A strict dress code didn't deter poker players from heading to Luton last weekend for the next leg of the Grosvenor Poker Tour. Suit and tie in hand, 315 players & women poker players turned out for the £1,000 event.
Some of the well-known pros who showed up for the event were David Colclough, Ram Vaswani, Lucy Rokach, Roland De Wolf, Rolf Slotboom and Surindar Sunar. Not many of them made it past their first day in the event though.
Surindar Sunar was the only one of those on that list to make it into Day 2, despite De Wolfe's bet on himself that he was going to win the whole thing. Download poker wallpapers.
Instead, it was a sharp-dressed Dave Clark, from Colchester, who conquered Leg 7 of the tour to take home £97,300 plus an additional £10,000 from an event sponsor.
He was one of 12 players who made it to the final day and made the cut of the final table of nine as well. Alan Vinson was leading going into the final table with 595,000 in chips, while Clark was comfortably right in the middle of the pack with 378,000. Play route 66 poker.
Though short-stacked, Jonothon Butters doubled up early to put himself back in the running. First out ended up being Ben Turnstill, who was taken out by Clark's pocket queens.
Adam Stoneham went out in eighth place, with Tony Ringe and Ian Herbert right behind him.
According to the GUKPT Web site, Jan Magnus Brevik, from Oslo, was the first Scandinavian to make one of the tourament's final tables. Making a final table would be as far as he would go though, as he was taken out by Clark to claim fifth place. Play $500 match poker bonus.
The bust-out left Clark with the chip lead, though his opponents weren't too far behind.
Vinson was the next casualty, going out in fourth place against Warren Woolridge's pocket nines. Butters was the next to go, finally getting Clark and Woolridge to heads-up play.
On the hand that finally ended the battle, Clark called the big blind with J-9, and Woolridge checked it with his Q-5. The flop brought K-4-J rainbow, and Woolridge went all-in.
Clark calls, having paired up his jack on the board, and the turn and river bring eights, giving him two pair and the win. Play online poker.
The final table results were as follows:
Place
Name
Prize
1st
Dave Clark
£107,300
2nd
Warren Woolridge
£51,800
3rd
Jonothon Butters
£34,550
4th
Alan Vinson
£25,100
5th
Jan Magnus Brevik
£18,850
6th
Ian Herbert
£15,700
7th
Tony Ringe
£12,550
8th
Adam Stoneham
£9,400
9th
Ben Turnstill
£6,300
The next stop on the GUKPT will be Sept. 6-9 in Plymouth.
For more information about the poker tournaments, please visit Free Tournamnets 247.
A California YouTube junkie received permission last week from the California Secretary of State to circulate a petition to establish a government run online poker site that would subsidize fixing the state's roads.
Anthony "Tuff Fish" Sandstrom, who regularly chronicles the ups and downs of his online poker life on YouTube, decided that he had had it up to here with the sorry state of American gambling regulation, and resolved to do something about it. Mad as hell, not going to take it anymore. Download poker wallpapers.
If Sandstrom can get 430,000 signatures between now and the end of the year, the initiative will make it onto the California ballot. Back at the GIGSE event in Montreal, Professor I. Nelson Rose, the preeminent authority on internet gambling law, remarked that he thought more progress would be made at the local level rather than the federal level. He also speculated that California might be one of the first states to reform its laws covering online poker – we can only assume that he was somehow involved with the drafting of this proposed law.
Sandstrom has wisely hitched his horse to what Californians hold most dear - namely their automobiles. He also notes on his site that in population size California dwarfs entire countries, such as Sweden, that have government run poker sites, and that California could reap commensurately larger rewards from running such a site. In spite of federal attempts to sever the internet gambling industry from the financial system, embodied by the ill-conceived Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), determined players & women poker pros can still find cumbersome ways to play poker online.
Of course, the law actually makes quite a bit of sense, and it is exactly the kind grassroots democracy that the initiative process is designed to encourage - namely, to allow citizens to push through laws their representatives don't have the cojones to enact themselves.
