Lucky You

The Academy Award-winning Hanson said, “With millions of people watching poker weekly on television, it was important to capture the authenticity of the game and its players. To that end, the poker tables in “Lucky You” are primarily populated by poker players, not actors pretending to be poker players. Our stars trained for months in order to convincingly play side by side with top poker professionals cast in fictional roles.”

Lucky You had an estimated budget of $55 million but its worldwide gross revenue was under $9million, making it a busted flush of a box-office bomb. Sorry Curtis!

Still despite being a failure at the box office there are things to enjoy about it, but I don’t mean Bana’s page one description of how to play cards, what a “poker face is” or the movie’s hook that “sometimes nothing’s enough.”  Not to mention the pointless sub-Chandler homilies like

“You want sympathy? You’ll find it between “shit” and “syphilis” in the dictionary.”

“Play by the book? You might as well play online.”

“The money’s just a way of keeping score. Poker is competition in the purest sense.”

“Don’t chase what you can’t catch.”

The film’s worth a  watch for Drew Barrymore. Gertie from THE is now a bona-fide Hollywood bigshot and a keen amateur poker player. The Charlie Angles star holds a regular $20 or $100 buy-in home games with friends and fellow celebs, but she doesn’t plan to follow actress Jennifer Tilly into playing poker for a living. “I really couldn’t do that. I made a $200 bet the other night and I was like thinking it was the craziest thing on the planet,” Ms Barrymore said.

In the film there’s a slew of poker stars that you can play “where’s Wally” with when the relationship between the leads tires (about 5minutes in) including Chris Ferguson who has won five World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Phil Hellmuth best known for holding a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, and winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker,  Barry Greenstein who (legend has it) donates his winnings to charities earning him the nickname “the Robin Hood of poker”, Johnny Chan the 10 times World Series of Poker bracelets winner  and the big man Doyle Brunson himself. More obvious is the woman who plays against Huck Cheever (Eric Bana’s character) for the spot on the World Series of Poker Tournament. You might recognise Jennifer Harman; the only woman to hold two bracelets in World Series Of Poker open events opposite the Munich actor.

Eric Bana had plenty to say in praise of the card athletes he rubbed up against while filming, “It lifted my game because it’s impossible for it not to rub off. For instance, a scene that might only be a minute onscreen could take us days to shoot, so that’s hours and hours sitting around with these guys, and all you’re doing between takes is talking poker.”

The Aussie tough guy continued, “I’m planning to pick up as many tips as I can from the experts so I can go home and kick my friends’ butts.”

Some of the events depicted and referenced in the movie’s tournament are remarkably close to real life. The 2003 World Series of Poker’s Main Event (made up of 839 players) was eventually won by an amateur playing in his first live tournament, just like in the movie. That real life inspiration was Chris Moneymaker. The Moneymaker-alike was the Jason Keyes character played by Evan Jones in the film. Keyes would triumph over an old time pro poker player to win the tournament, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall) in the film. While Moneymaker beat Sam Farha in real life

Lucky You is a poor film, Poker deserves much  better and the Moneymaker angle only highlights the fact that sometimes fact is stranger (and more entertaining) than fiction.

paddypowerpoker.com today launches IWF Bargain Basket, an online promotion that allows players to win an Irish Winter Festival 2011 seat worth €1,100 for just €2 – a cracker of a bargain!

From Thursday 4th August, paddypowerpoker.com will host daily €2 NLH re-buy satellites. All players need to do is win one of these satellites and they will automatically be entered into a fortnightly IWF Bargain Basket Grand Final, where one in every eleven players will win a seat into the Irish Winter Festival 2011 worth €1,100.

The first IWF Bargain Basket Grand Final will be held on Thursday 18th August 2011 and there will be four Grand Finals in total; no direct buy in will be accepted, players must qualify for the Bargain Basket Grand Finals.

