Category: poker

Two of the largest online poker sites in the world, FullTilt and PokerStars, are both calling on players to help with relief efforts in Haiti, where a massive earthquake has taken the lives of thousands, and left many more without a home. All money donated will be matched by the sites, and then donated to the likes of Red Cross and UNICEF.

Mirror.co.uk: PokerStars sets up Haiti earthquake appeal

A devastating earthquake recently hit Haiti, and it is thought to have killed tens of thousands of people. Many around the world are wondering how they can help. PokerStars has been quick to facilitate come to aid during previous disasters, and once again the site has provided people with an easy way to donate money to relief efforts in the area.

Players at PokerStars have already donated thousands since the appeal launched a few days ago. All the money raised will be given to the Red Cross to help its relief efforts in the earthquake-stricken Caribbean nation. PokerStars has announced that they will match every dollar raised.

The appeal will run until midday on January 31. Here is how to get involved:

- From the PokerStars website, go to Tourney >> Special and enter one of the ‘Haiti Earthquake Relief’ tournaments listed there. ‘Buy-ins’ range from $1,000 all the way down to $1. These are not actual tournaments, and all of the ‘entry fees’ go straight to the relief fund.

- Another way to contribute is to make a “private player transfer” for any amount directly into to a dummy account called ‘Haiti Fund’. Go to ‘Requests’ in the site’s top menu and select ‘Transfer Funds’.

PokerStars is thankful for all who show their support.

ESPN: Tournaments created to help victims in Haiti

Poker players and online poker sites around the world are stepping up to help the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. Through the poker sites Full Tilt and PokerStars, players can donate money by either transferring funds through the game software or by playing in a mock tournament.

“Anyone watching the news knows how important it is to get help to the Haitians as quickly as possible,” said professional poker player Phil Gordon. “Poker players can effectively double their donations through the mechanisms set up by Full Tilt and the generous matching program. This is a great chance to show the world how poker players can step up and help in a true humanitarian crisis.”

Full Tilt is currently offering two different ways for players to donate donate. First, players can register to play in “fake” tournaments at different buy-in levels. The tournaments won’t run, but instead money will be donated. The other option is for players donate their own specific amount through the “Aid for Haiti” account, which can accept any amount over $5 as a donation.

Things are happening pretty much the same way at PokerStars, which is offering “dummy” charity tournaments with buy-ins that range from $1 to $1,000. The site intends to match all donations, and the money generated will be given to the Red Cross. Additionally, players can donate to the PokerStars account “Haiti Fund”. PokerStars says that thousands have already donated, and the site hopes to do all it can to help to the people of Haiti.

If there ever was a time for the internet poker community to make a difference, these next few days are the perfect opportunity.

Chicago Now: Play Poker, Help Haiti

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing tens of thousands of people.

The quake tore open the land not far from the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince, causing wide-spread devastation on a massive scale.

It is in situations like this when we see the best (and worst) that humanity has to offer, where unlikely heroes and villains emerge to show off either their sincerity or their cold-heartedness.

For this crisis, the online poker industry has emerged on the side of the heroes.

Both Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars, both huge sites in the online poker industry, are calling players to give aid to the people of Haiti.

Full Tilt and Pokerstars have organized several charity tournaments that players can participate in to help raise money for UNICEF, the Red Cross and Doctor Without Boarders in Haiti.

Both sites have vowed match every dollar raised. Full Tilt has even created a dummy player account called “Aid for Haiti” where real players can transfer their donations directly.

This humanitarian fund raiser is not operating without solid promotional backing. Both Full Tilt and Pokerstars have already made strong efforts to spread word about their Haitian earthquake relief appeal, even going as far as to announce it during live poker tournament broadcasts.

Poker pro Barry Greenstein once said that poker sometimes feels like a “hollow” profession, like a career that is all about taking without ever giving. Greenstein’s solution was to become involved with charity, and now poker players from around the world can follow his lead.

Cornell University Student, Kyle Siler, did a massive sociologic study based on 27 million hands of poker and the ratios of wins and losses which can also be attributed to everyday life. According to his results, the more poker wins a player has, the more he/she is likely to lose.

