J.C. Tran of Sacramento, Calif., has been dominating the poker world this year. In fact, his amazing run began late last year. From October through April, he made nine final tables, winning four titles. During this seven-month stretch, he accumulated almost $3 million in earnings. Play $500 match poker bonus.

The man, simply put, has been a monster at the table.

So it should come as no surprise that Tran has been leading Card Player Magazine’s Player of the Year standings since the beginning of 2007.

But even for this poker superstar, the cards do not always fall his way. Take, for instance, the following hand from the 2006 L.A. Poker Classic.

At this World Poker Tour (WPT) final table, the blinds were 50,000 and 100,000 with antes 20,000. With five players remaining, Tran was sitting in the cutoff seat. Looking down at his cards, he saw the dream hand: As-Ac. Play route 66 poker.

Once the first player folded, Tran raised to 600,000. After the button folded, poker veteran Alan Goehring decided to move all-in. Tran instantly called, revealing his pocket rockets. Goehring could only laugh, flipping over his dominated pocket pair: 5h-5c. Tran would be an 81:19 pre-flop favorite.

After poker tournament officials counted down their respective chips, Goehring had Tran barely covered by 25,000 chips. The winner of this hand would put himself in position to win a coveted WPT Main Event Title.

The dealer turned over a phenomenal flop for Tran: 9s-7s-2s. Not only were Tran’s aces still leading, the spade flush draw eliminated one of Goehrings two remaining outs - the 5s.

When the turn brought 2h, Tran was a dominating 98:2 favorite to win the hand. But the poker gods delivered a cruel and unusual punishment to this young poker pro by exposing the only out left in the entire deck - the 5d. Play online poker.

Tran couldn’t believe his eyes as this crushing blow sent him to the rail in fifth place with a relatively small consolation prize of $265,728. (I know, you’re crying real tears for him.)

Two hours later, Goehring won the 2006 L.A. Poker Classic, taking home $2,391,550.

Although Tran lost this elusive WPT title, good poker players & women poker pros like him can’t be held down forever. Last March, Tran finally won his first WPT Main Event title at the World Poker Challenge in Reno, Nevada.

Poker News Source: Boston Herald

If you know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, maybe Langley is a place you should go.

The B.C. Lottery Corporation is sponsoring the second annual Pacific Poker Shootout, Aug. 31 through Sept. 2 at the Cascades Casino in Langley.

The total prize money to be offered is nothing to sneeze at, estimated at $600,000 with the last player standing pocketing $125,000.

That’s quite a jump from the $51,300 North Vancouver’s Stuart Bagri won as last year’s shootout champion.

“This year’s poker tournament promises to be bigger and better,” said Darryl Schiewe, Acting Vice-president of Casino Gaming. “The Pacific Poker Shootout features three exciting days of play with everyone’s favourite game, No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.”

The tournament is split into two events this year. The one set for Aug. 31 has an estimated prize pool of $105,000, based on 350 players & women poker pros and a $300 buy-in.

The Sept. 1 and 2 tourney has an estimated $500,000 prize pool, based on a maximum 500 players and a $1,000 buy-in.

In a shootout, players compete against everyone at their table instead of everyone in the room and there are only three rounds to declare a champion. Play $500 match poker bonus.

To move to round two, players must place in the top two at their table.

The top five players from each table in round two share a portion of the pool prize.

The winner of each table in round two moves on to the final table. The last player remaining at the final table takes home the lions share of the prize money.

Satellite games, which allow players to win their entry into tournament events, are available at participating casinos. Play route 66 poker.

Players can register by phone at 1-877-750-1501, or in person at Cascades Casino, 20393 Fraser Highway, Langley.

Poker News Source: 100mile Free Press

Pubs will be able to host games of poker for stakes of £5 and a maximum prize of £100 from 1 September.

The Gambling Act regulations also remove the requirement for pubs to seek permission from local authorities, provided children and young people are not allowed to play. Women poker players.

Daily and weekly limits on stakes and prizes for games of chance played in individual premises have been set at £100 and £700 respectively. Operators will not be allowed to take a “cut” for money won or staked nor will they be able to charge a participation fee. There is no limit on the amount that can be staked on cribbage and dominoes. Play route 66 poker.

The news comes as poker in pubs – currently played for points – is enjoying a great boon.

Almost one in eight Greene King managed houses currently participate in poker leagues. Online poker.

“It is now possible to see the sociable poker night becoming like the quiz or music night,” said British Beer and Pub Association director of communications Mark Hastings. Download poker wallpapers.

Poker News Source: Morning Advertiser

Amarillo Slim Preston, the world's greatest gambler announced the opening of his new website http://amarilloslim.org . On his website, you will find news and events as well as information pertaining to the gambling legend. There is also a merchandise page where you can purchase exclusive Amarillo Slim merchandise such as autographs and other exclusive collectible items. Download poker wallpapers.

