Poker forum archive

888 Holdings, the online gambling company, has reported record full-year revenues of $331m, boosted by increasing numbers of internet poker players.

The company said that bumper performances in its online poker and casino divisions saw overall revenue to the end of 2011 increase 26 per cent. That was buoyed by a 28 per cent increase in fourth-quarter revenue to $91m compared with the same period in 2010.
Brian Mattingley, 888’s deputy chairman, said that he was “delighted” with the results, which have helped the company’s share price double since September.

The company said that full-year poker revenues increased 58 per cent to $61m while online casino revenue was up 27 per cent to $148m.

However, Ivor Jones, an analyst at Numis, said that the company faced an uncertain 2012. “Following excellent recent performance the shares are likely to pause for breath,” he said. “The next 12 months hold some uncertainty, the impact of the Olympics and the Euro 2012 competition on players in particular.”

Paul Leyland, an analyst at Investec, warned that the company, which operates in 25 countries, was “vulnerable” to government tax changes.

Last month shares in 888 Holdings rose 11 per cent after the company announced a deal with US-based Caesars Interactive Entertainment to supply it with an online poker platform.

Online gambling, including poker, is largely banned in the US under federal law, but several London-listed companies have been investing there in anticipation of regulatory change.

888 shares declined by 0.5p, or 0.8 per cent, to 56.7p in late afternoon trading.

The federal government’s criminal online poker case was dealt a winning hand on Tuesday when a federal judge in Manhattan denied motions to dismiss the April indictment.

Judge Lewis Kaplan refused requests to dismiss all the government’s counts made by John Campos, a former vice-chairman of a Utah bank that allegedly accepted a cash infusion in return for handling online poker transactions, and Chad Elie, a payment processor who is accused of deceptively facilitating the flow of funds between U.S.-based players and online poker companies. “Defendants’ argument that poker is not gambling fails, at least at this stage,” Kaplan wrote in an eight-page memorandum opinion.

Kaplan’s decision is not much of a surprise since he already stated at a pre-trial hearing in December that it would be “extraordinarily unlikely that the entire indictment will be dismissed.” Kaplan made clear on Tuesday that the motions never had much of a chance, saying “there is no summary judgment in criminal cases.”

Nevertheless, the fact that Kaplan left all eight of the government’s counts intact is a setback for Campos, Elie and the other six men who remain under indictment as a result of the government’s online poker crackdown. Three other individuals have already pleaded guilty.

Judge Kaplan did poke holes in some of the arguments made by big shot lawyers like former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement on behalf of Campos and Elie at the December pre-trial hearing. For example, Kaplan said that even if Campos and Elie argued they were only financial transaction providers they might not be exempt from violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act if they had knowledge of bets and were controlled by unlawful online gambling firms.

Judge Kaplan called the argument that poker is not gambling “surprising” and said that Campos and Elie will need to defend at trial the government’s claims that they violated the Illegal Gambling Business Act. “It would be inappropriate,” Kaplan wrote, to dismiss any count “for lack of proof at this point in time.”

Campos and Elie are set to go on trial next month, nearly one year after Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, shut down the U.S. operations of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, unleashing a criminal indictment of 11 men and a $3 billion lawsuit against the companies and some of their founders and board members.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released a decision on the scope of the Federal Wire Act, a 1961 law that prohibits certain types of gambling businesses. According to the DOJ’s opinion, the Federal Wire Act applies to sports betting but not to other forms of online gambling like Internet poker. I’m glad the DOJ finally listened to the pleas of thousands of Americans and clarified a vague rule that was standing in the way of the development of a fair and safe online poker market in the U.S.

Since that decision in late December of 2011, lawmakers at the state and federal levels have been considering proposals to license and regulate a U.S. online poker market, but the news is also raising concerns in some circles that legalizing online poker would only perpetuate underage and problem gambling. For these individuals, the natural reaction is to maintain the all-out ban on online poker. If that happens, Americans will continue to play online poker on foreign websites. The only difference will be that the U.S. government won’t be able to do anything to protect them.

First, a little background. The great game of poker is an American pastime that has been enjoyed by presidents, Supreme Court justices and many members of Congress through the years. Today, millions of Americans play for recreation and, in some cases, for their primary or secondary income. Though the DOJ has always agreed that Internet poker is not illegal for the player, enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and, until recently, a vague description of what type of online wagers violate the Federal Wire Act have forced online poker companies to operate outside of the U.S. Along with the loss of significant revenue and jobs, this has resulted in the outsourcing of consumer protections.