Time: How Winning Can Mean Losing — in Poker and in Life

One can learn a lot about gambling by analyzing 27 million hands of online poker. Cornell University’s Kyle Siler has done just that. His findings: the more hands you win, the more money you’re likely to lose — and this proves true well beyond a game of cards.

Siler wasn’t interested in just poker, but in the idea of how people handle risk, reward and payoffs. Gambling is perfect for studying these factors — and a rich pool of data can be found on the Internet, where millions can play at once and transactions are easy to observe and record.

To gather data, Siler used a software, PokerTracker, and made it collect and collate information on small- medium- and large-stakes games. While crunching the information, he found the strange, inverse relationship between the number of hands won and the amount of money lost. He also noticed that it was novice players who lost the most.

The reason: a majority of wins tallied were for small stakes. The longer new players played the more confident they got, and the likelier they were to lose one or a few big hands. “People overweigh their frequent small gains vis-à-vis occasional large losses,” Siler says.

Investing, driving, buying a house and merely crossing the street are all acts that involve discernible risks and uncertain rewards. The more small returns you get from small investments, the likelier you are to make, and lose, a big investment.

Walking away from a poker table can be easy, but walking away from life — and all the risks and rewards it presents you — isn’t an option. In both venues, the rule should be the same: gamble only what you can afford to lose — and know when you’re approaching those stakes.

USA Today: Poker wins often lead to bigger losses, study says

In a Journal of Gambling Studies report, Cornell University sociologist, Kyle Siler, observed 27 million online poker hands from the past 2 years, to find that winning lots of small stakes ends up losing to bigger losses. Siler analyzed data on 300,000 poker players playing styles to winnings, and found an, “increased proportion of aggressive players as one moves up stakes.”

Given the huge role of luck in delivering big payoffs and big losses, the best poker players must learn to keep winning or losing in stride. An amateur poker player, Siler says his study helped calm his play at the card table.

Science Daily: Online Poker Study: The More Hands You Win, the More Money You Lose

A new Cornell study of online poker seems counterintuitive: The more hands players win, the less money they’re likely to collect, especially when it comes to novice players. The likely reason, said Cornell sociology student Kyle Siler, is that multiple wins are likely for small stakes, but the more you play, the more likely you will eventually lose big losses.

Siler said, “people overweigh their frequent small gains vis-à-vis occasional large losses in everyday life.” In other words, players feel positively reinforced by their streak of wins but don’t understand how occasional large losses offset their gains.

The research not only examined poker, but also “speaks to how humans handle risk and uncertainty,” said Siler, whose look at online poker combines aspects of behavioral economics, economic sociology and social science theory. “Riskiness may be profitable, but also increases the variance and uncertainty of payoffs.

In online poker, a multibillion dollar industry, Siler concluded that the biggest opponent for many players may be themselves, “given the challenges of optimizing one’s mindset and strategies, both in the card game and the meta-games of psychology, rationality and socio-economic arbitrage which hover beneath it,” he said.

People must realize that their limits and understand that big losses offset multiple small gains when dealing with internet gambling and life in general.

Poker Playing Priest

Poker playing priest is the new nick name of a Catholic paint-ball playing Father Andrew Trapp who made big news recently for his appearance on Poker Stars Million Dollar Challenge. Not only did the poker playing priest appear, but he almost made it through the last round. Though he didn’t win, he was able to raise $100,000 toward the construction of a new church in South Carolina.

Church celebrates as priest wins $100K in poker tourney

St. Michael Catholic Church in Garden City Beach needs over $1 million to build a new church. Father Andrew Trapp made a dent in that figure by winning $100,000 in the Poker Stars Million Dollar Challenge televised poker tournament.

Trapp’s final episode aired Sunday, and was watched by he and dozens of fellow church members at St. Michael’s. Trapp said he hopes his brief television fame shows people that priests are normal people. “This is an opportunity, hopefully, for people to see a young guy that’s a priest, that’s normal, that can have fun, have friends and try to do something great for the church.”

