a hotel for sleep before the game picked up at lunchtime the next day. “The driver was from another country and with that and my accent we didn’t really understand each other,” he recalls. “We ended up in the home of a Korean family who rented out their basement.”
After two hours’ sleep, he was back at the tables and with interest in the unknown Scot’s progress growing, Elliot battled through another day’s competition and found more comfortable lodgings.
By the end of Tuesday, the remaining players were guaranteed a cash prize of at least £34,000. By then he had played with some of the biggest names in poker and impressed them all. “This is my boy!” said Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, the three-times World Series of Poker champion, shaking Elliot by the shoulders. “I can’t win a hand against you,” said Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu, the leading money-winner on the world tour. Negreanu is famed for his ability to “read” his opponent’s behaviour at the table and decipher their cards from it. He was baffled by the Scotsman’s huge, tinted sunglasses.
“I bought them on the way to the casino on the first day,” said Elliot. “I thought if I looked at these guys during a hand I’d fall to pieces. With the glasses on they can’t see my eyes and they don’t know where I’m looking.”
By Wednesday the prize at stake was a place at the nine-man final table in front of a packed house and 14 cameras. Elliot was in danger of dropping out at the last. He bet all his chips in one hand and needed the dealer to show an ace or a king on the last card, or his tournament was over. The ace came, Elliot slammed his hand on the green felt table and yelled “That’s right! That’s right!” The casino erupted in support of a player they had adopted as the home favourite.
Elliot’s fortune was reversed at the final on Friday when he was knocked out in ninth position when his opponent got the card he needed at the last opportunity. “I had an 85% chance of winning the hand,” says Elliot. “That would have put me in a strong position to go even further and maybe even win it [the top prize with the tournament was more than £800,000]. They gave me a cheque for £81,000 though, a life-changing amount.”
In the world he is about to enter, leading players can earn millions. It’s as much a game of skill as luck. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, once a minor figure in the Hull underworld, has won more than £5m and is a former bracelet winner at the World Series in Las Vegas, the holy grail for professional players.
In the main event at the World Series, the winner gets £4.1m. Elliot plans to ring-fence some of his winnings so that he can go there next year. The event is a magnet for celebrities. He could well find himself playing with Hollywood stars such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Tily or Toby Maguire in one of Las Vegas’s famously raffish hotels.
For the world’s leading professionals it is a glamorous existence, but for the average plodder, poker can mean long hours at a computer screen or at best a trip to the local casino. Elliot has moved into a different league. He returned to his council flat on Friday with more money than he has ever known. He has also earned a seat at the same tournament in London for the next three years.
Elliot plans to play in a tournament in Blackpool next month. Then there is only one place to go — Las Vegas.
(Credit: The Times)
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Poker's a big deal, by Nicola Shepheard - The New Zealand Herald - 5th October 2008
Everyone has a poker face. Property marketer Kevin Clark's is introspective, verging on brooding. Publisher Martin Cardno's is stony, half-hidden by mirror-glasses.
TV presenter Brooke Howard-Smith talks a lot and calls his opponents "sweetheart" and "hotpants".
IT specialist Robert Wang grins and crows happily when he wins.
Their game on Thursday night at SkyCity is a friendly. But Cardno, 36, and Wang, 42, regularly play in tournaments overseas. They have an arrangement whereby one gets a percentage of the other's wins. This year, Cardno has played in 15 tournaments during eight trips and made $100,000 in winnings.
Kiwi professional players usually have to travel for the big money, but in the next four months New Zealand will host the two richest tournaments to be held here.
The first is a leg of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour at Auckland's SkyCity until next Sunday. It has an expected prize pool of $1m while the 2009 New Zealand championship, dubbed The Battle for Middle Earth, is at Christchurch Casino in January.
Buy-ins - the amount players have to put in the pot to join - are $3000 and $5000 respectively. Satellite tournaments played in casinos and pubs throughout the country give amateurs the chance to win a place at the big tournaments for free, or for under a $100 buy-in.
The coming-of-age for professional poker is the top end of a poker revival making exclamations like "I raised on the flop but there were too many overcards" normal conversation in many lounges and pubs throughout the country.
By some accounts, the international poker fever is three to five years more advanced in Australia, Europe and America, but we're catching on.
