Poker515

The news of a 22 year old college student winning the World Series of Poker has created a great buzz among the poker lovers. This guy from Denmark named Peter Eastgate has bagged $9.15 million cash prize in this poker tournament. He is also the youngest of all the champions of this tournament.

He won this money by defeating 27-year-old card player Ivan Demidov. When Demidov had pairs of twos and fours in hand, Eastgate declared his all-in bet. Before Eastgate, it was Phil Hellmuth who was the winner of the first of his 11 tournament titles in 1989. He was only 24 years old at that time.

Eastgate started of with trying his hands into poker about two and a half years back. He initially played no-limit Texas Hold ‘em. He found the game interesting and was also determined that he can make it someday. He began with the lowest stakes and succeeded in making up for a reasonable bankroll.

He is planning to go on a vacation with his family members. After winning the cash prize, he enjoyed the night with some of his friends at Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino that is reserved for all the well known gamblers of the city. He has said to the press that he does not want to get back to college but will look for better opportunities to make money out of the game.

Eastgate has been awarded with a gold bracelet apart from the cash prize. He said that he would have been happy if he could have made it to just top-five. However, he had a feeling that he can easily turn the table on his side by defeating a few players in the final table.

After eliminating five players including Demidov, Eastgate made it to the final. Demidov took away a cash prize of $5.8 million. Though he lost the match, but he is still happy about it. He has said that he needs to improve in the future. He has plans to play more live tournaments and also expects that this will encourage poker game in Russia.

Hellmuth made a call to Eastgate to wish luck to him. The latter is very happy as he has been able to beat Hellmuth.

Tags: News Poker, Poker bonus, poker room reviews, poker strategy

Right after an appearance at NCAA Tournament, Portland State Men’s basketball team has fastened its shoe lace and is all ready to host the third annual Texas Hold’Em Poker Tournament at Stott Center, on November 7.

This gorgeous event for people of 21 years and above will show up its face at 6 p.m. The registration will followed by light delightful social moments perked up with food and drinks.

Texas Hold ‘Em tournament will see a curtain raise of its lined up games at 7 p.m. It’s not only poker that will pull the eyeballs towards the event, but also games like roulette, blackjack and craps.

The main motto behind the event is to raise fund and help the Vikings to travel to Europe and compete in a tournament, which has been a long borne dream of coach Ken Bone.

This money will be of great help for their first tournament outside U.S, as they experienced last visit outside the country in 2004, competing in Puerto Rico.

“The NCAA regulation for a team to compete outside the country is every four years, and it has been nearly five years since our last trip,”

Visitors who will shed $100 for registration will win an attractive package of an equal amount of poker chips, a wide array of hors d’oeuvres and two complimentary drinks. Tournament players will also be greeted with complimentary drinks.

Besides playing at the ruling event of the evening, poker, people will also get a chance to win luring prizes like cruise on the Portland Spirit, a spa tour, party packages at The Cheerful Tortoise, and packages for vacation homes at Sun River resort.

An indeed reason for the Basket ball lovers to rejoice is that they can win signed sport jerseys, balls from Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy and former Portland State star Ime Udoka.

Dark Horse Comics, the publisher of popular Sin City, The 300 and Hell Boy, is the sponsoring body of this much talked about poker tournament.

“It’s going to be a terrific night,” Jamie Anderson, planner of the event said, “It’s also a great chance to have some fun and support the team.”

Tags: News Poker

Today, Malta Poker Events announced its plan to organize a poker event and a gaming expo in April 2009. The Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta will host the events, scheduled for April 18 and 19. These weekend seminars are targeted towards poker players as well as gaming operators.

The poker seminar will cater to those poker players who dream of earning good money out of their passionate leisure game. Gaming Expo will also take place at the same venue, aiming towards the gaming operators, service providers and third parties to provide them with essential direction towards more effective contribution to the industry. Undoubtedly, this venue has been selected because of its royal stature and its ability to provide all the modern amenities required to make such events successful.

The poker seminar is expected to pull in poker players with different skill sets, who aspire to better their poker skills. It will be a great opportunity for the newbies to share the poker table with professionals.

The seminar will encompass a wide range of gaming aspects like, live and online games, strategies, studying the opponents, best utilization of information gathered and responsible gaming. Most interestingly this seminar will be followed by a free-roll, enabling seminar attendees to test their newly acquired poker skills against the players at different skill levels.