The proposed law would set aside 90 per cent of revenues raised by the site to local road repair, leaving 10 per cent for programs devoted to "problem gamblers," who recent studies have concluded make up around 1 per cent of all online gamblers. California would essentially opt out of the UIGEA, under provisions that were designed to allow states such as Nevada to continue regulated gaming within their own borders. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Tuff Fish is probably right in that America will eventually be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century on the internet gambling issue. There is a certain inevitability to technological progress, once the genie is out of the bottle. America's disastrous approach to its WTO dispute with Antigua will likely force a more rational approach to the online gambling industry on the feds, although reason has always been in fairly short supply in the Cheney administration. Play route 66 poker.
Gambling has traditionally been a states' rights issue, and for California to take those rights back would be a healthy first step on the road to reform of an area of law in dire need of serious change. Current federal law in the field dates from a time when the feds were concerned about mafia-run sportsbooks, not about people playing poker online. Regulated online gambling would do more to diminish mob activity than FBI enforcement activity, though that would be too easy: much like the phony drug war, it would force politicians to acknowledge these futile enforcement efforts as the white collar (and largely white) jobs programs they truly are.
The 120 women who plan to attend the first Mickey's Camp for Women poker players Aug. 13-15 in rural Shelby County, that is.
Myra Borshoff Cook just laughed last week when I asked her about that.
Borshoff Cook, you'll recall, was peeved when Mickey Maurer called his retiring boss, Indiana Secretary of Commerce Pat Miller, a "classy dame." Maurer's comment reflected a sexist attitude, Borshoff Cook told me. My December 2005 column about it touched off quite a debate.
Maurer has heard it before, like when he started a men-only camp in 2001.
So what has changed for Borshoff Cook that she laughs about it now? Well, women get an equal opportunity to hang out with peers and do fun things like play poker, box or get a manicure. All for the same $1,500 price tag that men have paid since 2001 when Maurer started the camp. (For the record, men can get manicures at their camp this year, which is Aug. 15-17.)
After talking with several women signed up for the camp, I discovered they enrolled for the same reasons that the men do.
The first is rubbing elbows. "These are substantial women in the community and people I want to spend time with," said Susan Williams, president of the Indiana Sports Corp.
Then there are the 30-plus activities, from climbing the alpine tower to taking high- energy Zumba fitness classes with massages in between. Attorney Melissa Profitt Reese can't wait to play poker and golf, take a self-defense class and float along a river. Play route 66 poker.
Finally, it's the charity. About two-thirds of the registration fee is split among a charity named by the camper and four that Maurer chooses.
With two camps this year, Mickey's Campers will donate $250,000, pushing the overall total to about $850,000 since 2001.
Maurer caught flak when he started the camp for men, but said it always was his plan to run one for women. "This takes a lot of time and effort, and we wanted to get the concept perfected first." Play $500 match poker bonus.
So does the camp for women end this argument?
Probably not. Many of the 30-something women moving into leadership positions here are not among the initial list of campers. As many have pointed out, there is a generational gap, too. But Indiana Black Expo President Joyce Rogers, like most of the others I talked to, figured she had better go. Play online poker.
"I was one of the people who kept bugging Mickey about doing a camp for women," she said. "I had to back that up."
Maurer promises not to disappoint. Lots of business gets done at the men's camp, and he expects the same of the women. Download poker wallpapers.
That's just what Betty Cockrum, president of Planned Parenthood, expects. "The sisterhood is delighted that Mickey and (wife) Janie have given us this opportunity," Cockrum said. "There's no question that Mickey's Camp for men has been a great experience for the dudes, and now it's our turn."
AOL and FLUXX, one of Europe's specialists in the gaming market, have joined forces to market online sports betting in the United Kingdom.
Using a betting platform from JAXX, the British subsidiary of FLUXX, AOL's U.K. customers will now be able to place bets on international horse races and other sporting events. JAXX will be responsible for setting the odds and providing the editorial content of the betting platform for AOL.
The partnership isn't limited to sports betting either. The two companies plan to develop their partnership and consider offering other services in the future. Play route 66 poker.