South Carolina’s Poker Playing Priest wins $100,000

Poker Stars Million Dollar Challenge left audiences stunned in October when S.Carolina poker playing priest Father Andrew Trapp beat NBA Champ John Salley, Team Poker Stars Pro Vanessa Rousso and her teammate and four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu to win $100,000 and a chance to come back earlier this month for a crack at the $1,000,000 grand prize.

Fr. Trapp, the poker playing priest lost the final round of Fox TV’s “Poker Stars Million Dollar Challenge” on Dec. 27; but he still won $100,000. The winner was a 9-11 first responder at the World Trade Center.

Known as “Father Rambo” for his paintball play, the poker priest held rosary beads in a hand against Salley. After beating the former Pistons Bad Boy, Trapp shocked Rousso, and took home the six-figure prize when poker star Negreanu misread the strength of Trapp’s cards.

Trapp immediately donated all winnings to the St. Michael’s Church in Garden City, SC, where he’s associate pastor. His goal was to win the million dollar prize to help St. Michael’s build a new church, which is currently $1.5 million dollars short of its goal. In an interview, Trapp said, “I think I represented the church and the priesthood well, which was my main goal…I think my parishioners will be proud of me.

Church looks back at poker playing priest’s run for $1 million

St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Garden City, S.C., is in a four-year, $6.5 million fundraiser for a new church. “Our church family’s grown. We have over 3,000 [people] and 400 families,” said C. Griffith, a St. Michael’s member for more over 20 years.

Overcrowding isn’t the only issue at the Garden City church. Should a strong hurricane go through the area, St. Michael’s probably wouldn’t be standing in the aftermath.

As of Christmas, about $4 million was raised for building a church that’ll be at par with safety codes, hold over 900 people and bear hurricane-force winds. It’s a big upgrade from the old church. The project hopes to give new hope to worshipers at St. Michael’s.

Trapp’s played his role in bringing a new church to his parishioners. The poker playing priest appeared on the Poker Stars Million Dollar Challenge playing for $1 million wanting to break ground on the multi-million dollar construction project.

Trapp lost in the final round of the show to poker pro, Negreneau, but walked away from the competition with $100,000. The cash, he says, is going straight to who needs it the most — his parish.

The poker playing priest‘s winnings from Hollywood is putting quite the dent in construction costs for a new and improved St. Michael’s. There’s just $1.5 million to go, and those who gather at church each week say they’re more than thankful for such a generous donation to their future.

Poker playing priest went to take part in the Poker Stars Million Dollar Challenge on behalf of his parish on a mission to raise cash for a new church.

Belgian Gambling Laws

Gambling legislation is a point of contention all over the world today, specifically the new Belgian gambling laws which restrict online casino games. Many countries are changing their policies on the subject and organization, such as the European Union, are making very influential decisions with regards to all member states.

Despite wishes on behalf of the European Union that its mandates be acknowledged and followed, some countries still insist on going against the grain. A few such countries are France, Poland and most recently Belgium. Speculations indicate that these countries have crossed the line intentionally in order to test Michel Barnier, the new European Commissioner.

Belgium has stirred the subject to the brink of boiling by recently passing a law regulating online gambling that did not address several points of contention with EU rules, as found by the European Commission.

The European Commission gave an official Detailed Opinion to Belgian legislators which pointed out which parts of Belgian gambling laws needed to be amended in order to comply with EU law. Some of the points pointed out by the European Commission include: an unjustified limit on licenses, requirements of servers being located in Belgium, and forbidding citizens to participate in EU licensed and regulated internet gambling in Belgium.

Belgian gambling laws: Sigrid Ligne angry

Secretary General of the European Gaming and Betting Association, Sigrid Ligne, condemned Belgium’s action saying that, “The law is not only highly questionable from a legal point of view, a high level of consumer protection can be achieved by specific and targeted legislation, not by protecting the operators with a vested interest in the current situation.”

On December 3rd, lawmakers passed Belgian gambling laws without taking into considerations concerns that were voiced by the European Commission. In doing so, the Belgian Government has subjected itself to infringement proceedings that may be held by the EC which believes Belgian gambling laws are illegal within the EU framework.

The 2011 World Series of Poker concluded and after 12 days of 18 hours-per-day poker, one 22 year old remained standing and was crowned as Poker World Champion.

