If your gold bracelet dreams don't materialize this summer at the World Series of Poker, there are still three shots at picking up some hardware from its new European tournament this fall.

Consider Full Tilt Poker's European Series package plan B. The site is hosting qualifiers for the WSOP Europe in September, including three weekly events for Main Event seats or buy-in to play for a prize package containing your entry to all three offerings at the poker tournament.

Between now and August 26, Full Tilt Poker will award at least four Main Event prize packages each week. The package includes the £10,000 event entry and $5,000 spending money. Play route 66 poker.

Qualifiers run Tuesdays at 9 p.m. (ET) for $300+$22 for a guaranteed one package, Thursdays at 9 p.m. (ET) for $1,000+$60 for two guaranteed packages, and Sunday at 2 p.m. (ET) with a $500+$35 buy-in for two packages. Download poker wallpapers.

The European Series prize Enter Full Tilt Poker's qualifier on Aug. 5 at 2 p.m. (ET) to win the $45,000 package. The prizes include entry into all three WSOP Europe events - the championship, $5,000 H.O.R.S.E and $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha - plus $10,000 spending money. Play $500 match poker bonus.

Direct buy-ins are $500+$35 or players & woman poker players can win their way to the tournament in a satellite for just $4+40¢ or 50 Full Tilt Points.

Poker News Source: Poker Listings

Irishman Alan Smurfit wins the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em with re-buys, and a tidy $464,867
By Nolan Dalla

The winner of Event #33, the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em poker tournament (with re-buys) championship was 64-year-old retiree from Miami, Florida, Alan Smurfit.

Smurfit was born in Ireland, and this is his second year competing at the World Series of Poker. It is his first time ever to cash at the WSOP after a dozen cashes at tournaments elsewhere. Smurfit is the owner of the "K-Club," one of the famous luxury resort and golf course in Ireland

Smurfit's victory was not only the most hard-fought battle at this year's World Series, to date, it was the year's greatest comeback, having begun the final table dead last in chips. He started with 95,000 in his stack against his eight opponents, each who had upwards of ten times that amount. Smurfit's victory was a staggeringly impressive accomplishment, not only of perseverance, but of physical and mental endurance. Play route 66 poker.

The final table clocked in at just over nine hours. However, heads-up play lasted a mind-boggling 167 hands, spread over six hours. It was one of the longest Pot-Limit Omaha heads-up matches in WSOP history. First place paid $464,867.

Afghanistan might seem an odd home for a poker champion. But Qushqar Morad is from Afghanistan. He won a WSOP gold bracelet (Seven-Card Stud in 2002), and was the runner-up in this event. Download poker wallpapers.

Two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Chris Bjorin, who was born in Sweden but now lives in the UK, finished in fourth place, three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Chau Giang took fifth.

-- A name from the past found a home at this final table. Unfortunately, he did not stay for very long. Three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Hilbert Shirey took ninth place. Shirey won his first WSOP title twenty years ago. Online poker.

Reflecting the international appeal of Pot-Limit Omaha, six of the final nine players were born outside the United States. Countries represented included Afghanistan, Australia, England, Ireland, Sweden, Vietnam, and the U.S. One finalist currently lives in Panama.

Four of the final nine players were former WSOP gold bracelet winners, with a combined nine wins between them.

The list of in-the-money finishers included perhaps the most star-studded compilation of well-known players & women poker players yet at this year's World Series. Erick Lindgren finished 10th. Last year's gold bracelet winner Ralph Perry took 12th. Michael Binger, who was third in the championship event last year, finished 15th. Six-time winner Allen Cunningham was 18th. David "DevilFish" Ulliot finished 22nd. Last year's gold bracelet winner David Williams took 24th.

Michael Binger now has six cashes at this year's WSOP – more than any other player. The record number of cashes in a single year is eight, shared by Phil Hellmuth and Humberto Brenes. Play online poker.

Bradley Berman finished 16th. This marked his best showing ever at the WSOP, to date. Berman, the son of casino mogul Lyle Berman, and a high-stakes player himself famously knocked Doyle Brunson out of the 2004 WSOP championship event.