More than 750,000 Australians have played poker at least once in the previous 12 months, and about 450,000 who play poker (home game, casino, pub or club, online) at least once a week.
And 50m people in the United States play poker regularly.
There are no complete figures available here, but several thousand people play in the New Zealand Pub Poker League each week.
Lee Nelson, our resident celebrity poker professional, believes per capita our boom is well underway.
Nelson is co-commentator with Howard-Smith for the TV3 and C4 show, Celebrity Joker Poker. An affable American-born doctor now living in Nelson, his place in the poker firmament was assured in 2006 when he won the salubrious Aussie Millions, taking home $1.2 million.
He's written three poker books, including bestseller Kill Phil (apparently a surprising number of poker players are called Phil), and won about $2m in his poker career.
Nelson traces the revival to three elements: the advent of the "hold camera", which shows players' private hands on TV shows, enabling watchers to get inside the game; the online gaming explosion, allowing players to hone their skills at home at their own pace; and growing social acceptability.
Suddenly lawyers, accountants and teachers were organising social tournaments - at least one has been covertly staged on an Auckland university campus with the drinks supplied by a player who worked at a major brewery. Students were putting themselves through university with online poker winnings.
Esoteric strategies were laid out for the masses in a new how-to literature, and discussed in terrifying detail in internet forums. Extreme Poker tournaments were played on platforms 30 storeys above the ocean and in scuba gear under the ocean. Last year, 18-year-old Norwegian Annette Obrestad won a European championship, giving the game a poster-girl-next-door. Poker was no longer the sole domain of flinty cowboy-types amid smoke in back rooms.
Says Nelson, "Poker went from the back room to the front room."
The big guns playing in the New Zealand tournaments include the improbably named accountant-turned-poker pro, Chris Moneymaker (reports claim it's the name he was christened).
Moneymaker's David and Goliath ascent is legendary. Like Obrestad, he started by playing internet poker in his spare time.
In 2003, he entered an online competition for $59, and won his way up the tournament ladder to a major live event in Las Vegas, finally winning $3.8m
The adrenalin-shot this delivered to online poker has been dubbed the Moneymaker Effect.
Its products include Kiwi accountant Justin Eggleton, 25, whose poker winning helped fund his studies.
"Online poker was a great way to take my mind off law school, while also helping to get out of overdraft and give me a bit of much-needed beer money. I was also able to get on a few hot streaks during my holidays that helped pay for a couple of overseas trips."
He usually plays four to six virtual tables simultaneously (some players have upwards of 20 tables on the go at once) and has won thousands of dollars over the years.
The majority of tables have cheap buy-ins of less than $50, but some online players claim to make six-figure incomes.
According to one American forecaster, the worldwide online game market could grow from $5.1 billion in 2005 to more than $19.6b in 2011.
Of course, most players - an estimated 98 per cent - will lose money. The online juggernaut, which has brought card games to a younger generation, has raised concerns about problem gambling.
Studies suggest about one in five Australian high school students gamble on card games.
British researcher Professor Mark Griffiths has drawn attention to online gambling's fish hooks.
For most gamblers electronic, or e-cash, will be easier to part with than real cash; the internet offers unlimited access and anonymity; and free games have been shown to offer higher odds of winning than paid ones.
David Boom, of the Problem Gambling Foundation, says the online boom is part of a slew of new gambling options that is normalising gambling.
"That's feeding into hardcore problem gambling."
He says there's no compulsion for host responsibility measures on websites, let alone in people's private lounges.
But players at the Horse & Trap in Mt Eden, Auckland, on Thursday night defend the game.
One, a landscape gardener who declined to give her name, says she has friends who use poker as a substitute for other forms of gambling that got them into trouble.
Richard Maui, 33, says players can easily get a poker fix for free online, or by joining a pub league.
The call centre worker won a place in the SkyCity tournament through free pub league satellites.
This week, he could be pitted against an international champion poker player. "I'm as nervous as anything," he grins.
"But since it wasn't any money of mine, I'm quite happy.
"It's basically a roller coaster."
The poker fascination goes well beyond money. Adherents speak with something approaching reverence of the stamina and mental rigour required for poker.
"You need a renaissance personality," says Alistair Bone, a radio journalist and serious poker hobbyist.