Pius Heinz, who hails from Cologne Germany, became a professional poker player only earlier this year, against the wishes of his mother, who wanted him to enter the Church. Pius, who enjoys female strippers, schnapps and recreational drugs just said no to the church, and instead spent his time hunting for online poker bonuses.

This year the WSOP Main event has 6685 of the toughest traditional and online poker masters, who each ponied up the $10,000 entry fee for a chance at eternal glory as well as the $8,715,638 first place prize.

World Series Of Poker

The runner up, a Czech player walked away with a $5.43 million consolation prize, not that he will have to weep too much since that’s more money than his entire village made in a century.

The German world poker champion turned out to be an astute businessman, making a deal with the king of online poker – Poker Stars – where he can be found playing so anyone can see if they have what it takes to beat the current world champion of poker.

“I hereby proudly announce that I am the 2011 world series of poker Champion !! I did it for Germany,” shouted Heinze to be overheard above the roar of fans and the din coming from hundreds of encamped international reporters. Pius Heinz not only becomes the first German to win the World Series of Poker.

A 37 year old Danish poker player, Mr. Gus Hansen, has been on an incredible winning streak playing online poker at the Full Tilt Poker, winning $999,480 this week alone at ‘heads-up’ matches, bringing his five month online total to $5,000,000 won. Just in the first 54 days of 2011, Mr. Hansen, also known as The Great Dane, won $3 million playing Pot Limit Omaha and Draw Poker. He is currently in first place in overall winnings in online poker cash games in 2011, with his closest competitor, Mr. Patrik Antonius far behind, yet still a winner of more than a million dollars since the start of the year.

During the last week, Mr. Hansen played over 2,500 hands of draw poker against some of the most aggressive whales of the online poker rooms, including Mr. Tom Dwan and Mr, Phil Galfond, and still walked away with a cool million.

Not too long ago, things were not so rosy for Mr. Hansen , who almost permanently quit playing poker last year after losing $5.55 million by early fall, and finishing the year with an overall loss of $1.3 million. That was the beginning of the lucky streak which he’s been on for the past five months, eventually leading to this week’s amazing weekly win, playing thousands of pots larger than most people’s yearly income.

Gus Hanses was one of the founding partners of PokerChamps online poker room, which was sold 20 months later to Betfair for $15 million dollars.

Mr. Hansen has been a gambler all his life, first becoming a world ranked backgammon player and then discovering poker to eventually win the European World Series of Poker bracelet in the ‘No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up’ $15,000 buy-in tournament. Over his lifetime, Mr. Gus Hansen won over 9 million dollars in live tournaments and is a regular player in the biggest poker cash games in Las Vegas and online.

Microgaming bad beat poker jackpot

Microgaming bad beat poker jackpot occurred at Microgaming’s Network of inter-connected poker rooms, where the rare Bad Beat Progressive Jackpot was miraculously won twice within 20 hours. Normally the Jackpot is won once every 4-15 weeks. The Microgaming Network offers specifically created virtual poker tables throughout its network of 36 independent online poker rooms.

Microgaming Network’s Bad Beat Poker Jackpot rooms are available at some of the most popular and well known online poker rooms, including 32Red Poker, Cool Hand Poker and Crazy Poker.

The special poker rooms only operate when at least four people are playing, and offer a progressive Microgaming bad beat poker jackpot when one player is beaten by another in a showdown where the looser has at the minimum quad eights (four cards that are all 8′s) or higher. For the Progressive Jackpot to be awarded, the winner and the looser must use all of their ‘hole cards’ to make their hands.

At 6am UK time, a player on Microgaming network called ’4447470′ (who had pocket tens) got involved in a hand with ‘epohon’ who held the Queen and King of Hearts. When the smoke cleared, ’4447470′ held 10-10-10-10-A against ‘epohon’ who held 10-J-Q-K-A, all of hearts and a Royal Flush. It took a moment for player ’4447470′ to realize he won the Progressive Bad Beat Microgaming Jackpot.