Also, he has just released a new Poker E-Book, All In: An E-guide To No Limit Texas Hold'em, by Amarillo Slim Preston with Brent Riley, this guide is full of tips to make you a winning poker player. The guide covers many aspects of no limit hold'em poker tournament including odds and probabilities, starting hands, tells, discipline, as well as many other secrets as well as a few stories from the poker legend. Play online poker.

Amarillo Slim Preston is a true poker legend, member of five halls of fame, winner of five WSOP bracelets, including the WSOP Championship in 1972. Besides poker, he is also known as a world class billiard's player and one of the most publicized proposition gamblers in history, making him one of the most successful and recognizable gamblers the world has ever known. Stay tuned to our poker blog for latest updates.

Poker News Source: PR Web

In 2003 an anonymous Tennessee accountant with the unlikely name of Chris Moneymaker (Left) invested $100 in an online poker tournament in which the first prize was a $10,000 entry in the annual World Series of Poker championship in Las Vegas.

Moneymaker went on to win the World Series championship bracelet and $2.5 million, igniting the spark that fueled an astounding three-year boom in the business of tournament poker. The combination of widespread television coverage (made possible by the invention of the "hole card" camera that enables viewers to see each player's hidden cards as the play of each hand progresses) and Internet poker, led millions of new players to enter the tournament arena, hoping to duplicate Moneymaker’s success.

The simplest way to measure the explosion in tournament poker in the United States is by the number of contestants in the annual World Series of Poker championship event. During its 33-year history prior to Moneymaker's win, the average number of contestants was 181. Three years after Moneymaker appeared on the David Letterman show to talk about his leap from small-stakes online player to world champion, 8,773 players & women poker players put up $10,000 apiece to compete for the 2006 world championship bracelet and $12.5 million in first-prize money.

Nearly 80 percent of them won their seats by entering inexpensive online tournaments.

A high proportion of the newly minted Internet players are in their 20s and early 30s. Whereas the World Series field used to be composed of grizzled veteran professionals, during the last few years it has been dominated by young neophytes playing in only their first or second World Series competition.

The huge explosion in tournament poker generated a mass market for poker-related products and services. Poker books and television shows proliferated. My TiVo — which is set to record all shows relating to "poker" — used to record a few shows a week. Now it records dozens.

When Greg Raymer won the World Series championship in 2004 after qualifying in an online poker tournament on PokerStars, he promptly quit his job as an in-house lawyer at Pfizer. PokerStars signed him to an exclusive marketing contract that paid him much more than his law job.

For the last few years, Greg has been featured in PokerStars’ television and print ads, encouraging the rest of us amateur players to indulge the fantasy that if we play on PokerStars and win a seat in the World Series, we, too, might be able to quit our day jobs, play poker full time and sign a lucrative endorsement deal with a company marketing to the expanding population of worldwide poker players.

All of this came to a screeching halt last weekend, when an unexpected confluence of political events led Congress to stick a provision into a port security bill at the 11th hour — one that's designed to shut down Internet gaming in the United States. Download poker wallpapers.

There were no hearings and no debate in the Senate, originally created by the Constitutional framers to be the "world's greatest deliberative body," where the potential passions of the mob as expressed by the larger, more populist House of Representatives, would be slowed down and moderated by the careful consideration intended by the rules of the Senate.

Not this time.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., concerned that his involvement with the discredited Jack Abramoff (lobbyist for Indian gaming interests) might jeopardize his re-election prospects in November, instructed the House leadership to pass a bill restricting Internet gaming in the United States — no matter what it took. The House did just that.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who would love to run for President in 2008, was eager to do the same in the Senate to show the vocal Christian right wing of his party that he shares their aversion to gambling. (Remember the Reagan days, when the conservative wing of the Republican Party won elections by railing against big government meddling in people’s lives? I guess those folks will have to vote Democratic now.)

But Frist could not move a bill through committee and onto the floor prior to the November elections. So he found a way to slide a provision into an unrelated bill designed to increase security at America’s ports, without any hearings or debate. At the last moment, just before Congress recessed so Hastert and Frist and their colleagues could go home to campaign for re-election, the Senate passed the port security bill, including the Internet gaming provisions.

For the booming poker industry, this was as bad a beat as losing to a 3-outer on the river. Had the bill not been passed before the recess, it is unlikely it could have passed after the elections. Opponents in the Senate would not have been afraid to stand up and object to an ill-considered bill being tacked onto an unrelated statute without debate or full consideration of the opposing arguments and alternate ways of regulating online gaming. After Election Day the Abramoff scandal loses its power to influence elections.

Technically, the new law does not make it illegal to play poker on the Internet. Instead, it makes it illegal for any bank, credit card company or other financial intermediary to process transfers to or from an Internet gaming site.

In other words, there is no practical, safe way to legally deposit money into your PokerStars account to play in a tournament or take money out if you win.