You need maths to mentally calculate changing odds.
Players also need patience and aggression, and the instinct to know when to use each.
"Ninety per cent of top players will have a blank look, ready to change into any personality," says Bone. "They're just kind of empty."
"There's a fine line between a maniac at the poker table and a champion," says Lee Nelson.
"The difference is the champion knows when to take his foot off the accelerator, he's got a sixth sense. Whereas the maniac doesn't know when to stop."
Any given game is about 25 per cent luck, he says, but on a long-term basis luck contributes far less.
Poker's status as a sport has been questioned because of its luck element, but Nelson contends just as much luck is at play in other sports.
He also argues the stamina required for 15-hour days during the three-day main events qualifies poker as an endurance sport.
Poker has its lexicon of jargon. There are tells - giveaway mannerisms that alert other players to the strength of individual hands. Nelson outlines common beginner tells as looking at chips when dealt a strong hand and staring at the fold cards when holding a weak hand.
There are tight aggressive and loose aggressive players. Tight aggressives don't play many hands but when they do, they play them boldly and seldom bluff. Loose aggressives play many hands and are unpredictable.
Deb Merito, of Christchurch, is second on the New Zealand pub leaderboard and considers himself a slow player.
"When I've got a full house I let everybody else do the raising until it gets to the river [final card dealt] and I let them bet and then re-raise. I sucker them in."
The mother and business development manager plays four times a week.
"It's a time where you can lie, cheat, bullshit, bluff, be honest, do whatever you want and it's okay."
She likes the social aspect of pub poker. Her husband, Victor, also ranks high on the leaderboard.
"Vic's just as competitive as I am. We made a golden rule if we get on to each other's table, he's no different to the next person. We're going to take each other out."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Poker
New Zealand
Poker and Casino News
Casino News Media
Everyone has a poker face. Property marketer Kevin Clark's is introspective, verging on brooding. Publisher Martin Cardno's is stony, half-hidden by mirror-glasses.
TV presenter Brooke Howard-Smith talks a lot and calls his opponents "sweetheart" and "hotpants".
IT specialist Robert Wang grins and crows happily when he wins.
Their game on Thursday night at SkyCity is a friendly. But Cardno, 36, and Wang, 42, regularly play in tournaments overseas. They have an arrangement whereby one gets a percentage of the other's wins. This year, Cardno has played in 15 tournaments during eight trips and made $100,000 in winnings.
Kiwi professional players usually have to travel for the big money, but in the next four months New Zealand will host the two richest tournaments to be held here.
The first is a leg of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour at Auckland's SkyCity until next Sunday. It has an expected prize pool of $1m while the 2009 New Zealand championship, dubbed The Battle for Middle Earth, is at Christchurch Casino in January.
Buy-ins - the amount players have to put in the pot to join - are $3000 and $5000 respectively. Satellite tournaments played in casinos and pubs throughout the country give amateurs the chance to win a place at the big tournaments for free, or for under a $100 buy-in.
The coming-of-age for professional poker is the top end of a poker revival making exclamations like "I raised on the flop but there were too many overcards" normal conversation in many lounges and pubs throughout the country.
By some accounts, the international poker fever is three to five years more advanced in Australia, Europe and America, but we're catching on.
More than 750,000 Australians have played poker at least once in the previous 12 months, and about 450,000 who play poker (home game, casino, pub or club, online) at least once a week.
And 50m people in the United States play poker regularly.
There are no complete figures available here, but several thousand people play in the New Zealand Pub Poker League each week.
Lee Nelson, our resident celebrity poker professional, believes per capita our boom is well underway.
Nelson is co-commentator with Howard-Smith for the TV3 and C4 show, Celebrity Joker Poker. An affable American-born doctor now living in Nelson, his place in the poker firmament was assured in 2006 when he won the salubrious Aussie Millions, taking home $1.2 million.
He's written three poker books, including bestseller Kill Phil (apparently a surprising number of poker players are called Phil), and won about $2m in his poker career.
Nelson traces the revival to three elements: the advent of the "hold camera", which shows players' private hands on TV shows, enabling watchers to get inside the game; the online gaming explosion, allowing players to hone their skills at home at their own pace; and growing social acceptability.