Microgaming bad beat poker jackpot: Twice in Twenty

According to the rules, the $558,296.27 jackpot was divided among all four players with ’4447470′ winning $195,403.70, ‘epohon’ winning $97,701.85 (along with the $500 that he won in the hand), and the remaining two players, who were not involved in the hand, each received $48,850.92.

The Progressive Jackpot was reseeded and 20 hours later grew to $114,264.23 when it was won by a player called ‘papa45′ who lost with four Jacks to ‘zebro74′ who held a straight flush. ‘Papa45′ won $39,992.48, ‘zebro74′ won $19,996.24 and the four remaining players, not involved in the hand, each won $4,999.06.

The Bad Beat Progressive Jackpot was insantly reseedeed at $22,852 and the action re-started. Make sure you register with all three Microgaming poker rooms listed above, so you too can participate in the heart pounding action of live poker and perhaps you too can walk away with the Microgaming bad beat poker jackpott!

PKR Poker is an award winning online poker site with great software, innovative games, and a unique 3D poker platform that puts it at the top of many players’ lists. When poker fans sign up at the site, they get to create their own personal avatars, and as they explore the site they can use these avatars as a way to interact with other players. Of course, PKR Poker isn’t all about looks – they also offer great cash games, endless tournaments, and excellent poker sign up bonuses.

This week, the site announced the results of a site-wide effort among players to vote for the 2010 PKR Players of the Year. Members actually voted in three categories, and one place was chosen for each. Here are the results:

Tournament Player of the Year
Name: Ovnis
Accomplishments: PKR Hall of Fame, $80,000 in online poker tournament wins, 12 major titles and 23 cashes of $1k or more.

Cash Game player of the Year
Name: Beyne
Accomplishments: PKR Team Pro member, first player to cash out $1 million in 2010.

Forumite of the Year
Name: Pkr1princess
Accomplishments: Positive presence in PKR Poker forums, organizing Leeds Community Meet-ups.

PKR’s marketing manager Erika Schwartz Poole says, “Congrats to all our winners this year. These awards are a great way for our players to recognise the achievements of their peers and provide inspiration to others. We look forward to seeing you on the felt in 2011 for another prosperous year!”

Bad Beat jackpots are becoming a popular trend, both online and offline. They are progressive jackpots attached to online poker games that are distributed to all the players at a table when one player loses to another with a very high hand. At Carbon Poker, the winner of the hand takes 17.5% of the jackpot, while the loser walks away with 35%. The rest of the cash is distributed to the other players at the table.

This week, player dk2112 won $156,402 in cash at a Bad Beat table. He was playing $.50/$1 no-limit at a table with a pot of just $55 when he won the big prize. He entered the table with pocket 7’s, which turned into quad sevens by the end of the hand. His confidence was shattered when his opponent BlackOutBob dropped quad 8’s.

Since dk2112 lost with such a strong hand, the Bad Beat Jackpot was set off, giving him the $156,402 prize. In fact, quad 7’s is the lowest hand that can trigger the jackpot, making dk2112 doubly lucky! BlackOutBob won the $55 pot but also took home $78,201 from the Bad Beat Jackpot. The other five players at the table were rewarded just for being there, getting $13,033 each.

While this is a pretty big jackpot win, it is nothing compared to the Carbon Poker record. Their largest ever Bad Beat Jackpot was $1.2 million, won on a Friday the 13th! Carbon Poker execs hope this figure will someday be trumped, but in the meantime, the jackpot has been reset to $100,000 and will continue to grow until it is won once again.

A few years ago, 25-year-old Jack Ellwood was an economics and mathematics course at Bristol University. Today, he calls himself a professional poker player, and judging by his annual earnings, it seems that he is very good at his job.

Ellwood has won more than $1.4 million this past year playing poker, and about a million of that is pure profit. Originally from Newcastle, England, he now travels around the world playing in casino blackjack tournaments – this year alone he has played in Las Vegas, Barcelona, Cannes and Vienna. He also makes quite a lot of money playing at online poker sites, and is currently ranked the 12th best internet poker player in the world.

“I still can’t quite believe how well I have done,” said Ellwood. “It all changed last February when I came second in a tournament in Manchester and won £37,500. That was my big break, and it left me with more money to buy into tournaments with big prize pots.”