Poker News Source: Poker Player Magazine

College students from Gainseville, Fl. have gone from dominating the Bodog Leader Board to kicking ass in Vegas

By Jake Gosselin

Johnathan Westra is the kind of guy you want to hate. He's young, smart, and a helluva good poker player. Unfortunately, he's also a nice guy so if you're going to hate him you'll just end up feeling bad about it.

Since turning 21 last October, the Gainesville, Fl. native has moved from being one of the most dominant online tournament poker players on Bodog to a very serious contender in live tournaments with nearly $300K in live winnings. Not bad for the first seven months of his live poker tournament career.

Westra's success isn't too surprising considering where he lives. That's right, for some reason Gainseville is a hotbed for young poker players who are in the process of shifting their online poker dominance into live tournament success.

In fact, on the Bodog yearly Tournament Leader Board five of the top 10 players are from Gainesville: head2782, nevertilt22, FPpoker4, papadelpoker and of course UFPokerStar.

Road to the WSOP is Bodog Nation's series on poker players who qualified for the WSOP through Bodog Poker's World Series of Poker qualifiers. In each installment we look at the story of a different player headed to Vegas to compete in the Main Event.

It's a little different this time though, since Westra's already in Vegas playing the WSOP and the WPT Bellagio Cup preliminary events and looking like a pro.

Westra strolled into the Bellagio for Event No. 1 and took it down after chopping with his opponent Adam Geyer and then catching quad deuces on the river. He then proceeded to take second in Event No. 5 at the Bellagio Cup after his opponent Danny Karangelovski rivered a full house.

We recently caught up with Westra in Vegas where he took time out of his mad poker schedule to tell us a little more about himself.

BodogNation: You've had some great live poker tournament success since turning 21. Did you have any idea that you would be cashing like this before you turned 21?

Johnathan Westra: I'd been doing pretty good online. I took down multiple $25Ks on Bodog, but I never saw the big events coming like the 2006 Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $223K. That was a strike out of nowhere. My biggest cash before that was only $14K. I chopped that one (Five Diamond Classic) heads up. That just gave me some sick cash to start me off.

BN: How did that feel?

JW: That was an amazing win. It just gets your confidence way up there and makes you want to play more events.

BN: So you started out doing well online by playing SNGs (Sit n Gos) right?

JW: Yeah I started to play SNGs a couple years back and have been playing like $200 six-handed. I switched over to multi-table tournaments when my buddy NeverTilt22 (Smith Collins) won a weekly and I decided to go for a weekly and I won my first one.

BN: So what pushed to stick with the multis?

JW: Well my first weekly on Bodog I won seven different poker tournaments that week so I figured that's where the money is at.

BN: Your screen name is UFPokerStar. That's because you go to the University Florida right?

JW: That's right. I'm actually flying back from Vegas tonight for a test there tomorrow.

BN: Are you serious?

JW: Yes sir, I've got a business and finance test tomorrow night in Gainesville.

BN: It's hard to imagine that you could have gotten so good at poker by the age of 21 until you realize where you come from. Some of the other Gainesville online poker players like NeverTilt22 and FPpoker4 are from there so I can see how you probably had some deadly players to practice with.

JW: Yeah, we used to play online poker home games and then we moved on to playing more online poker and we just took tips off of each other on what works. After a year of doing this my game is really, really defined now. I'm rolling up a good stack at tournaments and playing great final tables right now.

BN: What's up with this Gainesville thing? Is there something in the water there? There's five of you on the Yearly Tournament Leader Board top 10 right now. Do you guys all know each other?

JW: I just met head2782 and papadelpoker last week and those guys are definitely great players. We're just college students who enjoy playing poker.

BN: While you're in the WSOP Main Event is there anyone you're worried about running up against? Anyone you hope to play against?

JW: I'm not really worried about anyone. In such a big field there's no point in worrying about any one player. But Josh Arieh would definitely be my favorite person to sit with, and some of the younger players - Jeff Madsen would be cool to meet.