Given America’s significant role in pioneering the Internet, it boggles the mind that an online version of poker should invoke such restrictions. As a father, I understand the natural inclination to want to protect our kids from harmful material on the Internet. But as a former senator of the great state of New York, I also understand the importance of upholding the core principles this country was founded on: freedom, competition and leadership.

The challenge is not how to stop the evolution of poker, because frankly it is unstoppable, but rather how we can strike the right balance between ensuring Americans’ personal freedom and creating a smart regulatory structure to protect consumers. This is a formidable task indeed, but in fact the framework has already been proposed for consideration through congressional legislation numbered H.R. 2366. Instead of outsourcing our consumer protections to foreign countries, smart legislation, such as this bill, would include the “best of breed” technologies that have already been tested in various European countries that have been licensing and regulating the online poker market for years. Take, for instance, the technology that requires players to not only verify they are adults, but also to prove they are a specific adult whose identity can be separately verified. This technology is already effective for securing Internet banking and will be required by any licensed U.S. online poker operator.

We can also protect Americans with gambling problems by allowing players to set limits on how much they want to deposit and create a list of excluded people who are not allowed to play on licensed sites. In addition, we have the tools to identify players who are exhibiting signs of being problem gamblers and proactively alert them and provide resources and information to help them evaluate their playing habits. This too should be required and properly enforced by every licensed site.

If we are serious about protecting problem gamblers and our kids from fraud and abuse online, then we need to create a licensed and regulated U.S. online poker market. Through effective legislation, we can protect our citizens while ensuring a competitive and fair marketplace for poker players. It’s time Congress looks beyond the status quo of doing nothing and takes on the responsibility of protecting American citizens.

Alfonse D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the chairman of the Poker Players Alliance.

Platinum selling British musician Robbie Williams has launched his own online poker site called Robbie Williams Poker which will offer free online poker games.

The launch of the Robbie Williams free online poker room may seem somewhat unusual considering that 37-year-old Williams is no poker professional.

He is, however, a highly successful UK singer and song writer and ex-member of 90s pop group 'Take That', whose worth is estimated at over £100 million. But Williams says he occasionally plays cards with his wife and friends and therefore starting his own online poker room is a logical progression.

Robbie Williams Poker claims to be essentially a play for free site and describes itself as the "new home for free fun poker".

In this online poker room poker players and Robbie Williams fans play each other to win great prizes and create the craziest avatars. The range of prizes includes Robbie Williams-related merchandise, concert tickets and a meeting with the muso himself.

The invitation says, "So get your poker face on for free online poker tournaments and perfect your Hold'em Poker skills." Robbie Williams Poker clarifies that this is not an offer to gamble. All games are played with virtual game money with no cashable value.

Players, however, will have to pay for certain tournaments. The online poker site states: "Many tournaments require a buy-in to participate…because if you aren't risking anything then why are you playing!?" The player's loss in this case is restricted to the buy in. The money used in the tournament is play money.

Robbie Williams Poker Comes Under Fire

Though online poker sites are commonplace, Robbie Williams Poker has come under fire, mainly because of the fact that online gambling addiction is reportedly on the rise and that Robbie Williams himself is no stranger to addiction. Although he is now reportedly clean and sober, Williams' has admitted that he has a "self-destructive" personality and has battled substance abuse, alcoholism and depression his whole life. As such, critics are lambasting Williams for promoting an online activity that if unchecked can potentially lead to addiction.

Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt said, "Robbie Williams of all people should be sensitive to the problem of addiction. I don't believe there is anything harmless about gambling in this way. The problem is escalation, and he must know what this is like." Even Robbie Williams fan forums have expressed similar sentiments.

Another criticism has been that Williams has thousands of fans who are in their teens. Without the maturity of adulthood to guide them, they can in the emulation of their idol form wrong notions of when, where and how much to gamble.

The Genting Poker Series got off to a successful start with 365 players entering the €430 buy in at Star City, Birmingham, England at the weekend.

The main event was won by Nottingham man Ruslan Vlasov who took down the £18,200 first prize as well as a seat worth €1,600 to the grand final at the Palm Beach Casino in London in December.

Vlasov took down the £100,000 guaranteed event by calling Neil Ryder’s J-5 all in with A-7. An ace on the bpard secured his victory. He said afterwards, “I feel amazing, just amazing. It was my first big event and to take it down is unbelievable. I usually play a lot of cash games around Nottingham, Leeds and London but I fancied a crack at a tournament.