So far, his biggest win was $500,000 which he earned playing in an online poker tournament.

Ellwood doesn’t regret leaving university to peruse a career as a poker player. “It beats a nine to five job and being my own boss and jetting round the world is amazing,” he says. “When I dropped out to play poker I think my mum was a bit shocked though.”

Jonathan Duhamel is the world’s newest millionaire.

Earlier this week, Jonathan Duhamel, the 26-year-old Canadian defeated 23-year-old American John Racener, winning a WSOP bracelet along with an $8,944,138 prize. Jonathan Duhamel is the first Canadian player to capture the coveted Main Event bracelet.

2010 World Series of Poker was the 41st annual WSOP tour. The tour culminated in the Main Event held at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event stated back on 03 July, but after reaching the final table of nine players on July 17, the final table was delayed until 06 November.

PokerStars-sponsored Duhamel beat out 7,319 other players to capture the win. Of the nine players who competed at the final table last weekend, only Michael Mizrachi had ever one a WSOP bracelet, but the American only finished 5th this year.

After winning the 2010 WSOP Main Event, Jonathan Duhamel announced that he would be setting aside $100 000 of his winnings to the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation, purportedly the largest donation that the group has ever received from an individual.

“It’s an enormous amount,” said Canadiens spokesman Donald Beauchamp. “It’s quite remarkable, and this was completely his idea. We had nothing to do with it. So to do this for the foundation is truly appreciated by the entire organization.”

Jonathan Duhamel started his poker career just three years ago, with a $100 investment at an online poker site in Canada.

Two new names now appear on the list of the world’s top poker pros. The Poker Hall of Fame announced Tuesday that Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington have been picked to be recognized for their outstanding poker achievements.

An induction ceremony will be held on November 8 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The induction will coincide with the festivities surrounding the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, which is the richest tournament in the entire world of poker.

Erik Seidel is an eight-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner. He is considered to be one of the world’s best tournament poker players. His most notable achievement was his runner-up finish to poker pro Johnny Chan at the 1988 WSOP – a game that was reproduced in the movie “Rounders”. Over more than four decades of play, Seidel has amassed an impressive $10 million in career wins.

Dan Harrington, easily spotted at the tables in his trademark green Red Sox hat, is most famed for his 1995 WSOP main event win. He also made it to the Main Event table in 2003 and 2004, which in itself is a very impressive feat. Harrington has enjoyed more than $6 million in lifetime wins. His most recent achievements include a series of poker strategy books entitled “Harrington on Hold’em” which some consider to be among the best strategy guides available.

The Poker Hall of Fame was established in 1979. With the two 2010 inductees this exclusive club will contain a total of 40 members, only 18 of which are still alive.

Harrah’s Entertainment casinos run a special in their poker rooms called the Bad Beat Jackpot, which pays poker players who are unlucky enough lose with strong hands. The jackpot was introduced last August, and has paid out several times since then.

As of yesterday, the jackpot stands at over $402,663, making it one of the biggest poker jackpots available in a land casino. It is a progressive jackpot, taking $1 out of every pot to fund it. The jackpot is networked across all 4 of Harrah’s Atlantic City properties. It pays 40 percent to the bad beat loser, 20 percent to the player that wins the hand, and splits the remaining 50 percent among all players in cash games at all rooms.

To win, players must lose with a hand of four Queens or higher. Each week on Wednesday, this requirement is lowered by one rank until it reaches the lowest possible winning hand of four deuces. The current winning hand is quad fives.

Bad Beat Jackpots are also popular at online poker rooms. The record payout for an online Bad Beat Jackpot is $1.2 million, won at Carbon Poker in February 2009.

Ladbrokes, known for their online sportsbook and their internet poker room, took their gaming activities offline to host the Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival in Killarney, Ireland. 632 players came from both local Irish poker rooms and around the world to compete for the top prize. By the third day, all but ten were eliminated.

Of the ten men at the final table, almost all were Irish nationals, though two foreigners made it into the melee, Richard Connoly (from the Isle of Man) and Lars Torngren (a London-based Swedish expat). Bankrolls ranged from Richard Connoly’s 360k to John Kalmer’s 1.8 million, and as well as being the chip leader, “Skalie” was the early favourite. Unfortunately for him, his Ace-Jack couldn’t hold up against Lar’s Pocket Queens, as the Ace he hit on the flop couldn’t withstand the Queen on the turn.

