Despite its reputation, Las Vegas is quickly becoming a philanthropic city, with charity events popping up in some of the most unlikely places. Take for instance the upcoming Celebrity Poker Shootout at the Palms in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 12 at 11:00 am, in the Key West ballroom.
Get ready to go all in for the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada, with celebrities and famous poker professionals hosting the no-limit hold’em poker tournament. The JCC Poker Shootout includes a VIP reception, silent and live auctions, trophies and prizes, ensuring the JCC Celebrity Poker Shootout will be a great time for a great cause. The winner of this event will receive a $10,000.00 entry into the 2008 World Series of Poker main event.
Join blackjack’s reigning princess Erica Schoenberg, GSN High Stakes Poker’s David Benyamine, WSOP seven-card stud world champion Eli Elezra, the glamorous Evelyn Ng, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, and their friends, for a fun-filled afternoon. Emcee and celebrity poker tournament director Matt Savage will host the first-class event.
“This is an honorable event,” said Savage, “I encourage everyone to attend, no matter what their race, creed or religion.”
The charity poker tournament, hosted by celebrities and famous poker players & women poker players, will benefit the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada. What Jewish Community Center you ask? That is precisely the question, as JCC organizers rally to break ground on their own facility. For more than 17 years, Jewish community volunteers and dedicated professionals have coordinated services for thousands of Nevadans from a small office facility. And while the JCC has impacted and benefited this region and its inhabitants on so many levels, the lack of an independent facility has become a logistical nightmare.
Event coordinator Michael Eakman was inspired by the number of programs that the JCC is running out of one humble locale. “It’s hard to believe that one of the fastest growing cities in America, with such a strong Jewish community base, doesn’t have its own center.” Online poker.
Founded in 1991, the JCC currently runs nearly 500 programs in the Las Vegas area, including educational, social, athletic, and cultural projects. And though these programs are designed to promote Jewish values, they also unite, strengthen, enrich, and nurture the entire Southern Nevada community. Download poker wallpapers.
The JCC also feeds thousands of needy families, of every ethnicity, by running one of the largest Food Pantries in Nevada. But doing so requires the JCC to rent the warehouse space necessary to store and distribute inventory. Temporary rentals are required for just about every program the JCC has to offer, including theater space – so that children may be exposed to the arts and music – social halls for various age groups, and sports facilities and fields that afford adults and children the opportunity to participate in athletic programs. The JCC also organizes adult, teen, and senior social clubs, as well as children’s camps, instructional swimming programs, singles groups, restaurant and book clubs, and weekly discussions for parents and toddlers. Play route 66 poker.
“The JCC continues with an amazing mission,” says Schoenberg, “despite not having their own facility.”
The cost to rub elbows and play poker with some of today’s biggest pros is $450. But even if you are unable to attend, there are many ways you can benefit the JCC Celebrity Poker Shootout and its cause, with sponsorship opportunities starting at $200.
A woman needs a ladies-only poker tournament like a fish needs a bicycle.
Not as catchy as Gloria Steinem's version but when it comes to the World Series of Poker's antiquated Ladies Event, the sentiment is the same. Offering a ladies-only poker tournament is superfluous and offensive to women.
One of the biggest proponents of losing the ladies-only event is one of poker's most famous female poker players, Annie Duke. The top money-earning female in WSOP history has been outspoken in defending her position that poker is one of the only sports where women can compete on an equal playing field with men. Therefore, she says, it makes no sense to have a ladies tournament.
But what about encouraging women to participate in the game, counter those in favor of keeping the women's tournament in the mix while pointing to the existing gender imbalance in the poker room.
That, Duke reasons, isn't something that will be resolved by offering a ladies-only tournament.
"Women are brought up in our culture to be careful with money, not to be aggressive, not to study math and such," she told PokerListings.com in 2005. "These are not traits that are very good to display if you wish to be a professional poker player... I think the numbers will even out though but will never come down to 50-50."
Even so, with so many risk-taking, aggressive, intelligent women these days there's no reason why the ladies can't belly up to the felt with the boys. Keeping an exclusive event for women in the mix in this day and age is a condescending pat on the head from the WSOP. Online poker.
A perfect example of this is the prize package offered at this year's WSOP: before the ladies event - which drew 1,286 women - Series organizers issued a press release trumpeting an exclusive prize package awarded to the winner of the tournament.
In addition to the bracelet, the winner would receive, among other things, tickets to a WNBA game and a makeover from the creator of The Swan, a FOX TV beauty pageant with contestants that have been tummy-tucked and facelifted within an inch of their lives. Play route 66 poker.