Suddenly lawyers, accountants and teachers were organising social tournaments - at least one has been covertly staged on an Auckland university campus with the drinks supplied by a player who worked at a major brewery. Students were putting themselves through university with online poker winnings.
Esoteric strategies were laid out for the masses in a new how-to literature, and discussed in terrifying detail in internet forums. Extreme Poker tournaments were played on platforms 30 storeys above the ocean and in scuba gear under the ocean. Last year, 18-year-old Norwegian Annette Obrestad won a European championship, giving the game a poster-girl-next-door. Poker was no longer the sole domain of flinty cowboy-types amid smoke in back rooms.
Says Nelson, "Poker went from the back room to the front room."
The big guns playing in the New Zealand tournaments include the improbably named accountant-turned-poker pro, Chris Moneymaker (reports claim it's the name he was christened).
Moneymaker's David and Goliath ascent is legendary. Like Obrestad, he started by playing internet poker in his spare time.
In 2003, he entered an online competition for $59, and won his way up the tournament ladder to a major live event in Las Vegas, finally winning $3.8m
The adrenalin-shot this delivered to online poker has been dubbed the Moneymaker Effect.
Its products include Kiwi accountant Justin Eggleton, 25, whose poker winning helped fund his studies.
"Online poker was a great way to take my mind off law school, while also helping to get out of overdraft and give me a bit of much-needed beer money. I was also able to get on a few hot streaks during my holidays that helped pay for a couple of overseas trips."
He usually plays four to six virtual tables simultaneously (some players have upwards of 20 tables on the go at once) and has won thousands of dollars over the years.
The majority of tables have cheap buy-ins of less than $50, but some online players claim to make six-figure incomes.
According to one American forecaster, the worldwide online game market could grow from $5.1 billion in 2005 to more than $19.6b in 2011.
Of course, most players - an estimated 98 per cent - will lose money. The online juggernaut, which has brought card games to a younger generation, has raised concerns about problem gambling.
Studies suggest about one in five Australian high school students gamble on card games.
British researcher Professor Mark Griffiths has drawn attention to online gambling's fish hooks.
For most gamblers electronic, or e-cash, will be easier to part with than real cash; the internet offers unlimited access and anonymity; and free games have been shown to offer higher odds of winning than paid ones.
David Boom, of the Problem Gambling Foundation, says the online boom is part of a slew of new gambling options that is normalising gambling.
"That's feeding into hardcore problem gambling."
He says there's no compulsion for host responsibility measures on websites, let alone in people's private lounges.
But players at the Horse & Trap in Mt Eden, Auckland, on Thursday night defend the game.
One, a landscape gardener who declined to give her name, says she has friends who use poker as a substitute for other forms of gambling that got them into trouble.
Richard Maui, 33, says players can easily get a poker fix for free online, or by joining a pub league.
The call centre worker won a place in the SkyCity tournament through free pub league satellites.
This week, he could be pitted against an international champion poker player. "I'm as nervous as anything," he grins.
"But since it wasn't any money of mine, I'm quite happy.
"It's basically a roller coaster."
The poker fascination goes well beyond money. Adherents speak with something approaching reverence of the stamina and mental rigour required for poker.
"You need a renaissance personality," says Alistair Bone, a radio journalist and serious poker hobbyist.
You need maths to mentally calculate changing odds.
Players also need patience and aggression, and the instinct to know when to use each.
"Ninety per cent of top players will have a blank look, ready to change into any personality," says Bone. "They're just kind of empty."
"There's a fine line between a maniac at the poker table and a champion," says Lee Nelson.
"The difference is the champion knows when to take his foot off the accelerator, he's got a sixth sense. Whereas the maniac doesn't know when to stop."
Any given game is about 25 per cent luck, he says, but on a long-term basis luck contributes far less.
Poker's status as a sport has been questioned because of its luck element, but Nelson contends just as much luck is at play in other sports.
He also argues the stamina required for 15-hour days during the three-day main events qualifies poker as an endurance sport.
Poker has its lexicon of jargon. There are tells - giveaway mannerisms that alert other players to the strength of individual hands. Nelson outlines common beginner tells as looking at chips when dealt a strong hand and staring at the fold cards when holding a weak hand.