In the end, it was Lars Torngren who carried off the €75,000 grand prize. Lars possessed pocket sixes which he managed to hold up in the three-way all-in against a pair of Irishmen, Paul Lucey, with his Jack and five, and Barry McGleenon, holding an Ace and a seven.

Lars has been playing poker for about 8 years and is “absolutely delighted” about his first big tournament win. He is already pleasantly anticipating competing in the Ladbrokes poker festival next year. Till then he is likely to be found practicing at online poker sites in Sweden.

American online poker champ Tyson Marks of Montana won the largest poker prize in online gambling history last week, scooping up an incredible $2.25 million win in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) main event.

Marks, who goes by the online handle POTTERPOKER, beat out more than two thousand other hopefuls who entered the two-day final event. This massive collection of players gave the tournament a $12,215,000 prize pool, making it the richest internet poker tournament in online gaming history.

By the time Marks hit the final table, he had an incredible 30 million chip lead over the competition, and he pushed through to take the win. Of course, the other two finalists didn’t walk away empty-handed. Both took home more than $1 million in prize money.

“Being able to say: “I’m online poker world champion” is something that still doesn’t feel real to say” Marks commented. “I don’t feel like it’s going to change who I am at all. I have an amazing girl and friends and family who are amazing….this money is really just gravy.”

The $2,278,097.50 poker prize makes a nice addition to Marks’ $1.3 million in career online poker tournament earnings.

This past weekend, 400 poker champs dropped €1,200 each to buy-in to a two-day battle in order to determine who was is best player among them. The game was a part of the PokerStars France Poker Series, and it took place at the Casino Partouche in Divonne-les-Bains. This is just the second stop in the tour, but already the stakes are high and the excitement runs deep.

The player who came out ahead was Serge Didisheim of Switzerland, who beat 399 other poker pros and walked away with €108,894. The final hand saw him beat Yann Pelletier, who took second place for €69,500. Didisheim went all in with an ace of hearts and king of diamonds, beating Pelletier’s pair of 5’s when Didisheim picked up a second pair from the board.

The PokerStars France Poker Series will continue October 16/17 in Saint-Amand. Satellite qualifiers are running now at the PokerStars website. There are still three more big events to go, plus the Grand Final in Paris coming up in February, so the action has only just begun.

PokerStars created a lot of hype in the online poker world these last few days as they approached the 50 billionth hand of poker played at the site. Nobody quite new what that hand would entail, but as things turned out, it was a poker hand for the history books.

There were 220,000 people on PokerStars yesterday playing on 33,000 tables, each one of them hoping to win the milestone hand and the big cash bonus that PokerStars promised would go along with it. In the end, the 50 billionth hand was played by a member from Germany named tbvle, who walked away with an impressive $56,140 though the PokerStars 50 Billion Hand promotion.

But here’s the really incredible part: tbvle was playing microstakes at a $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold’em cash table! The actual pot for the hand was only $26, but is very good for a microstakes table. Apparently the players at the table were so excited to win that the five billionth hand that everyone went all-in before the flop!

Hundreds of railbirds sat on the sidelines watching the historic hand. When tbvle won with a pair of queens, he made PokerStars history, and won a lot of cash too.

The other 5 players at the table were reward too, each grabbing about $3,000 just for being there. Everyone got a $5,200 WCOOP Main Event ticket too, just because PokerStars was feeling generous.

Public voting for the 2010 nominees to the Poker Hall of Fame has now ended, leaving Harrah’s with a list of 10 finalists. Judges will now look over the list of names and make sure each nominee qualifies for induction before giving out the awards.

Induction to the Poker Hall of Fame requires the following:

A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

The ten finalists are:

• Chris Ferguson
• Scotty Nguyen
• Dan Harrington
• Tom McEvoy
• Jennifer Harman
• Linda Johnson
• Daniel Negreanu
• Phil Ivey
• Erik Seidel
• Barry Greenstein

This year’s Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place this November at the Rio Las Vegas during WSOP Main Event Nine celebrations. As of 2009, 38 people have been inducted to the Poker Hall of Fame, but only 15 are still living.