Um, I could double-check, but I don't remember the World Series issuing any press releases about free bottle for Rogaine or endorsement contracts for Viagra at any of the other tournaments. So why the extra prizes for the ladies? Because, although it exists and Jeffrey Pollack assures us that it won't go anywhere during his tenure as commissioner, the women's event isn't as important as other events at the World Series.
To say the ladies tournament isn't taken seriously is an understatement. Though top female pros were a rarity at the event, fourth-placed finisher Katja Thater was an exception. But after picking up a gold bracelet in Razz a week later, she admitted to PokerListings.com that she's not a big fan of the gender-based events or some of the poor play she saw during the tournament. Download poker wallpapers.
"I don't like to play ladies only events," she said. "But PokerStars brought me in so I said, okay, let's rock it. Really, we played the first 10 hours, and I had no idea what we had done. It must have been something to do with poker, but I had no idea what. The second day we started playing poker."
Awarding a bracelet for an event where the quality of play is questionable decreases the value of a World Series of Poker bracelet. Like the casino employee tournament or the equally maligned seniors' event, a women's title isn't equal to that of a H.O.R.S.E or Omaha tournament.
The WSOP has a history of eliminating other tournaments that dilute the significance of the gold bracelet (Five-Card Draw, Chinese Poker or, ahem, the businessman's event, anyone?). Play online poker.
Ultimately, though, none of this really matters if the money-hungry 2007 World Series of Poker is any indication.
The ladies tournament grew by about 100 entrants from 2006 and has more than doubled historical playing fields. In other words, the women's event is a cash cow for the WSOP and, until it stops pulling in money, it isn't going anywhere.
If Tulsa, Okla., isn't currently a hotbed of Hold'em activity it will be Aug. 5, when female card sharks of the heartland converge at the Cherokee Casino for the Pro-Tour Poker. Online poker.
The Ladies Poker Association tournament is the first major event of its kind featuring a $550 buy-in and an expected crowd of more than 100.
While many ladies poker tournaments are passed over for lacking interesting money, in a press release organizer Linda Johnson - the so-called first lady of poker - is promising exciting prize pools and a seat at the World Poker Tour Ladies Night Invitational to the winner.
Registration opened July 1 and satellites to the event will play out every day until the Aug. 5 tournament.
"This is the first $550 buy-in event on the LPA tour," said Johnson in a statement. "There are a lot of serious women poker players in the heartland of America, so I'm hoping for a large number of entries."
Johnson will be attending the event, along with Jan Fisher - her business partner in Card Player Cruises.
Now in its first year, the LPA is still finding its footing as the organization strives to promote female poker players at a professional level. The association's first tournament was held March 17, bringing the LPA a little closer to the commitment of its founders, Crystal Osgood-Gray and Sherry Godfrey, who set out to recognize women rounders. Play $500 match poker bonus.
The LPA will be working alongside the Cherokee Casino in what the partners hope will be a major new tournament for these players. To find out more, visit the Ladies Poker Association Web site.
The Cherokee Casino, though not a world-renowned poker room, is at the forefront of the Oklahoma card scene. Its card room hosts 36 tables featuring a variety of games, and the casino has development plans to offer more services to its customers - in this case, particularly its female clients. Play route 66 poker.
"We are delighted to recognize the ladies in poker," said Rick O'Connell, the casino's director of poker and table games. "We have many distinguished women players."
Linda Johnson said she can't sing, can't dance and has no artistic ability. But she can "put the puzzle pieces together" in a poker game. And that's what she's been doing for 33 years.
Johnson, 53, was the second woman poker player in history to win a gold bracelet at the World Series of Poker. Now she plays about 30 hours a week and said she misses it. She's known as the first lady of poker.
The pro came to Gold Country Casino & Hotel Sunday to share some tricks of the trade. Accompanying her on stage were professional poker players Jan Fisher, Robert Williamson, Mike Sexton, "Cowboy" Kenna James and his wife, Marsha Waggoner.
"I would say everybody up there is a millionaire," said Harry Taylor, a friend of the pros and the casino's general manager. Play online poker.
Some of them have never had another job, he said. These are the pros that people watch on TV. Johnson is on every Wednesday night and always wears black.
"It's truly reality TV at its finest," said Sexton, the main commentator for the World Poker Tour. "It's high drama, it's electric and it's real."
Sexton, 59, has been playing poker since he was in the seventh grade and professionally for 30 years. He said he realized he was better than the average player when he consistently beat his friends in college.