IWF Bargain Basket Satellites:

Event

Date and Time

Prize

Bargain Basket Satellite

Daily @ 21:00

IWF Bargain Basket Grand Final Seat

IWF Bargain Basket Grand Final Schedule:

Event

Date and Time

Prize

Bargain Basket Grand Final 1

18th August 2011

€1,100 Irish Winter Festival 2011 Seat

Bargain Basket Grand Final 2

1st September 2011

€1,100 Irish Winter Festival 2011 Seat

Bargain Basket Grand Final 3

15th September 2011

€1,100 Irish Winter Festival 2011 Seat

Bargain Basket Grand Final 4

29th September 2011

€1,100 Irish Winter Festival 2011 Seat

“Following on from the success of a similar Cheap Seats Irish Open promotion, we are delighted to introduce the IWF Bargain Basket. With €2 satellites, this is the most affordable route to qualify for the Irish Winter Festival live event in Dublin this October”, said Paddy Power, Communications Manager for paddypowerpoker.com. “Don’t forget, it benefits to qualify for the IWF on paddypowerpoker.com; all our qualifiers will be in with a chance of winning an extra €20,000 at the live event in our Sole Survivor promotion.”

Anna Chapman

In days of old formers Russian spies would slink back behind the Iron Curtain and vanish into obscurity (or even Siberia), but these days it seems if you’re hot enough you can become a celebrity, and a poker celebrity at that. “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.” So wrote Ian Fleming in the opening to the first book of his James Bond series, however if you were sat at a card table with Anna Chapman, you probably wouldn’t mind the scent at any time of the night.

Shaken not stirred.

Redhead Anna was born Anna Vasil’yevna Kushchyenko in the Russian city Volgograd, (known as Stalingrad at the height of the Cold War)  her father was a diplomat (although some people imply he was a senior KGB agent), before going into spying Chapman earned a Master’s degrees in economics with first class honours from Moscow University. She then moved across to London in 2000/1, and seemed to be having a career in banking. It was while she was living in London, she  met Alex Chapman at a rave party in 2001 and they married shortly thereafter in Moscow. The marriage meant that the husky voiced, and delightfully accented Mrs Chapman gained dual Russian-British citizenship, and a British passport, useful if you’re a spy. Five years later she moved to New York and set up a small business in Manhattan near Wall Street.

Russian Spy Anna Chapman

Not long after Chapman’s spy ring was exposed and she and nine others were formally charged, and then swapped with Russia for some US spies (held in Moscow), in a spy exchange like in the good old days. With her cover blown and the world or espionage behind her, Chapman needed to find a new job. Russian Premiere Vladimir Putin, had said that Chapman and her former comrades would “work in worthy places” and have “bright, interesting lives” and he wasn’t wrong, nut he probably wasn’t expecting his agents to be appearing in Agent Provocateur lingerie in men’s’ magazines.

Almost immediately topless photos of Chapman appeared in U.S. and the U.K tabloids (leaked by her British ex-husband), and then came the steamy lingerie shots for men’s’ magazines, especially her appearance in Agent Provocateur lingerie in Russia Maxim Magazine which listed Chapman as one of  Russia’s 100 sexiest women and her own primetime TV show. However she did turn down a role in a pornographic film, despite being offered a “substantial” fee by the Vivid Entertainment. What she did say a big yes to was setting up her own poker app. Poker with Anna Chapman on the iPhone.  The game allows people to play poker against Chapman with the ultimate goal being a chance to add her on Facebook! Also as it’s a just for fun game as there’s no real cash involved poker tournament with real money on the line. The game was designed by the smart cookies at Zelda Inc. “The app appeared because Anna is a huge fan of Apple products,” said Angela Waters, marketing manager for Zeda Inc., the app manufacturer. “She has been using an iPhone and Mac for quite a while and has recently got an iPad too.”