There are tight aggressive and loose aggressive players. Tight aggressives don't play many hands but when they do, they play them boldly and seldom bluff. Loose aggressives play many hands and are unpredictable.
Deb Merito, of Christchurch, is second on the New Zealand pub leaderboard and considers himself a slow player.
"When I've got a full house I let everybody else do the raising until it gets to the river [final card dealt] and I let them bet and then re-raise. I sucker them in."
The mother and business development manager plays four times a week.
"It's a time where you can lie, cheat, bullshit, bluff, be honest, do whatever you want and it's okay."
She likes the social aspect of pub poker. Her husband, Victor, also ranks high on the leaderboard.
"Vic's just as competitive as I am. We made a golden rule if we get on to each other's table, he's no different to the next person. We're going to take each other out."
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Sunday, October 05, 2008
Hawks claim $2m pokies revenue as community benefit, by Melissa Fyfe - The Age - 5th October 2008
Cashed-up premiership team Hawthorn has paid itself almost $2 million in revenue from its poker machine club - and then claimed it as a community benefit.
The triumphant Hawks - along with other AFL clubs that own poker machine venues - have been exploiting a legislative loophole that allows them to claim a smorgasbord of venue expenses and running costs as community benefits.
In total, Hawthorn claimed that last financial year it pumped $3.3 million of revenue from its poker machine venue, Vegas at Waverley Gardens, back into the community. However, analysis of the payments shows only $3058 - or 0.1% - was for genuine community gifts or sponsorships unrelated to running the business.
The extent to which Hawthorn has manipulated its ethical obligations to the community as an owner of a poker machine venue was revealed last week when it lodged its community benefit statement with Victoria's gambling regulator.
The $1.9 million payment, to "subsidise football operations", was listed as a community benefit. It is all the more curious as records show that Hawthorn made no such claim last year.
A spokesman for the Hawthorn Football Club said the club was busy conducting its Best and Fairest yesterday and declined to comment.
The club - which also claimed the community had benefited from the purchase of nine televisions and monitors and a calculator - has come under fire from anti-gambling groups after winning approval in July to operate 80 poker machines in the economically repressed Caroline Springs, in Melbourne's west.
A Monash University analysis of community benefit statements lodged by the AFL clubs that own gambling venues found they contributed $15.6 million to the community last financial year. But only 4.1% of claims were for genuine charitable or benevolent purposes, the rest was for ongoing costs of venues such as wages, electricity, cleaning, rent and repairs.
Dr Charles Livingstone, a senior lecturer at Monash University's department of health science, said his analysis showed the clubs that run pokies venues - including Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, the Western Bulldogs, Geelong, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond and St Kilda - had "significantly overstated" the actual benefits to the community from poker machine earnings.
A lack of transparency made it difficult to tell how much money was going to clubs as a so-called community benefit. "Once you look beyond the facade, the whole thing is a sham," he said.
Dr Livingstone said Hawthorn's large subsidy disclosure was perhaps the result of the premiership team being more honest than other clubs, but, he added, it "could explain why Hawthorn have come so good so fast".
"They've got a stream of money coming straight into the club," he said. "The successful clubs are the ones that get their on-field as well as their business side together. They are the ones that can afford to pay their players well and employ good coaching staff.
"The club that has got more money for these things will end up going better."
Under the law, poker machine venues run in pubs and hotels are charged a community benefit tax of 8.3% of gambling revenue, but as club venues - including those run by AFL clubs and RSLs - are seen as operating for community benefit anyway, they must simply declare each year how 8.3% of their revenue is spent on benefiting the community.
The AFL-run pokies venues are not alone in using legal loopholes to claim ongoing business expenses, but anti-gambling groups believe payments to large football clubs do not constitute real community benefit.
In the clubs' community benefit statements lodged last week with the Victorian Commissioner for Gambling Regulation, the Western Bulldogs - which is pushing to open a large pokies venue in Maribyrnong - claimed $10,636 for player appearances at Club Leeds, then another $13,051 for player appearances at the Vic Inn, Williamstown.
Geelong claimed $8219 for a new interchange bench, $9029 for the football department and $121,964 for "maintaining football team". Melbourne claimed $12,408 for promotional liquor as a community benefit. North Melbourne claimed a "poker subsidy" of $5930 and St Kilda claimed $9193 for players' equipment.