It’s shuffle up and deal time: The World Series of Poker has begun in Las Vegas with 7,319 entrants, the second-largest pool ever assembled for the world’s biggest poker event. Yesterday alone, 2,391 players entered, as Thursday marked the last day to buy in for $10,000.

Based on entrants, the total prize pool will be $68.8 million and the top prize is a huge $8.94 million; the top 747 finishers will win prizes. Last year, there were 6,494 total entrants for a prize pool of $61 million and a $8.55 prize for the winner Joe Cada, youngest ever to take this tournament.

As always, some celebrities were on hand to try their hand at a few poker hands, including Jason Alexander, Emmitt Smith, and Shannon Elizabeth, just to name a very few.

Though the peak number of participants set in 2006 was not reached, the numbers are up 12% on last year. Alexander was enthusiastic to an Associated Press reporter, to whom he said “I’m glad people are feeling like the economy’s back enough that they can do [play in the World Series of Poker]. It wasn’t because the interest in poker went away, so I have to assume people weren’t willing to speculate.”

Most observers also factor in an overall drop in attendance since 2006, as after the tournament the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed, thereby discouraging many online poker rooms from accepted U.S. players – and getting them into the World Series of Poker.

An idea first proposed last year in California will take the next step toward realization on Tuesday, when State Senator Rod Wright issues his bill proposing the creation of an intranet poker network. Naturally this proposal has provoked much discussion in local media. The proposal seeks to limit the number of online casinos offering legal gambling in California and to collect a minimum of 20% of revenue from these websites to fill the state budget deficit. Some estimates say that Californians spent $300 million on poker websites alone in 2009.

The (Sacramento) Press-Enterprise: Online poker bill to emerge

A bill from state senator Rod Wright is expected within a few days that would provide players in California the opportunity to legally choose between multiple online poker websites, in hopes of generating billions of dollars in tax revenue for the treasury.

Competing with Wright’s proposal is a plan put forth by the Morongo Ban of Mission Indians, a group that would create a “tribal intrastate Internet poker consortium” to act as a monopoly over a California-wide poker network, but Wright seeks to introduce a system of natural competition with his bill.

Expected to be put out on Tuesday, Wright’s bill seems to be based on the standard European model. Wright proposes that the California Department of Justice award five-year contracts to between one and three online poker websites based within the state. A minimum of 20% of revenue generated would be paid to the state in taxes.

Wright estimates that after passage of the bill, it might take another three years to have such an online poker system running. Californians spent an estimated $300 million on Internet poker last year. The state of California will have a $19.1 billion deficit as of June 2011.

NBC Bay Area: Can Online Gambling Save California?

The taxation of online gambling may be a way to solve part of the state’s budget problems – even more so than marijuana legalization. Supporters of decriminalisation of Internet gambling have claimed that regulating and taxing Internet gaming could earn up to $42 billion in federal taxes.

In California, some politicians who are pro-online gambling push such taxation as potentially bringing money and jobs to the state. This includes firms in Silicon Valley such as CyberArts, which produces Internet casino architectural software known as Foundation.

Though online gambling remains controversial even in California, the time to make it legal may have come. One consult was quoted as saying “it’s generally easier to pass something like (online gambling regulations) in a recession.”

Tech Jackal: California close to being the first state to legalize online poker

California may be on the way to becoming the first U.S. state to legalize online poker, because of state senator Rod Wright’s proposed new bill. Wright heads up the California Senate committee which overseeing gambling among other areas.

The addition of further taxes and revenues created from state-based gambling websites would go to directly addressing the state budget deficit, though Wright emphasized he sought to avoid a single-company monopoly.

Wright said that online gambling taxation “is an asset that is underperforming and it belongs to the state. It should be nondiscriminatory in terms of the people who participate. It’ll go to the people who want it and show up and bid.”

In order to take advantage of any opportunity to establish online poker or casino gaming for California citizens, website operators will have to meet certain specified legal, technical and financial conditions.