FYEO (For Your Eyes Only)

While there’s plenty of poker to play the app is just as much about sexy Anna’s sex appealand there are quite a few pictures of Chapman in tight clothing, revealing tops, skimpy lingerie  and Bond Girl outfits. The game is being flogged with the lines, “Feel the thrill of playing poker with Anna Chapman, the real-life Russian Bond girl!  Find inside an exclusive collection of Anna’s photos in which she flaunts posh outfits and allows a glance at her social life with parties, shopping and more.” However if you fancy playing some proper poker look elsewhere, if you fancy a laugh and a bit of light relief (on a phone, without dragging your laptop EVERYwhere with you), you could do a lot worse. If you didn’t know how hot Chapman was you should know that she graced the runways of Russian fashion week 2011 at the Shiyan & Rudkovskaya show

Her people also claim that Chapman is a competent and skilful poker player, but while this may or may not be true (how can you trust a former spy) per profile and sex appeal puts her app ahead of Apple’s other Poker Games like Annie Duke’s Poker Tutor, the World Series of Poker’s Hold’em Legends, and the World Poker Tour’s Texas Hold’em.

As Bond himself might say “Splendid.”

The advice he gave me was verbal (and for good measure he backed it up on the table). It was not long after I was left scratching my head (with empty pockets) in his den at the end of a long night’s poker session. It was a friendly enough game and as I’m no All –In Mug and neither is my friend, we ended up head to head for a very decent pot. He ruffled his chips before going all in, in a move I’d seen plenty of times before a sure telegram that he was bluffing and I dutifully went all in to wipe him out. Then BOOM his full house (kings over sevens) killed my trip jacks stone dead, and my buddy didn’t even blink as he took the pot.

Later on as we were watching the sunrise with a beer and I was thinking about burning his house down, he told me (rightly so) that there’s no such thing as a “friend” at the poker table.

Buddies pals amigos it don’t matter one iota when you hit those cards. Because even if this guy once gave you a kidney you don’t fold trip Aces just because he needs a new brake pads. Not only will this “friendly” act cost you money (if he needs the cash that badly, just give him it) but it will cheapen the poker experience for everyone (friend included) and may even anger the Gods of Poker.

You will lose value on your hands if you do not bet them properly. You’ll start losing bets and pots because you are giving your (chummy) opponent free chances to outdraw you. If you want to be friend go out and play pool or something where you don’t measure winning on cash. Because (hands aside) the way you see who wins at Poker always comes with a $ sign. No one cares how “nicely” you play a hand, winning at poker is the only way to keep score – you get nothing for presentation or form, it’s all about content.

The other reason you should check your friendship at eth door is because you’re in a sit at a tournament with a “Friend” they should be treating you as an enemy so anything they do or any play they make should be considered wit the same cool headed calculations that you applied to a stranger’s play.

Still there’s no need not to be civil about it, you might need a lift home after the game.

Bless him he was right, Poker is an on-going organic thing, but while you can improve yourself quite quickly, perfection takes a little longer. When I was a little older and got bloodied for the first time at the table, I turned and asked the sixth former (it was at school) who was counting the coins that had until recently been mine, (and at the time I thought was the greatest player of the all), “What’s the trick?” “What trick” he asked the “Trick with Poker?” I squeaked. Kid he said, being all of 18months older than me, “Poker is like sex.”
Wow! This blew my socks off not only was I talking poker with a card shark I was now talking S-E-X with someone who may actually have seen a real woman naked, what a man I was at 14! I tried to nod sagely as if this explained everything, but I must have looked like the penniless virgin I was, because he looked me straight in the face and said “The basics are simple, but the finer points stretch out until the crack of doom.” Turns out he was being force-read Macbeth at the time.

The moral of the story, is that Poker is an impossible pony to break, you can saddle him and you can ride him 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year including holidays. But one day for no reason he will show you a trick that you never knew and you will get thrown on your ass. At that point your next job is to work out just how that happened, before getting back on gripping with your spurs and try to avoid the next throw, that poker is waiting to give you. Learn all you can, practice all you can but above all respect cards and respect fate.

Years later I heard this quote from Dutch Boyd “Poker is a lot like sex, everyone thinks they are the best, but most don’t have a clue what they are doing!” It seems that wise old sixth former was right all along.

“Hitting The Nuts” has no qualms in using the mockumentary genre to hi poker where it hurts rather than big-up great hands, great players, Las Vegas or online poker operators, as other recent poker movies have tended to do. As the film’s Website says, the film “is the ‘true story’ of the annual illegal poker championship in Scott County, Indiana. When a poker player “hits the nuts” it means he can’t lose – that he’s a sure winner. This movie only pretends to be about poker. It is really about an outrageous group of blue-blooded American misfits who have spent a lot less time hitting the nuts in life. And a lot more time having life return the favor.”