The word on the street is that three of the largest Internet poker sites — PokerStars, Party Poker and Pacific Poker — will shortly announce that they are withdrawing from the U.S. market. The last of the major sites, Full Tilt Poker, is on the fence about what to do.

My hunch is that the government will turn up the heat on Full Tilt sufficiently to persuade them to follow the same course.

The ramifications for players and for the business of poker are dramatic. Attendance at the World Series will probably drop by at least 50 percent. None of the tens of thousands of Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer wannabes will be able to win a seat at next year’s World Series by playing online poker.

The number of poker shows on television will drop as well. (Most are now sponsored by Internet sites. It makes no sense now for them to spend money marketing their sites in the United States.)

The value of tournament purses will drop significantly, as will the value of player endorsement contracts. In sum, Congress will probably succeed in turning the clock back to pre-Moneymaker days, in terms of the size of the tournament poker market in the United States. A bad beat for the shareholders who invested in poker industry stocks. Harrah’s, which hosts the World Series, will take a hit as will businesses that invested in the booming poker industry.

I predict things will not stay this way for long. Once the election is over, those with an economic interest in the poker industry (including the banks and credit-card companies) will prevail on Congress to replace this hastily contrived political fix with a more sensible legislation that legalizes, regulates and taxes online gaming. Play $500 match poker bonus.

Already the countries where online gaming sites are incorporated are objecting to the United States barring them from the U.S. market. The World Trade Organization, of which the United States is a member, has held that it violates free trade agreements signed by the United States. (When the United States tried to argue that each country has the right to ban products that offend its moral values, the WTO pointed out that gaming is legal in nearly every U.S. state in the form of horse racing, dog racing, state lotteries, jai alai and more.)

Imagine if the federal government banned every form of activity that Congress deemed bad for us — smoking and drinking, for example. The last time they tried that, in Prohibition days, it was a fiasco. For now, I expect that a number of Internet "speakeasy" sites will crop up, looking to profit from the market that has been abandoned by the reputable sites like Party Poker and PokerStars. Players who send money to those sites and end up getting cheated will have Speaker Hastert and Sen. Frist to thank.

I haven’t thought about moving to Canada since Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara threatened to draft me to fight in a war I believed was wrong-headed and unjustified. Hastert and Frist may have finally pushed me over the edge. After all, how else can I become the next Greg Raymer?

Poker News Source: CBS News

Poker players & women poker pros at Hollywood Poker may want to start brushing up on their Spanish because the poker site is going to send one of them to Barcelona this fall for a World Poker Tour event.

The Hollywood Poker European Final will take place Sept. 15, where one player will walk away with an all-inclusive prize package for the WPT Barcelona main event. That includes the buy-in plus money for travel and accommodations. Play online poker.

Along with a direct buy-in, there are several ways to win your way into the European Final. The poker site is currently running sit-and-go events and satellite qualifiers that will get you into the final. Play route 66 poker.

The winner of the final will jet off to take part in the WPT Spanish Championship taking place in Barcelona Oct. 11-16. The buy-in for the championship is $7,800. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.

Poker News Source: Poker Listings

FOR 25 years, Joe Navarro (Left) has been hunting spies and terrorists. As an expert in body language, the former FBI agent knew a lie when he heard one.

Now Mr Navarro has swapped the interrogation room for the poker den, using his skills to help players & women poker players spot the almost imperceptible movements that give away whether an opponent has a strong hand or is bluffing. Several hundred of his former pupils are among the 9000 gamblers contesting the World Series of Poker event that began last Friday in Las Vegas, where the entry fee is $US10,000 ($A11,600) and the winner will collect more than $12 million.

The Florida-based Mr Navarro, 54, who still lectures to CIA and FBI counter-terrorism and counter-espionage officers, first realised that he had a skill for poker when he filmed a documentary that pitted human body language experts against a lie detector machine.

He and a leading women poker player, Annie Duke, correctly spotted eight out of 10 liars better than the machine.

Now Mr Navarro and Ms Duke are star turns at poker training camps run by Phil Hellmuth, who won his record 10th World Series title earlier in the poker tournament. "Reading people is paramount to success," said Mr Navarro. "I treat them just like the special agents I train. I've spent the last 15 years working in the behavioural analysis program, which is designed to study the behaviour of spies and terrorists.

"If you're going to play poker as a professional, your job is to collect intelligence on everybody else. Play online poker.

"Many of the same behaviour patterns that I see when people are lying take place when people are bluffing. I tell people to watch the feet, the hands, and the face, in that order. These are the most honest parts of the body.

"It may be something as simple as touching the neck, stroking the face or just biting the lip."

He teaches that players who wrinkle their nose have bad cards, interlocking fingers is a sign of worry, but a player leaning into the table thinks he is going to win the pot. Download poker wallpapers.

Mr Navarro thinks spy catchers could learn a thing or two from the poker players. "I wish more agents played poker," he said.

Poker News Source: The Age