BN: How many times have you faced Arieh online?

JW: Only once but it was for $14K and he never got above the starting stack of 1,500. I actually talked to him at the Bellagio two days ago and he still remembers it. That's an embarrassment for him, that he never got above starting. (laughs)

BN: You're young, you're making some good money, you're in Vegas. Are you going to be taking any time out from your busy schedule to enjoy the nightlife while you're there?

JW: Not really, I'm too busy with school. I've got to fly back for the exam. I'm also closing on a house down there so it'll take about a week and a half before I can make it back out here. And as soon as I get back I'm going back to the grind to try and win some more tournaments.

Poker News Source: Bodog Poker

Dealers have to sit and listen to poker players try to call in their cards and then gripe and moan about the cards they do get for hours at a time, some are more fitted for the job than others.

With cash tables running 24 hours a day and poker tournaments going on for 15+ hours each day during the 2007 World Series of Poker, there are quite a number of black and white clad dealers running around the halls of the Rio carrying their ubiquitous seat cushions. As you can imagine, Harrah’s has brought in an extra cadre of dealers for seasonal employment to help fulfill the need. All reports are that the dealers this year have been a marked improvement over those from last year with the number and severity of complaints much lower, but there have still been some issues. Download poker wallpapers.

Harrah’s started with about 750 dealers at the beginning of this circus and have since let go about 200. Some of these were due to normal attrition such as people not showing up for work and other self-inflicted terminations. The rest have been attributed to gross incompetence characterized by dealers going on break with the players & women poker players (dealers have to stay seated to keep an eye on the chip stacks), falling asleep on break, having a weak grasp of the English language and gaming infractions having to do with procedural issues, mostly in cash games and satellites. Play online poker.

While dealers only make about $6.50/hour for base pay, their tips usually bring them up to about $40-50/hr, making the gig fairly decent as far as pay goes. However, like with waiting tables, if you hit a dry spell with no tippers then things can get a little tighter. There is no union for the dealers and so most of them have to fend for themselves for housing and benefits if in town just as seasonal employees for the WSOP. For what it’s worth, and from what we’ve seen and heard, Harrah’s has gone over and above most other casinos in outfitting the dealers lounge with drinks, TVs and snacks for them to relax while on break (which means they’ve got more than the media room does, we’re just sayin’). Play route 66 poker.

On the other hand, the cost of employing such a large number of dealers who may or may not show up to work and may or may not do a good job when they get there does cut into the bottom line of what is essentially a money-making operation. To this end, Harrah’s is exploring the use of video screens at poker tables instead of dealers. Play $500 match poker bonus.

Poker electronics company, Pokertek, has developed a new electronic dealerless poker table that uses computer screens for each player & women poker pros and speeds up play significantly. They plan to display the tables through a heads-up match between Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari and Phil ‘Unabomber’ Laak on the afternoon of July 5 (coincidentally the first day off of the WSOP, the day of the media tournament and the day of the “Ante Up For Africa” charity poker tournament….hmmm, sounds like we’ll be working). The tables will also be on display at the Gaming Life Expo running in conjunction with the Main Event, giving visitors a chance to give the product a test drive.

Whether or not this will catch on with players there is no telling. However, dealers cannot be too happy about this development and, honestly, neither should we. For all of their faults, dealers provide the character of the casino. For mostly superstitious reasons, we always look for dealers who are smiling, who look like their dealing hot or have a certain “je ne sais quoi”. How are we supposed to get that from a video screen? Online poker.

Stay tuned to our poker blog for more insight and live updates from the 2007 World Series of Poker.

Poker News Source: Bodog Poker

Last year’s ban on internet gambling marked a major setback for the industry, but Congress is taking a second look at the issue… and things might be changing in any case.

Online poker players and companies have long felt they’ve been unfairly lumped in with the rest of the internet gambling crowd, and they don’t like it. Being associated with unsavory, purely chance-driven games such as roulette, video slots and craps can earn some unwanted attention from the government.