The film has already hit the independent film festival circuit and has picked up two prizes, winning Best Feature Film at the2011 Derby City Film Festival and the Audience Choice for Best Feature Film at the 2010 Cincinnati International Film Festival.

According to the trailers and clips available from the film, the “Scott County Series Of Poker” attracts a number of local inhabitants and the mockumentary follows their preparation and the tournament’s impact on their, as well as the town’s and its other residents’, lives. An Amish father named Ezekiel Yoder needs to win the tournament to save his farm after one of his cow’s turns homosexual and a sexually transmitted disease kills all but one of the other other cows. The one that survives has no teets, leaving Ezekiel with a quest to make money quick. Carol Marshall is the local flirty waitress who has no problem in using her sexy charms to woo men at work and the male opposition at the tournament after being taught how to play poker by her grandmother.

Director Boyd commented in a press release: “The poker community has been burnt by a series of unpopular, terrible movies over the last five years. I think people like this movie so much because it takes nothing seriously. It’s a complete silly farce.”

“Hitting The Nuts” has not found a distributor after its debut at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Ind., and is now on release as DVD through its Website, hittingthenuts.com.

eCORGA

The eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) announced new ownership on Monday – the non-profit organization was bought out by its management in order to remove any inferred influence from the gaming companies that founded it.

eCOGRA is an independent body that works towards promoting fair and responsible gambling. These requirements are enforced through onsite reviews and continuous monitoring. Since 2003, eCOGRA certification has become synonymous with the highest industry levels of fair and responsible gaming, professional conduct and superior operating standards. Currently eCOGRA are working on an ongoing basis with over 25 leading software providers and almost 70 leading online gaming operators. 13 Software providers have achieved accreditation for their software in the form of the eCOGRA Certified Software seal. 145 online gaming sites are accredited with the eCOGRA Safe and Fair seal. Accreditation remains open to all software companies, operators and their affiliate programs.

The organization, based in London, was founded by gaming firms Microgaming Software Systems Ltd. and Virtual Holdings Ltd. (which later became 888 Holdings). The management buyout, led by Chief Executive Andrew Beveridge, has received he backing of these founder members who have always ran eCOGRA as an entity independent from online gaming operators as it has been controlled by four directors with no ties to any operators.

“We are very fortunate that these highly experienced and respected figures in the industry will continue to make their considerable knowledge and business expertise available to us,” said Beveridge in a press release. “We will continue to offer unbiased player dispute mediation through our Fair Gaming Advocate and our TGTR outcomes-based software monitoring system is proving increasingly popular with non-accredited entities and will, if anything, be expanded.”

The organization’s “policy of independently assessing operators for the award of the Safe and Fair seal, and subsequent review and monitoring activity” will remain the same, while “the provision of professional business services and advisory consulting remains a key element in our commercial offering and will become an increasingly important part of the services offered.”

eCOGRA’s Safe and Fair Seal of Approval has become one of the most coveted labels in the online gaming industry. Online operators must display high integrity, share eCOGRA’s vision of fair and responsible gaming, comply with eCOGRA’s General Accepted Practices and be approved  by eCOGRA’s Seals Compliance Committee. To receive the seal, an operator’s software providersmust also be approved by eCOGRA.

The bill, known as Assembly Bill 258, has been proposed by William Horne (D-34th District) and has been summarized in previous articles on this media source. It was proposed on March 10thand will be heard on 24^th March by the Committee on Judiciary.

The bill seeks to “enact provisions governing the licensing and operation of internet poker” within a framework that would be based on operations inside the state of Nevada and permit its residents from other areas to partake in online play. With the approval of this legislation, Nevada could provide the benchmark in the regulation of online poker. “There is no doubt in my mind that online poker and other games are coming. … AB 258 would make us a pioneer in the nationwide movement and the leader for the rest of the country to emulate.” Said Gaughan.