Chico State University graduate David Shepler, 26, said he plays Texas hold 'em poker tournaments about twice a week and regularly beats his friends, but wouldn't quit his day job. He works at a bank, which he said helps him to manage his money. He said he enjoyed listening to the pros' advice.
"Play with no fear, and your opponents will fear you," Cowboy Kenna said from behind his sunglasses.
Shepler said he plays with sunglasses sometimes, not because he's trying to hide his emotions, but because it helps him focus.
The first lady of poker said she doesn't own sunglasses. But she had other advice.
"Poker should enhance your life, not be your life," Johnson said. Quit when you can't afford it. And sit in a seat with a passive, tight player on your left and a player that calls a lot of hands on your right, she added. Play route 66 poker.
"The first person to raise usually wins the hand," Fisher said.
While many players discussed winning, Waggoner talked about dealing with loss.
Have sex to ease the pain of losing, she heard from a friend.
After listening to the seminar, Shepler said he won't change his game much, but wants to play more aggressively when he has a strong hand.
"The more aggressive player wins most of the time," Sexton said.
"I play poker by the seat of my pants," Waggoner said, not by reading books.
The audience soaked up the advice because the pros said they would not help anyone out during the no-limit Texas hold 'em tournament that followed the seminar. The tournament with the pros was sold out, with 152 players signed up plus a waiting list. The entry fee was $200 and the prize pool was $25,000.
Each pro had a bounty during the tournament, which meant that every person who kicked one out would get $100. Larry Teague, 59, made that his goal. Download poker wallpapers.
The Oroville man has been playing Texas hold 'em about once a week for 10 years. People at the casino know him as T-bone. Last year he split a $4,500 win, his biggest one. But Teague said he doesn't do it for the money and doesn't sweat over a loss.
Teague said he's not superstitious, but he does keep one good luck charm. He uses a silver dollar from the 1800s as a card protector, an item that players place on top of their cards after each hand is dealt.
Most of the pros said they weren't superstitious either, except Johnson said she won't accept $50 bills because she thinks they're unlucky.
Sexton said several pros will sit in a lucky seat or refuse to play with an unlucky dealer, but Sexton compared dealers to a mail deliverers. Somebody wouldn't yell at a mail person who delivered a bill, so why yell at a dealer who delivered a bad hand, he said.
Poker involves some luck in the short term, but players who win in the long term have skill, Sexton said. Anyone who has the drive can play poker, but a natural instinct is needed to succeed at high levels.
Sexton won $1 million in the Tournament of Champions at the 2006 World Series of Poker and donated half of his post-tax winnings to charity.
Sexton works on the business side of poker now, but said he was never embarrassed to tell people he played poker for a living. He said he doesn't consider it gambling, and that people who work on commission or open a new business are gambling more than he is.
The pro also said that demographics don't matter in poker. Sexton is from Ohio, Waggoner hails from from Australia and Williamson resides in Arizona, but most of the bunch has moved to Las Vegas. People of all shapes, colors and social status can play the game. Play $500 match poker bonus.
"Everyone's equal on the green felt," he said.
But players compete and confidence prevails.
"The strong feast on the weak; It's like the law of the jungle," Sexton said. "It's sort of sad you're looking for the limping gazelle, but that's the way it is."
The online poker bookmaker Unibet is getting sued by ATG, a Swedish government-owned horse-betting company. ATG is accusing Unibet of stealing information from its horse racing database.
According to ATG, Unibet has been using information from the company's database without permission since 2000. The horse racing company claims to have contacted Unibet on the matter in 2004, but the two competitors never reached an agreement. Women poker players.
But now ATG is taking the matter to court, suing Unibet for $36 million. This sum is said to be 10% of the money that Unibet has made on horse betting since the company started to use the information from the database. Play $500 match poker bonus.
The cost for ATG to build the database was more than $30 million and the company claims that Unibet never would have been able to provide horse betting without the information in it.
A spokesperson for ATG says that they believe that they have a good chance to win in court in accordance with rulings in similar cases both in Sweden and the European Union. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
A year after poker was determined to be illegal gambling in Denmark, a municipal court judge in Lyngby has ruled that because the game has elements of skill it isn't illegal, according to the Copenhagen Post.
The ruling goes against the Justice Ministry decision by the legal affairs committee, and also acquits Frederik Hostrup, Danish Poker Association president, of charges of arranging illegal gambling events.
According to the Copenhagen Post, under Danish criminal law, games or competitions where the organizer attempts to achieve a commercial economic gain are considered illegal gambling. Online poker.