“The structure was really good and people played tight so I just played my game. It is a fantastic series Genting has created.”

The final table payouts (post-deal) were:
1: Ruslan Vlasov — £18,200 + £1,600 grand final seat
2: Neil Ryder — £13,700
3: David L’Honore — £17,550
4: Yucel Eminoglu — £10,750
5: Don Jones — £13,000
6: Martin O’Donoghue — £16,995
7: George Clyde-Smith — £3,285
8: Barny Boatman — £2,190
9: Kate Langshaw — £2,045

Vadzim Kursevich captured the European Poker Tour Deauville title yesterday after putting in a dominant performance at the final table. The Belarus professional bettered his third places in last year’s EPT Berlin to scoop the €870,000 first prize.

The day began with a lot of the focus on Luca Pagano, who was at his seventh EPT final table, and enjoying his twentieth cash, but still looking to better the third place he achieved way back in 2004 at the first EPT tournament in Barcelona. He couldn’t manage it however, and was the second player to hit the rail, outlasting only short-stacked Irishman Mick Graydon.

Once Pagano had departed it was more than three hours before the next player left, in a day that ended up lasting nearly twelve hours. That player was Olivier Rogez, who regarded just winning his seat at the event as his biggest achievement in the game, but ended up walking away with €155,000. There was a nice story behind fifth-placed Bruno Jais too; he accidentally entered an online satellite while trying to sit at a €10 mtt – the €500 entry fee left him with just a single euro in his account. But his final table finish here should repair the damage, he took €200,000 home, more than double the $120,000 he earned for fourth position in a WSOP Pot Limit Omaha tournament eight years ago.

Yovane Keringard and Voung Than trong fell in fourth and third respectively leaving Kursevich heads up for the title with Paul Guichard. Holding a 23 million to 3 million chip lead it looked only a matter of time for the Belarussian, but Guichard battled back to almost reach chip parity. The decisive hand saw the money go in on the flop with Guichard holding a set and Kursevich with an up-and-down straight draw and flush draw. The turn was a blank, but the river hit the straight and handed Kursevich the title.

The payouts from the final table were as follows:

1. Vadzim Kursevich – €875,000
2. Paul Guichard – €557,000
3. Voung Than Trong – €328,000
4. Yorane Keringard – €260,000
5. Bruno Jais – €200,000
6. Oliver Rogez – €155,000
7. Luca Pagano – €110,000
8. Mick Graydon – €67,200

Canadian poker pro Daniel Negreanu tweeted a couple days ago: “Important: Do NOT send me any emails the account appears to have been hacked. Just landed in LA nice news.”

The hacker not only hacked Negreanu’s account, but also got into his PokerStars account and played at the high-stakes tables with Negreanu’s money. He discovered that his accounts were high-jacked on his way back to LA from Australia after playing in the Aussie Millions.

The perpetrator logged into the KidPoker PokerStars account and found $100K sitting in the account. Four hundred hands later at the $100/$200 NL tables, $46K of Negreanu’s money was lost.

Other players on PokerStars actually suspected something wasn’t right when KidPoker wasn’t playing in his typical style and started discussing the inconsistent play on TwoPlusTwo, suggesting that maybe Negreanu was just hung over. Later Negreanu posted on the online poker forum, “Some of you NVGtards really thought that was me😟 Man HSP has really done wonders for my image ”

PokerStars has vowed to return the money to Negreanu’s account.

Every week, Bovada hosts thousands of poker tournaments, ranging from single table events to their massive $100,000 guaranteed tournaments There's really no way we can cover all of them, but we do want to make sure you keep up with who won the biggest of the big games so you know how hot the action is there.

So, who took the top spot in this past Sunday's $100,000 guaranteed online poker tournament? Suzie M took first place this week, earning $20,500 for her victory. She was followed by Long Y ($14,000) and Anaras A, who rounded out the top trifecta while pocketing $10,200. Here are the rest of the final table results: Mark P ($7,800); Adam A ($5,300); Alok A ($4,100); Ervin W ($3100); Kaylani K ($2,100) and Thomas C ($1,400).

In addition to show-stopping Sunday events, Bovada hosts a series of regular big-money weekly tournaments for players, and here are the winners of last week's events!
• January 30 — $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: Doug S
• January 31 — $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: Brian A
• February 1 — $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: Nicholas A
• February 2 — $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: Michael S
• February 3 — $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: Andrew W
• February 4 — $10k Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack: Joseph P
• February 5 — $15k Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack: Joshua D
• February 5 — $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: Joshua D
• February 5 — $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack:Isidoro M

Bovada's guaranteed tournaments mean that there's always a big cash pool and with more players getting in on the action every week, that means there's more to be won! Play poker online at Bovada and get your share today!