The community benefit statements also showed the AFL clubs - and clubs generally - were continuing to pour large amounts of money into outdoor smoking areas. Carlton claimed $31,729 for a smoking room, while Collingwood claimed $32,861 for renovation of an outside smoking area.
Neither Collingwood nor the Western Bulldogs would comment on the scheme when contacted by The Sunday Age.
Michael Sinclair, a spokesman for Gaming Minister Tony Robinson, said the State Government was warning clubs that they would have to pay a higher taxation rate and could ultimately lose their gaming machines if they failed to satisfy community benefit obligations.
But the Opposition accused the Government of sitting on its hands while 12 months of "sometimes questionable" community benefits found their way through the loophole Labor had provided.
"Every questionable claim reduces funding to genuinely benefit the community," shadow gaming spokesman Michael O'Brien said.
InterChurch Gambling Taskforce chairman Mark Zirnsak said he acknowledged there was some community benefit funding sport, but big AFL clubs had moved away from their communities and had come to rely on gambling revenue as an income source.
"They have a concerning disregard for the harm done in these communities - people are losing their jobs, marriages are breaking up and people are turning to crime to fund their gambling addiction. The clubs don't seem to see this," he said.
Victorians lost a record $2.6 billion on poker machines last financial year. The new regulations, which tighten the community benefit categories but still allow venues to claim some ongoing costs and wages, apply this financial year.
Where the money went
Carlton: $299,046 for rent of bistro, dining and function room.
Collingwood: $32,861 for renovation of smoking area; $216,550 for rent.
Essendon: Gift to "sport" of $143,723; discounted meals $118,461; drinks $39,572; heating and lighting $45,749.
Western Bulldogs: Football - direct costs $52,768; "culture" $42,727; player appearances $13,051.
Geelong: New grandstand $18,673; new interchange bench $8279; football department $9029; maintaining football team $121,964.
Hawthorn: Subsidising football operations $1,905,183; electricity $28,253; property rental $212,637; flat screen TVs $584, $348, $839.
Melbourne: Promo liquor $12,408; repairs and maintenance $17,289; cleaning $33,557; property rental $252,958.
North Melbourne: Poker subsidy $5930; rental $2600.
Richmond: Contribution to RFC $318,590; electricity $17,998; cleaning $20,562; property rental $203,145.
St Kilda: Sport sponsorship $163,411; player's equipment
Community Benefit Statements can be downloaded from www.vcgr.vic.gov.au
(Credit: The Age)
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Cashed-up premiership team Hawthorn has paid itself almost $2 million in revenue from its poker machine club - and then claimed it as a community benefit.
The triumphant Hawks - along with other AFL clubs that own poker machine venues - have been exploiting a legislative loophole that allows them to claim a smorgasbord of venue expenses and running costs as community benefits.
In total, Hawthorn claimed that last financial year it pumped $3.3 million of revenue from its poker machine venue, Vegas at Waverley Gardens, back into the community. However, analysis of the payments shows only $3058 - or 0.1% - was for genuine community gifts or sponsorships unrelated to running the business.
The extent to which Hawthorn has manipulated its ethical obligations to the community as an owner of a poker machine venue was revealed last week when it lodged its community benefit statement with Victoria's gambling regulator.
The $1.9 million payment, to "subsidise football operations", was listed as a community benefit. It is all the more curious as records show that Hawthorn made no such claim last year.
A spokesman for the Hawthorn Football Club said the club was busy conducting its Best and Fairest yesterday and declined to comment.
The club - which also claimed the community had benefited from the purchase of nine televisions and monitors and a calculator - has come under fire from anti-gambling groups after winning approval in July to operate 80 poker machines in the economically repressed Caroline Springs, in Melbourne's west.
A Monash University analysis of community benefit statements lodged by the AFL clubs that own gambling venues found they contributed $15.6 million to the community last financial year. But only 4.1% of claims were for genuine charitable or benevolent purposes, the rest was for ongoing costs of venues such as wages, electricity, cleaning, rent and repairs.