Horesta, a hotel and restaurant trade organization, had sued Hostrup on behalf of the nation's casinos because of the poker games his association organizes. Download poker wallpapers.
Henrik Hoffman, Hostrup's attorney, told Politiken newspaper that the ruling lends legitimacy to poker in Denmark, where its popularity has been on the rise in recent years.
He also remarked on how poker isn't just about betting money, it involves betting wisely, playing smart and not revealing to the other players & women poker players what you have and how you play.
"You can win in poker based on being clever enough to hide your strategy, even though you might have a fairly poor hand," he said in Politiken.
Prosecutors will have 14 days to decide if they will appeal the ruling. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
As a mother and card player, woman poker pro Jane Gold understands it's not the hand you're dealt that matters. It's how you play it.
That might be the best way to explain how she lasted longer in this year's World Series of Poker Main Event than her son, defending champion Jamie Gold.
"I love every minute of it," she said Monday.
That was hours before her son busted out of the tournament on his first day of play. She followed Tuesday, busting early in the second round of play.
Despite losing, this year's trip to Las Vegas has been special from the start. "Very bittersweet," she said.
"It's much more than I expected. This isn't real. I walk into the poker room, and there's a 20-foot picture of my son. You know what's really weird? I'm coming in and people are taking my picture, asking for my autograph. No, none of this is real.
"It's not real that my husband had ALS. It's not real that my son won the World Series of Poker."
But Jamie Gold did win last year, and Jane Gold describes that time last year as "the biggest highs and the biggest lows."
She was at home in New Jersey caring for her husband of 27 years, Robert Gold, who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease. As Jamie advanced through the main event, she said she couldn't resist joining him in Las Vegas.
"My husband said, 'Just go. This is something you don't want to miss,' " she said.
Father knows best, so she went. And as soon as Jamie won, mother and son called him. "There wasn't a dry eye in the place," she said. Play route 66 poker.
Robert Gold died in December. Jamie had taken off time from playing poker after his WSOP victory to spend time with his father and then with his mother. "He stayed with me a long time until I was ready to be alone," she said.
They were together again this month in Las Vegas after Jamie convinced her to enter the Main Event, despite the fact she never played Texas Hold'em. Jane Gold said her father was a "fabulous" gin player — he taught Jamie to count 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-jack-queen-king-ace — and learned poker and canasta from her mother.
"But this is a new game to me. At least I wasn't aware of this game," she said. "I just play friendly poker with a bunch of women, and I have an all men's game."
Jane Gold said it was all friendly Saturday, when she parlayed 20,000 chips into 42,100 by day's end and advanced in the largest live tournament in poker.
At one point she picked off a bluff by an opponent when an ace was on the board and she held pocket queens. She raked a pot worth about 5,000 in chips and then looked around for her son, who had been watching earlier. "Where's my baby to see this?" she said.
Oh, he was there, as at least one player noticed.
"One gentleman who was sitting next to me said, 'He's the mother, and you're child,' " Jane Gold said. "That's how he was supporting me and rooting for me."
Like mother, like son.
Missing in action
Jamie Gold is not the only big name bounced from this year's Main Event.
Others who have busted include former champions Greg Raymer (2004), Johnny Chan (1987-88), Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson (1976-77) and Phil Hellmuth (1989), the WSOP's all-time bracelet leader and the self-proclaimed world's greatest Texas Hold'em player. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Brunson and Chan are tied with 10 bracelets, trailing only Hellmuth's 11.
"It hurts, of course," Brunson said shortly after busting on the first day of play Friday, when his two pair of aces and queens was beaten by three queens. "It's the prestige of these tournaments, particularly this one, that everybody's concerned with. Everyone's trying to win bracelets a lot more than money."
The field remains filled with amateur players who took vacations to play against the game's biggest stars for a shot at overcoming staggering odds to win a staggering pot.
"When you play with this many people, you can't realistically think about winning," said Dave Fox of Coram, N.Y. "It's better odds than a lottery. Skill is involved, but there still is a tremendous amount of luck." Download poker wallpapers.
Table talk
Former NHL player Rick Tocchet, who awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to promote gambling May 25, is one of the survivors from Sunday and Monday who will play in today's second round.
Despite its reputation, Las Vegas is quickly becoming a philanthropic city, with charity events popping up in some of the most unlikely places. Take for instance the upcoming Celebrity Poker Shootout at the Palms in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 12 at 11:00 am, in the Key West ballroom.