"As part of our mission to make the AOL U.K. portal the premier online destination for Web users and advertisers alike, we are looking at a range of partnerships and initiatives to drive our business forward in Europe," said Michael Steckler, AOL Europe vice president interactive marketing.
"Linking up with FLUXX fits that strategy perfectly. Their wealth of ideas and experience in the betting business will bring additional energy and diversity to our offering both here in the U.K. and across other European countries." Play $500 match poker bonus.
AOL has already taken on some other areas of online gambling as well. The company already has a partnership with JAXX to provide a lottery service in Germany. They've been operating in the country since 2003, and the lottery is one of AOL Germany's most successful e-commerce services.
In April, AOL dipped its toe a little deeper in the online poker world by partnering up with Harrah's Entertainment to give away nine seats to the 2007 World Series of Poker Main event.
The site offered free daily qualifying poker events that would get players & women poker players into a weekly event with the top prize of a WSOP seat. AOL was the only online poker site officially sanctioned to provide freerolls for WSOP seats.
Now with sports betting, AOL is poised to take on the British online gaming market.
"The British market is one of the largest and most attractive in the world with a betting volume of around €70 billion," said Rainer Jacken, FLUXX management board spokesman. "Yet the online market is still notably underdeveloped. Together with AOL, we have now created a highly competitive service that will help us to tap into this growth." Play online poker.
The online sports betting service will not be available to U.S. customers.
AOL isn't the only giant in the Internet industry taking on online gambling in the United Kingdom. Yahoo recently introduced real-money online poker to its game offerings in the nation as well.
The company partnered with St. Miniver Ltd., a gaming network operator from Gibraltar, to join the Boss Media poker network. It was the first of the Internet's top brands to delve into real-money online poker. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
From San Diego comes the story of an online poker player, Anthony Sandstrom aka "Tuff Fish" who has decided to do something about the legal restrictions on his favourite pastime and that great American game, poker.
This week the California secretary of state's office cleared Sandstrom to circulate petitions putting his proposed initiative on a statewide ballot, where voters could create an Internet poker gambling agency, reports MediaNews from Sacramento. The private initiative, which plans to present state government with 430 000 signatures by Christmas 2007, faces challenges from anti-online gambling opponents but Sandstrom is confident he can mobilise public opinion for his goals. Download poker wallpapers.
Among those flatly opposed are card rooms in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area, anti-gambling-expansion activists and educators, who fear that success for Sandstrom may result in diversion and loss of state lottery funds.
The disarmingly frank Sandstrom acknowledges his initiative isn't aimed at solving major social problems. Women poker.
"I am just a guy who wants to play poker at home when I don't feel like making an hour drive to a card room or casino," Sandstrom said on his Web site.
"I am going to make a mighty effort to make safe, legal, and accessible online poker possible."
The poker crusader hints at tax benefits for the state when he says that the proposal could provide money for the repair of potholes on city roads.
The wild card in the game is the Internet, opines MediaNews. By harnessing the reach of the Internet through his website, message boards and blogs Sandstrom is making his petition available as a download for supporters trying to collect signatures via the Internet. Stay tuned to our poker blog for latest updates.
Wherever Gus Hansen is on the planet, he's never more than arm's length away from his one true love - Full Tilt Poker.
And few could find fault with his infatuation: Another epic 24 hours at the Full Tilt Pot-Limit Omaha tables last week resulted in yet another million dollar payout for the Great Dane - in this case from the depths of Australia, where he's been promoting the Australian Poker League.
He didn't take a lot of huge hands, keeping his opponents' stacks in check for most of the session according to the Web site highstakesdb.com. But the bulk of his winnings came from PLO regulars KaiBuxxe, Jumper17 and DaFool - who've been tearing up the PLO tables this month themselves - in a few key hands. Download poker wallpapers.
The biggest pot was for $101k against KaiBuxxe (reportedly Niki Jedlicka, an Austrian pro), with Hansen hitting runner-runner jacks to make quads and best kaibuxxe's flopped flush and all-in push before the turn. Women poker.
