According to Same Lightman,  organizer of the event, “”There has been a massive explosion in poker over the last 10 years.  Poker used to be associated with shady men in smoke filled rooms but that’s not the case any more. Televised poker and the Internet has changed all that.  Poker is a skills based sport based on mathematics and psychology.”
The region can thank PokerStars for bringing this tour to Asia.  PokerStars is an online poker site (which I am sure you know) with millions of players around the world.

Just one thing I noticed, though, it seems the locals were not really part of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour.  I have some friends in Manila who are avid poker players.  Actually, they play home games every weekend.  It didn’t seem that they were too excited about this big event, though.  In fact, none in their group joined nor even watched the events.  Does the $2500 buy in have anything to do with it?  I don’t know.  It is just a bit sad that people who are really passionate about poker cannot relate all that much to a big tournament like this one.

Poker games will be either be No-limit Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, Limit Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, Omaha Hi/Lo R/A, and Pot-Limit Omaha R/A.  There will be a total of 10 events, with the winner of each event winning a considerable cash prize as well as an ECOOP bracelet, much like the bracelets given to WSOP winners.  As an added incentive, the top 50 players of the whole event get to play in a $50,000 freeroll which will be held on the day after the main event.

You can join the ECOOP with buy ins of as low as $100+$9.  You can also qualify for the tournament by playing in their qualifiers – the first of which has already started.  The next qualifying period will begin on the 10th of September.  Buy ins for these events are as low as $2+20 cents.

If you think that you have a good chance of winning large amounts of money, visit Titan Poker now.  Even if you don’t , just go ahead and join anyway and have lots of fun.

For poker?” Chad asked rhetorically this week in an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News. “We need to see high def on the queen of hearts? She looks good even in black and white.”

Chad, a former writer for The Washington Post, often delivers biting comments about the players (and their play) on the poker series. But it appears that his acerbic barbs go beyond the participants and into the production booth.

“High def would have been great for Neil Armstrong planting a flag on the moon. But for the flop on a 3-6-10? Maybe I’m behind the curve,” he told The Daily News.

Now I would not call myself as being anti HDTV.  In fact, the whole idea blows me away.  It is probably obvious to you at this point that I still do not have HDTV – not that I do not want to have one.  Maybe that is why I am tending to agree with Norman Chad.  Why the heck would you need to watch WSOP in HD?

Then again, there is the argument that it is not all about need but want.  I suppose this is where ESPN is going to score points.  I don’t know.  Ask yourself – is the price of HDTV worth watching poker in it?

Europe’s largest poker tournament grows even bigger in 2008. With an increased capacity, buy-in and guarantee, The Irish Open 2008 will be the greatest festival of poker on the planet!

• €3 Million Guaranteed Prize Pool
• €4,200 Buy-in + €300 Registration Fee
• 1,000 player capacity
• Dublin
• April 2008

Demand for tickets will be huge so book your seat early. Buy directly into the Main Event on our register page, or qualify online on paddypowerpoker.com.

Poker’s royalty turned out for the 2007 event including World Series of Poker Champions Dan Harrington and Carlos Mortensen, but in the end it was popular Northern Irish man Marty Smyth who reigned supreme. Marty lifted the Terry Rogers trophy, taking home €650,000, after an epic heads up battle with Roland De Wolfe.

Marty defeated a record breaking field of 708 players which also included Mike Sexton, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, Andy Black, Padraig Parkinson, Scott Gray, Ram Vaswani, David Plastik, Eddie Scharf, Dave Masters, Surinder Sunar, Frank Cruess Callaghan, Ian Frazer, and both G.I. and Vegas versions of Elvis!

Of course, with the promotions starting as early as now (for 2008 mind you), I think that the upcoming tournament is going to outdo this year’s event.  For more information, visit the Irish Open 2008 web site.

So what’s the real deal?  Well it is true, Chinese poker fans are in for a good year as WPT signed an agreement with the China Leisure Sports Administrative Center to promote “the sport of poker, by helping to create, expand and commercialize China’s first ever national poker competition.”  This was done only last Monday.  The agreement between the two parties will hold for the next 5 years.  At the end of this period, there will be an option to extend the contract.  That would, of course, depend on how the whole thing goes.

The fact that poker is making its formal entry to the “far” parts of the world is something to be happy about already.  Yet the fact that China has a gambling ban makes this feat even better!  For those who think that this is a good chance to flout the government, though, they couldn’t be more wrong.  The gambling ban holds – and is as strong as ever.   The only question now is what stakes the poker players will play for.  Personally, it doesn’t matter to me.  If you really love playing poker that should be enough.  Of course, a little incentive wouldn’t hurt, would it?