This past September, they got exactly that, when Senator Bill Frist slipped an outright ban of all online gambling— including poker—into a port security bill just before Congress adjourned for midterm elections. The ban makes it possible for the government to go after poker sites and the money services that fund player accounts. Perhaps poker’s own success is to blame: In the past, online gambling had largely been out of sight and out of mind. But in 2003, ESPN began running footage from the full length of the World Series of Poker competition, and sparked the current craze.

Today, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing to “examine whether Internet gambling can be regulated to protect consumers and the payments system,” according to Reuters.The hearing stems from a bill Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced in April which, according to Wired.com, “would re-legalize online poker and gambling and regulate the industry, requiring that all gaming sites build technological safeguards to prevent underage and compulsive gambling, crack down on cheating and protect user privacy.”

“The fundamental issue here is a matter of individual freedom,” Frank said at a Poker news conference introducing the bill.

The legality of playing online poker has historically been vague. Most of the government’s efforts have focused on sports betting. A month before the ban was passed, David Carruthers, CEO of BetonSports, was arrested on charges of violating the wire act. On the other hand, a 2002 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declared that non-sports betting doesn’t fall under the Federal Wire Act.

But this new ban has given the government a broader scope, and they’ve been using it. In January, they targeted Neteller, a money service company often used to fund online poker players’ accounts since banks, credit cards and even PayPal won’t do it. Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre, former directors and founding shareholders of Neteller, were arrested on charges that they helped transfer “billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds from Americans to overseas Internet gambling companies,” according to Yahoo! Finance.

The effects of the ban were almost immediate for some companies. Party Poker, Pokerroom.com and others immediately discontinued service to U.S. customers, forfeiting a gambling market worth billions. Neteller followed suit. This is not good poker news for online gambling, says Catherine Holahan, a writer for Yahoo! Finance. “The moves demonstrate how far the U.S. government is prepared to take its crackdown on gambling, and they bode ill for the closely held Internet gambling sites that continue to cater to U.S. clients even after October,” she wrote in January.

James Halpert, a communications and e-commerce lawyer at the Washington office of DLA Piper Rudnick, told me that the U.S. government is trying to kill online gambling by going after the sources that fund accounts, thus creating a bottleneck.

It’s not likely to snuff out online poker altogether—creative players will still find ways around it—but it does make the potential customer jump through more hoops, which is never good for business. “I think what you’re likely to see is payments flowing in a more decentralized way, maybe a little less convenient,” he said.

Halpert said much of the future of online poker and online gambling in general will depend on what happens in the next couple of weeks, when the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve are scheduled to introduce rules that will require payment services to identify and block overseas gambling sites.

Advocates point out that a key difference between poker and regular gambling is that in most gambling games, you play against the house, and the house always wins. In poker tournaments, however, you compete against other players.

But the four major professional sports leagues still denounced Frank out of fear that legalized sports betting will encourage corruption, and experts say he faces “long odds.”

But his bill is not the only positive sign for poker players and women poker players. Rep. Bob Wexler (D-Fla.) is crafting legislation that would single out games of skill like poker rather than shove them into purgatory with all the other frowned-upon money-drainers like roulette.

There is a significant amount of opposition to the law, and Frank is a formidable opponent, but even a successful movement against the law is likely to take years, Halpert said.

Poker’s association with other gambling has always made it tough for pro-poker bills to get the necessary support. In 2005, the North Dakota state senate defeated a house bill that would have legalized playing online poker in the state, despite a Paradise Poker spokesman’s suggestions that the company would relocate to the state if the bill was passed.

The coming months will be crucial for the online poker business in the U.S. This is the first major effort to repeal the ban now that there’s been sufficient time to review it. The key question is: can a repeal garner the support it needs? No one is certain. Even less certain is whether Bush will pick up the veto pen in the event it gets passed.

But no matter what happens, online poker is far from dead. Despite these setbacks, the industry is still going strong. Sure, a few women poker and poker sites have shut down, and funding accounts without Neteller is tricky, but plenty of players still find a way.