Hansen also took a nice $88,000 haul from wins_pot, hitting his flush on the river to beat wins_pot's straight.
The million-dollar day was Hansen's second record-setting session in less than two months. Despite some middling 2007 World Series of Poker results - although he came on strong for a 61st-place Main Event finish - Hansen's WSOP would likely have been disappointing for him, save for another killer session on Full Tilt early in June.
This week's payout capped a big week in general for Hansen, which saw him take an additional $167k from another high-stakes regular at Full Tilt, "Ziigmund" (reportedly Finnish pro Ilari Sahamies) - even though Hansen may have come out the worse for wear in the chat box.
Among the slags Ziigmund threw Hansen's way while they played: "gus is fish," "gus is singer from romania," and the more-fully fleshed out dis "czech rebuplic singer from eurovision gay bar GUSTAV HANSEN."
Hansen bit his lip for the most part, with a simple "no i dont think so," in reply to the eurovision crack and another simple "no thx," when Ziigmund offered up a coin flip for $280k. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Next up for Hansen, according to his blog: a gig as a commentator for the World Series of Backgammon in London. He also says he's signed on already for all three events of the inaugural WSOP Europe and will play the opening EPT event in Barcelona.
For more on the latest online exploits of Hansen and all the other Full Tilt Poker high-rollers, visit www.highstakesdb.com. Stay tuned to our poker blog for latest updates.
Note: As is always the case in the high-stakes online poker world, Hansen was struck by the easy come, easy go bullet yesterday, handing $515k right back to his opponents - including KaiBuxxe and fellow poker pro Nenad Medic - at the Full Tilt PLO tables.
Gus Hansen is going back to backgammon, but not as a player. He has signed on as a commentator for Season 2 of the World Series of Backgammon.
The Great Dane is well known in the poker world where he has more than $5 million in poker tournament cashes alone. Not many people know that Hansen was a professional backgammon player before he switched to poker, though.
The world of backgammon was too small for him back then, but Gus Hansen is returning now to help shed a little more light on it by commentating during three live events on the World Series of Backgammon tour.
"As a commentator, I get the opportunity to participate in the World Series of Backgammon events and to give my insights to a wider audience," Hansen says in his Full Tilt Poker blog.
"I certainly hope that it will encourage a lot of people (in particular poker players) to take up this great game - there is no doubt that it will develop your math skills thereby improving your decisions at the poker table."
Hansen will join co-commentator John Clark as well as host Jessie Cantrell on the WSOB presentation team.
The first live event they will be taking on is the U.K. Masters in London in November. From there they will head to the TrueMoneygames Nordic Open in Copenhagen in March 2008 and on to Cannes in Jully 2008 for the Riviera Cup. Play $500 match poker bonus.
The team will also present the grand finale of the series at the WSOB Championship with will also take place in Cannes to wrap up the second season.
"Both the presentation and production teams are excited about bringing the story and tension of match-play backgammon back to the screens of millions of backgammon and poker players & women poker pros across Europe," said Andy Bell, WSOB producer.
"The Series promises to be full of intriguing, skillful play, colorful personalities and I think a few surprises … We are confident that the growing gaming audience will find the content stimulating and educational."
Helping add to the entertaining nature of the game, the WSOB has a few format changes for this season which will give out more prize money and allow more players to get involved.
One change was the addition of the grand final. It will be played immediately following the conclusion of the Riviera Cup in Cannes. Download poker wallpapers.
The top eight players from the first three events will all win €10,000 seats in the grand finale, and there will be eight online qualifiers in the event as well.
The grand finale will also take on a more fast-paced format than the other live tournaments with shootout-style, three-point matches. Stay tuned to our poker blog for latest updates.
Live and online qualifiers will take place for all of the live events in the WSOB. The series will be broadcast on Eurosport 1 and 2. Poker News Source: Poker Listings
A strict dress code didn't deter poker players from heading to Luton last weekend for the next leg of the Grosvenor Poker Tour. Suit and tie in hand, 315 players & women poker players turned out for the £1,000 event. 