“The game of poker has picked up significantly on the Maltese Islands, and, considering that locally this area has not been explored at an educational level, we have decided to offer a dedicated event aimed directly at players,” said spokespersons Mark Cassar and Etienne Licari.

Gaming Expo will be an outstanding opportunity for the iGaming community to network, discuss market controllers and reach the conclusions concerning how to serve the industry in a better way.

Exhibition stands reared up by the iGaming operators and service providers at the mammoth Infermeria hall will witness interaction between visitors, speakers, key industry leaders and potential business partners. This will also be the ground for speakers and exhibitors to share their expertise with poker beginners.

Malta Poker Events was formed with an objective of assembling the entire poker industry together and enhancing the quality of poker community.

Tags: News Poker

These days every piece of news is filled with one or more news of falling share prices, and every quarterly result reflects the sentiment of the economy and the effect of various restrictions, but this news will confirm the speculation and will broaden the smile of the Aussie casinos. The casinos in Victoria,Australia made $4.8 billion in last one year.

Victoria has 520 licensed gambling venues and 27,000 poker machines installed within its region and this number does not include Crown Casino, the company that has recently undertaken a $140 million renovation plan of its casino facilities. (Click here to read the complete story).

According to a report by the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation, the biggest drawers were the poker machines installed in pubs and clubs. In total they shoveled in $2.6 billion, while Crown Casino grabbed the rest through lotteries and wagering.

This surge in revenue left the Australian anti-gambling quarters stunned. They see this rising as a problem rather than the solution. This group feels the government is relying heavily on the taxes, the government collects from the gambling units, and the government’s dependence on this source of income will become worse if the economy keeps falling.

The gambling business has added $1.6 billion to the state’s treasury in the last one year, which is $36 million higher than the previous year’s collection, where there was a loss of $85 million.

“Labor is now so dependent on gambling to fund basic services that its gaming tax collections are around the same as Victoria Police’s annual budget,” said Michael O’Brien, the opposition’s gaming spokesman.

The issue of problem gambler was also raised by the opposition, when this Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation report was presented in the Victorian state parliament today.

In a reply to the allegations from different quarters, Health Minister Daniel Andrews remarked the government had already granted $130 million to help people with gambling problems.

He further added, “For the vast majority of people gambling is a legitimate recreational activity but there are some in our community who do have a problem and our job is to properly support them.”

Tags: Gambling News

The 56th presidential election of the United States is at a distance of mere ten days and the casino industry’s movers and shakers are polarizing around Sen. John McCain.

In the United States, this sector adds around $85 billion a year to the US economy. The casino industry is no more just about rotating roulette wheel or betting poker chips.

Every year, around 36 million Americans head towards Las Vegas to try their luck and make some quick money.

Everyone seems to have a gambling interest, but the scene changes when election approaches. This pseudo-morality of the US politicians is known to the honchos of casino industry.

This time, they are geared up to safeguard the industry’s interest and thus backing John McCain in Nevada, a key battleground state, with all their might.

A handful of people, who run the gambling industry are using their collective weight to push Sen. McCain as forward as their strengths permit.

These gambling-rulers organized a fund-raising event in the Southern Highlands Golf Club of Las Vegas.

A donation of $10,000 gave donors an access to a VIP reception with McCain while $33,000 brought along more exclusive reception.

The casino heavyweights involved in the exercise included, longtime Democrat Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands, Sands CEO William Weidne and Terrence Lanni, CEO and chairperson of MGM Mirage who is also the co-chairman of the fund-raising team.

McCain, a womb-to-tomb gambler, had been instrumental in transforming abeyant Indian gambling business into $26billion-a-year titan.

Steven Light, a leading Indian gambling expert and professor at the University of North Dakota, gave McCain the title of “One of the founding fathers of the Indian gaming,” for his efforts on resuscitating the Indian gaming industry.

John McCain was not always kind to the gambling business, but a failed campaign in 2001 had a heart-changing effect on him. After the debacle he said, “This is all about money! This is all about $10 million in campaign contributions by the gambling industry.”

In bettering its odds, the casino industry is not betting on Sen. John McCain alone. The wife of Steven Wynn donated around $100,000 to the campaign of Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate.

This might work as an Insurance against dealer’s (Obama) ace.

Tags: Gambling News

Despite being a Big Daddy in poker, Chicago went wide-eyed seeing the biggest ever World Series of Poker circuit tournament in the state.