Dr Charles Livingstone, a senior lecturer at Monash University's department of health science, said his analysis showed the clubs that run pokies venues - including Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, the Western Bulldogs, Geelong, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond and St Kilda - had "significantly overstated" the actual benefits to the community from poker machine earnings.
A lack of transparency made it difficult to tell how much money was going to clubs as a so-called community benefit. "Once you look beyond the facade, the whole thing is a sham," he said.
Dr Livingstone said Hawthorn's large subsidy disclosure was perhaps the result of the premiership team being more honest than other clubs, but, he added, it "could explain why Hawthorn have come so good so fast".
"They've got a stream of money coming straight into the club," he said. "The successful clubs are the ones that get their on-field as well as their business side together. They are the ones that can afford to pay their players well and employ good coaching staff.
"The club that has got more money for these things will end up going better."
Under the law, poker machine venues run in pubs and hotels are charged a community benefit tax of 8.3% of gambling revenue, but as club venues - including those run by AFL clubs and RSLs - are seen as operating for community benefit anyway, they must simply declare each year how 8.3% of their revenue is spent on benefiting the community.
The AFL-run pokies venues are not alone in using legal loopholes to claim ongoing business expenses, but anti-gambling groups believe payments to large football clubs do not constitute real community benefit.
In the clubs' community benefit statements lodged last week with the Victorian Commissioner for Gambling Regulation, the Western Bulldogs - which is pushing to open a large pokies venue in Maribyrnong - claimed $10,636 for player appearances at Club Leeds, then another $13,051 for player appearances at the Vic Inn, Williamstown.
Geelong claimed $8219 for a new interchange bench, $9029 for the football department and $121,964 for "maintaining football team". Melbourne claimed $12,408 for promotional liquor as a community benefit. North Melbourne claimed a "poker subsidy" of $5930 and St Kilda claimed $9193 for players' equipment.
The community benefit statements also showed the AFL clubs - and clubs generally - were continuing to pour large amounts of money into outdoor smoking areas. Carlton claimed $31,729 for a smoking room, while Collingwood claimed $32,861 for renovation of an outside smoking area.
Neither Collingwood nor the Western Bulldogs would comment on the scheme when contacted by The Sunday Age.
Michael Sinclair, a spokesman for Gaming Minister Tony Robinson, said the State Government was warning clubs that they would have to pay a higher taxation rate and could ultimately lose their gaming machines if they failed to satisfy community benefit obligations.
But the Opposition accused the Government of sitting on its hands while 12 months of "sometimes questionable" community benefits found their way through the loophole Labor had provided.
"Every questionable claim reduces funding to genuinely benefit the community," shadow gaming spokesman Michael O'Brien said.
InterChurch Gambling Taskforce chairman Mark Zirnsak said he acknowledged there was some community benefit funding sport, but big AFL clubs had moved away from their communities and had come to rely on gambling revenue as an income source.
"They have a concerning disregard for the harm done in these communities - people are losing their jobs, marriages are breaking up and people are turning to crime to fund their gambling addiction. The clubs don't seem to see this," he said.
Victorians lost a record $2.6 billion on poker machines last financial year. The new regulations, which tighten the community benefit categories but still allow venues to claim some ongoing costs and wages, apply this financial year.
Where the money went
Carlton: $299,046 for rent of bistro, dining and function room.
Collingwood: $32,861 for renovation of smoking area; $216,550 for rent.
Essendon: Gift to "sport" of $143,723; discounted meals $118,461; drinks $39,572; heating and lighting $45,749.
Western Bulldogs: Football - direct costs $52,768; "culture" $42,727; player appearances $13,051.
Geelong: New grandstand $18,673; new interchange bench $8279; football department $9029; maintaining football team $121,964.
Hawthorn: Subsidising football operations $1,905,183; electricity $28,253; property rental $212,637; flat screen TVs $584, $348, $839.
Melbourne: Promo liquor $12,408; repairs and maintenance $17,289; cleaning $33,557; property rental $252,958.
North Melbourne: Poker subsidy $5930; rental $2600.
Richmond: Contribution to RFC $318,590; electricity $17,998; cleaning $20,562; property rental $203,145.
St Kilda: Sport sponsorship $163,411; player's equipment
Community Benefit Statements can be downloaded from www.vcgr.vic.gov.au
(Credit: The Age)
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