The Las Vegas gambling industry is Nevada is experiencing its worst-ever downturn, with a $2.5 billion loss hitting the Strip’s pockets in 2010 and an unemployment rate that is now up to 13.5 percent.

As previously reported, the AB 258 bill is being solidly pushed by PokerStars and offers alternatives to operators and players on American soil towards circumventing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

Caesars Entertainment, the owners of the World Series of Poker and huge Las Vegas casinos, and MGM Resorts International, the group that operates the Bellagio, CityCenter, and Mirage, are strong opponents of the proposed bill. Jan Jones, the Senior Vice President for Communications and Public Relations, has been quoted as saying: “Our focus is not intrastate, our focus is interstate, … It’s Federal, it’s putting together an American law, an appropriate regulation and licensing regime and taking the jobs and revenues going to foreign companies and bringing it back to America. The internet, by its nature, is an interstate activity, and the rules should be crafted appropriately.”

The Wall Street Journal has reported an MGM spokesperson as saying: “You have one company [PokerStars] trying to impose a business model on legislation. We have to eliminate illegal online gambling and crack down on foreign operators that don’t comply with Federal law.”

The Committee on Judiciary’s decision on 23^rd March may prove to be a turning-point the future of online gaming in Nevada and on larger scales.

Natalia Nikitina

The young Russian poker professional, Natalia Nikitina , has won one for the fairer sex by taking down the prestigious Diamond Championship, the World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament organised as part of the National Series Euro Finals Of Poker in Paris.

The Aviation Club de France played host the National Series Euro Finals from 2nd to 15th February, a veritable festival of poker that began with the gala ceremony and in-house back-patting that is the opening night and the accompanying European Poker Awards. The €5,000 buy-in WPT-organised event acts as the Main Event of the Euro Finals that include over two dozen live poker encounters.

The 23-year-old Russian professional beat Frenchman Alexandre Brivot in the heads-up to pocket a highly respectable €243,830 from her first appearance in a WPT event.

Before this win, she had only cashed for a second place in a European Poker Tour (EPT) Ladies Event in Vienna last year. Brivot left the building with a cheque sporting the glee-worthy figure of €174,170 for his runner-up spot.

The Euro Finals High Roller event was won by Imad Derwiche from Senegal. Only 27 players paid the €10,000 buy-in which generated a €256,000 prize pool and a €125,000 first prize for Derwiche. The High Roller event included a player who had won a seat in a special event sponsored by PartyPoker.fr and hosted by Tony G. The special event was titled “Tony G vs France” and saw the Lithuanian challenge five French players in order to win the sponsored seat. The home team’s line-up consisted of Bruno Fitoussi, WPT Bucharest champion Guillaume Darcourt, Yann Courtet from Club Poker, Gabriel Nassif from Poker Strategy and Leonard Martin from Poker Academie. Even though Tony G had riled them all by labelling the event “Five Donkeys versus Tony G,” he did not win and had to see Nassif take the seat at the High Roller event played on 14^th and 15^th February.

Alessio Isaia Wins WPT Venice

The Italian professional Alessio Isaia has won a marathon heads-up encounter lasting over eight hours to pip Szabolcs Mayer to the World Poker Tour Venice crown.

Scotsman David Vamplew headed into the final table as chip leader but the champion of last year’s European Poker Tour (EPT) London could not add a WPT title to his triple crown hopes thanks to eventual runner-up Szabolcs Mayer.

Mayer eliminated Vamplew in third place just after 1800 hours local time and the heads up lasted until almost 0300 hours with an initial drought of all-in calls until the last 40 minutes in which the lead and the onus to win changed hands several times. It wasn’t until level 32, with the blinds at 100,000 and 200,000 that Isaia managed to better his opponent permanently.

Alessio Isaia has taken home €380,000 for his troubles, while Mayers received €228,990 and Vamplew heads back to Scotland with a pocket €149,910 heavier. 523 players paid the €3,000 and created a total prize pool of €1,521,930.

In other WPT Venice events, the high roller final table is now set with PartyPoker’s Giovanni Safina in the lead with 131,000 chips while Dario Minieri is up there with 80,000. The final table at midday local time on Wednesday.