This event kicks off today at Horseshoe Hammond in Indiana and will keep Chicago busy till November 2. 6,500 to 7,500 participants are expected in the event.

This king-size tournament will take place in the property’s entertainment center, the Venue. Seventy-eight poker tables have been shipped from Las Vegas especially to arrange the 13 events.

Rick Mazer, Indiana regional president and general manager of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. opines, “The World Series of poker is, without question, the single most prestigious gaming event anywhere, and we’re thrilled to bring all the excitement of the tournament to our customers in the Chicago land area.”

To participate in the no-limit Hold’em Poker starting October 31, a buy-in of $5,000 is required, which in no way is a meager amount.

November 02 will witness the final table of Horseshoe’s main event.

A One can also participate in today’s two-day no-limit Hold’em poker tournament with a $345 buy-in.

Besides this, $120 buy-in “turbo” tournaments will be staged everyday from 9 P.M. onward. One-day ladies event with $235 buy-in will take place on Sunday at 3 P.M.

Beside an attractive cash prize, the winner will also win a $10,000 worth seat in the World Series of Poker main event to be held at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino of Las Vegas in 2009.

The winner of each numbered events of the championship will take home a championship ring, and the winner of the ladies event will secure a World Series of Poker Pendant.

Jason Newman, Horseshoe poker room manager is the name behind this big-scale endeavor.

Lebron, the director of table games expresses his gratitude towards Jason Newman with the words, “We’re very fortunate to have Jason. He comes…with a wealth of knowledge, not only in poker but with the World Series of Poker as well. Jason has reached out to a team which travels with circuit events throughout the country….which - coupled with our staff - will provide a great experience for our customers.”

Tags: News Poker

Now, to play Poker all you need is a MySpace account.

MySpace, a social networking site, has signed a deal with WPT Enterprises, owner of World Poker Tour, to bring the fun and competitiveness of poker to MySpace members.

The companies collaborated to create an integrated poker hub for MySpace members. MySpace WPT community, the name given to this community, provides loads of games and related content to MySpace users.

The New York City-based Oberon Media, a leading casual gaming company, has developed a multiplayer poker game to be offered as free-to-play service on the MySpace’s website.

Last year, MySpace signed a partnership deed with Oberon Media to meet MySpace’s online gaming needs.

This web-based free poker game is designed to let MySpace members compete against each other in real time.

The community offers a combination of interactive and informative content to meet the members’ needs, regardless of their experiences in poker.

The interactive element of the community involves meeting and interacting with WPT stars while game video clips, tournament news, player profiles, tips and tricks of the games, and behind-the-scene videos from the World Poker Tour and WPT’s TV series form the informative section.

Angela Courtin, MySpace’s senior vice persident of marketing, entertainment and content wing said, “MySpace is bringing a new dimension of entertainment to users with this integrated WPT poker hub and providing an easy and fun way for users to play poker with friends on MySpace.”

Steve Lipscomb, CEO and founder president of WPT is seeing this alliance as a futuristic move in the direction of introducing poker to newbies and providing an online integrated gaming experience.

“Poker and social networking have separately reached and engaged people around the world in ways like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Mr. Lipscomb.

Globally, MySpace has 110 million users who visit the site at least once a month. This provides WPT, an immensely huge platform to popularize poker and World Poker Tour.

MySpace WPT community will also be seen in action during WPT Season VII television broadcasts, later this year on Fox Sports Net.

The community provides a great opportunity for newbies to learn poker without burning holes in their pockets.

Tags: News Poker

It’s no secret that the Silicon Valley’s most successful nerd, Bill Gates drooled over poker. Paying off its debt, Silicon Valley has moved its magic wand around poker.

Whether it is an influence of Web 2.0 or it is the economic slowdown that has pushed it to the limit, a Beverly Hills-based firm, Dream Team Poker has come up with an entirely new kind of poker game.

Poker, as we know, is a single player game. The think-tank of Dream Team Poker is trying its luck in introducing a team-game variant of poker. The new format of poker game, team-poker will be on a trial run at Las Vegas-based Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Poker Lounge.

This concept will be tested in a private invitational tournament to be held from November 7-9. The tournament will be ‘an invitation only tournament’ for the gaming industry insiders.

The reward system of the game has been altered slightly to include the scope of team play. A new patent-pending scoring system will be introduced too.