In order to join or remain in good standing with the WPA, existing and prospective poker players must sign a pledge, which reads:

As a condition of admission and continued membership in the World Poker Association (WPA), I pledge to support and uphold the highest standards of ethical conduct in all aspects of poker competition and tournament activities, and hereby agree to comply with the WPA Code of Ethics as developed and periodically updated by the WPA and posted on its official website, www.wpapoker.org.

To give you an idea of what the Code contains, here are the five sections:

• General Provisions
• Relationships Among Players
• Relationships Between Players and Dealers
• Player-Management Relationships
• External Relationships

It seems to me that the Code has pretty much everything covered – from personal to professional conduct.  At this point, without having read the code in its totality, I totally agree with the concept.  However, with what has been happening in various sports lately, I can’t help but wonder if Codes can do the trick.  Are pledges enough or do we need something else?

The event was staged at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and a prize money of $50,000 was offered.  Of course, to these poker pros, this prize money is not that high.  It is, in fact, peanuts.  However, the stakes were much higher than the money itself.  Was a computer program supposed to beat the likes of the Unabomber?

This concept is nothing new.  In fact, in games like chess, artificial intelligence has reigned supreme, beating the Master Kasparov.  Yet for now, poker seems to be man’s turf.  There is no doubt about it, poker is a bit more complicated than chess.  There are so many other factors that might have not have been incorporated in the creation of Polaris, such as poker tells.

After the game, the creators of Polaris admitted defeat, but only temporarily.  According to Darse Billings, a member of the Polaris team and a former professional poker player, Estami and Laak played brilliantly.  Yet, he goes on to say that “I wouldn’t be surprised if we can beat them tomorrow.”  Just when “tomorrow” is going to be, we don’t know yet.

On July 22, PKR is set to bring the biggest and most glamorous poker tournament that Germany has ever known.  Billed as Poker in the Sky, this event is going to be held on the top floor of the Cologne Triangle.  Aside from the name – which brings about images of loftiness and high expectations – the building itself is an achievement for a venue.  Standing at 103 meters high, the venue is normally associated with exclusive corporate events and parties.  In a few days, it will be transformed to host what will hopefully be the biggest crowd to gather in a single day for a poker tournament.

Poker in the Sky will start at 10 a.m. and will run till 8 p.m.  Organizers are hoping to draw a thousand players who will vie for the 200 seats in the main event.  Of course, there will only be one winner in the end.  Prizes up for grabs include a 10,000 euro trip to Mallorca, and Apple Mac Book Pro, an LCD flat screen TV, a PlayStation 3, and more.

SHANNON Noll has drawn a rebuke from a problem gambling expert who says the singer’s decision to become the “face” of the Australian Poker League (APL) could have “detrimental effects” on his adolescent fans.
“People who are pathologically addicted to gambling are exposed to it during adolescence,” Dr Matthew Rockloff from the Central Queensland University told NEWS.com.au.

Noll told NEWS.com.au the “wild west” reputation of poker being about hard drinking and big losses still exists, but said he wanted to show people that the game was similar to bingo.

“That’s what we’re trying to do – it’s just a game, like bingo, but it’s more complicated,” Noll said.  We’re trying to make the point clear: (Gambling money) is not what (APL) is.  It’s a great opportunity for people to go have a great night out.” oll said he was still a beginner to the game, but hoped to develop his skills in the future. I’d say my biggest tell is my big, cheesy grin when I’ve got a good hand.”

For some, his big cheesy grin is what they hope to see.

With the World Series of Poker well underway, these two Hollywood hotshots are making waves of their own with the celebrity poker tour dubbed “Ante Up for Africa.”  Africa has always seemed to be the favorite recipient of charitable events sponsored or supported by celebrities and this is no different.  This poker tourney will be helping the people in Darfur by giving the proceeds to the Enough Project and International Rescue Committee.

You just have to love these guys.  Matt Damon, for one, got the boot within 5 minutes of play.  What did he say? “I’m here to try and raise money and awareness for the tragedies taking place. I hope we can solve this issue and refocus the efforts on something else in Africa.”

As for Ben Affleck, he said “Poker takes a lot of time if you want to stay good. I don’t want to suck. I was good. I’m still good. Family is better though.”  I didn’t really get that one…context maybe?