A Wired article describes two poker players who have found ways around the legal impediments: “Boy Wonder and Johnny CIA describe pre-paid VISA debit cards sold through foreign middlemen that allow Americans to pay online casinos. Some gamblers bankroll friends that have existing credit. Americans can also set up offshore bank accounts or sign up for foreign credit cards. Some use phone cards. There are many ways to keep playing. Many are legally dubious.”

As is often the case, the U.S. government talks tough on the issue. But ending online poker is like ending any other government-stamped vice—damn near impossible. And the anarchy of the internet makes it at least a hundred times harder.

The government has faced similar problems with fighting online music piracy. Despite shutting down file sharing sites like Napster and prosecuting music-swappers in high-profile cases, new sites keep popping up and piracy continues to grow every year, and there’s simply no way for the Justice Department to stop it.

They’ll have more success dealing with online gambling since funds are easier to track than music files, and publicly-traded, large sites will be forced out of the market. But the market’s still there.

The U.S. government will continue to posture on the issue and make a few headline-grabbing arrests, but even if a repeal of the law isn’t on the horizon, online poker players shouldn’t despair. The Justice Department’s efforts against online gambling are like a sheriff trying to enforce the law in a town on another planet.

Tuan Le - $500 match poker bonus - poker blog - route 66 poker - poker wallpapers

Poker News Source: American.Com

-- Dennis Oehring (NBC Sports)

Great news for poker fans! The filming of the second season of Poker After Dark is scheduled to take place this May at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, with the first episode scheduled to air on NBC during the week of June 11. Shana Hiatt returns as the program’s host, as does Oliver "Ali" Nejad to provide limited commentary.

The show allows viewers to watch the best players in the game square off against one another in a 6-handed freezeout, with each player buying in for $20,000 in a winner-take-all match. What makes the program unique is that nearly all of the hands in the match are shown, so that fans can watch the match develop over time instead of seeing only the key "all in" hands that may result in a player being eliminated. This creates a program that is more instructional in nature, allowing viewers to play along and see if their decisions coincide with those of the pros, and improve their own games as a result.

Ten more matches will be filmed, and some of them will have themes. One match will feature all former World Series of Poker Champions, as in the first season, but with a slightly different cast of characters as Joe Hachem (2005), Greg Raymer (2004), and Huck Seed (1996) join returnees Doyle Brunson (1976-77), Johnny Chan (1987-88), and Jamie Gold (2006). Another will have an international flavor as Daniel Negreanu (Canada), Gus Hansen (Denmark), David Benyamine (France), Patrik Antonius (Finland), Marco Traniello (Italy), and Brad Booth (Canada) will compete for the $120,000 first prize.

Also scheduled is “Bracelets Week,” featuring six players who have won multiple bracelets at the World Series of Poker. Appearing will be Doyle Brunson (10), Phil Hellmuth (10), Eric Seidel (7), T.J. Cloutier (6), Chris Ferguson (5), and Layne Flack (5). That’s 43 bracelets between them. Another includes players who have won at least 2 WPT open events, and will showcase the skills of Erick Lindgren, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi, Gus Hansen, and Tuan Le.

Another key match-up pits Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, Jennifer Harman, Allen Cunningham, Barry Greenstein, and Eli Elezra against one another in what promises to be a match of “Mega” proportions. And for those who may have wondered who would prevail in a match between the superstars seen walking through the casino during the show’s introduction, they will find out as Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Jennifer Harman, Gus Hansen, and Phil Hellmuth will do battle in one of the featured matches.

Each match will be shown over the course of five one-hour programs on Monday through Friday beginning late night on June 11, 2007 at 2:05 AM EDT. A special one-hour "Director’s Cut" show hosted by Shana will air each Saturday evening right after Saturday Night Live at 1:00 AM, featuring highlights of each week’s match, insightful player interviews dealing with strategy and analysis, and more of Shana’s popular bloopers.

Look for further details and the scheduled dates of all matches to be posted on this website soon, along with brief bios of the players that are updated weekly. In the meantime, get set to see the best in the game assembled together once again to compete in a format viewers have come to understand only Poker After Dark can provide.

News Source: EOG