In this game, players will not only win by performing well on their own, but also by being part of a good poker team. Even the eliminated player will reap the rewards of his team’s performance on the poker table. Every team will have its own name and jersey.

The CEO and Co-founder of Dream Team Poker, Daniel Delshad sounded quite excited about this new format of poker, he said, “We have created a new poker tournament model that will not only entice new players to join the game, but also offer a structured and innovative system for host properties to reach a new market segment.

We look forward to the success of this introductory tournament and future partnerships as we expand the Dream Team Poker concept to additional markets.”

A lot depends on the result of this trial run. If everything goes as expected, we might witness the beginning of a new era in poker.

Come what may, this will make its presence felt in the history of poker games. Tough time brings the best out of tough people.

Tags: News Poker

First Yahoo, then MSN and now Google is following suit.

Call it a threat from competition or catching up with competition or see it as an attempt to blunt the competitors’ edge ; the company with “don’t be evil” motto has decided to allow gambling advertisement on the Google’s UK website.

Yahoo made the search giant chew the words it spat out in 2004. Since then the Google AdWords campaigns were out of reach for the gambling businesses, worldwide.

In a major turnaround, Google takes away the restrictions imposed on the betting and casino websites catering to the punters of Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). This decision will come in effect from tomorrow (October 17).

Targeting punters of Northern Ireland using sponsored text ads on Google is still outside the scope of this policy.

Any UK company registered with the Gambling Commission as well as companies operating from any of the 30 constituent countries of European Economic Area (EEA) can reap the advantage of this change in Google’s policy, provided the companies have a license to advertise online gambling in their native countries.

European casinos are still not allowed to reach the families in the UK. To be on the safer side Google has classified the gambling ads as “non-family safe,” which means companies won’t be able to reach users with the “safe search” filter on.

This action will increase the Google’s revenue by at least £100 million, according to an estimate done by Greenlight, a search agency.

‘We hope this change will enhance the search experience for users and help advertisers connect with interested consumers,’ James Cashmore, industry leader, entertainment and media wing of Google UK further added, “Over the last few months we’ve been reviewing our gambling advertising policy in Great Britain to ensure it is as consistent as possible with local business practices.”

Getting access to Google AdWords might help in undoing the bad effect of global slowdown.

Is it the new beginning casino operators were waiting for? The time will tell. Now, it’s the time to grease the roulette wheels and collect the wreckage of the poker table.

Tags: Gambling News

All the poker wannabes, stuff your tummies and grease your minds, The Venetian is offering you 90 minutes to make the poker professionals taste the steel you are made of. This opportunity comes in the form of a game show named, “The Real Deal!.”

To lighten up the situation and keep everyone entertained, this interactive poker show will be hosted by a stand-up comedian, Paul Rodriguez. Lacy Jones, a professional poker player will be assisting him.

The format of the game is quite simple and at stake are prizes worth millions. “The Real Deal!” merchandise, jewelry, electronics and the grand prize of $1 million will make the pool of prizes to be given away in every episode.

To win here, Texas Hold ‘Em poker skills should be sharpened.

Staged in The Venetian Showroom, each show of the “The Real Deal!” will follow the following route to the grand prize of $1 million:

The game starts with selecting six players randomly from the audience to share the table with two professional players and rest of the audience will take the seat of the ninth player. To participate, the audience will use wireless, touch-screen devices.

Everyone in the audience will have an equal chance of winning. And this luxury (of playing from one’s seat) comes with a small cost. Audience members will not be allowed to raise the bet. All they can do is go for a call or fold and instead of the poker chips they will be given 100,000 points to begin with.

A straight flush in “The Real Deal!” will fetch the player $75,000. And like any other show, the biggest pot of the night will come at the very end. The selected players will be provided with an opportunity to play for a royal flush worth $1 million.

Names of the professionals, who will join the table, are as follow: Daniel Negreanu, Eli Elezra, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Gavin Smith, Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Antonio Esfandiari, Todd Brunson, Phil Laak and Scotty Nguyen. And each night, the poker table will have any two professionals from the above list.

Producer of the show, Merv Adelson, thinks the odds of a poker wannabe winning the pot are quite decent.

The ticket prices are:

• Upper Section (No Device) - $49.50
  
• Upper Section (With Device) - $82.50
  
• VIP (With Device) - $137.50
  

Show Timings are:

• Monday: Dark
  
• Tuesday and Wednesday: 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
  
• Thursday through Sunday: 5 p.m.

Tags: News Poker