Hi,

Its so sad the account was Hacked.... I will also say that to give back the money to Negreanu’s account......<

That's great the payment reaches to the Entitled...

Which one you like?

Many of my friends who use to play omaha are not getting bore from Hold'Em.

Circus Groupe and PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, today announced that PokerStars.be - BPS Belgian Poker Series Holdem Poker Freerolls has become one of the first online poker sites in Belgium to be officially granted a license under the Casino de Namur A+ license. The site was authorised in 2011 by the Belgian Gaming Commission in a test phase, but has now become officially recognised with a full license.

Mr. Etienne Marique, Chairman of the Belgian Gaming Commission, said: “This is an important step forward for the regulation of online gambling. Not only is the legal framework offering the possibility for operators to offer their online games of chance, but from an economical point of view gambling operators are given opportunities in Belgium. And all this in an environment that protects players more than illegal websites do – for example, excluded players cannot play at licensed websites and an average hourly loss is applicable to each player.”

Jean Christophe Choffray, Head of Online Gaming at Circus Groupe, said: “We are delighted that with the great efforts and co-operation of the Gaming Board we have been able to become fully regulated in the Belgium market.”

The Belgian Gaming Commission has indicated that beginning this year only fully-licensed operators will be permitted to offer online gaming services in the country and the Commission will actively seek to prevent unlicensed operators from accessing Belgian players.

PokerStars.be is jointly operated with Casino de Namur and is the largest site to be authorised and operational in Belgium. Belgian players are able to play in all PokerStars international tournaments, including the Sunday Million, World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), as well as cash games.

“PokerStars is proud to be among the first fully-licensed operators in Belgium,” said Guy Templer, PokerStars’ Head of Business Development. “We are delighted to be able to offer a locally licensed product to Belgian players through our partnership with Circus Groupe. This furthers our goal to obtain licences in all newly-regulated markets and we look forward to working with the Circus Groupe and Gaming Board.”

PokerStars’ latest operational license in Belgium follows other successful approvals in Italy, France, Estonia and Denmark. PokerStars.it launched in October 2008, offering Italian citizens the chance to participate in games organised by the world’s leading poker operator in compliance with Italian law. PokerStars.fr, which was granted a license in June 2010, permits similar access for French players. PokerStars.ee brought the same privileges to Estonian players in October 2010, as did PokerStars.dk to Danish players in January 2012.

Iowa State senator Jeff Danielson (D-Cedar Falls) said that he will be proposing a bill within a few weeks that would regulate online poker in the Hawkeye State.

Danielson’s proposal comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) memorandum in December that clarified the 1961 Wire Act as being applicable only to sports betting. The antiquated law had previously been cited as legislation prohibiting states from running online gambling sites. The DoJ’s ruling “took a significant hurdle away from the ability to play poker online,” Danielson said.

As of now, the only two states that have passed online poker legislation are Nevada and the District of Columbia, but the D.C. measure is receiving flack from City Council members. Various other states, including New Jersey, California, Connecticut and Florida, are considering online poker bills of their own.

“We believe by the end of this year you will see a handful of states continue to authorize it,” Danielson said. “Because of the DoJ’s opinion, we believe you’ll see very quickly multi-state compacts.”

Danielson’s online poker proposal set to be introduced later this month may not pass easily, as other Iowa lawmakers have differing views on legalized internet poker being available to their constituents. State representative Jeff Kaufmann (R-Wilton) has gone on record as vowing to fight the proposal, saying, “I have a problem any time we’re talking about an expansion of gambling.”

Despite evidence that many Iowa residents are currently gambling online, Kaufmann is unconvinced that a majority of Iowans are in favor of online poker legislation and believes that the harm caused by legalized gambling far outweighs the good brought by additional tax revenue to the state.

“I see so many people spend so much money that they don’t have. I see so many families that are affected negatively by gambling,” Kaufmann said. “I don’t know that the Iowa that my constituents want me to strive for is filled with gambling boats and is filled with horse tracks and is filled with people at home glazed over in front of the computer playing online poker.”

A recent study estimated that online poker in Iowa could generate anywhere from $13 to $60 million in one year, which would result in $3 to $13 million in tax revenues for the state. But Danielson said that money is not necessarily the impetus for passing online poker legislation.

“I don’t give two hoots about the revenue for the state,” Danielson said. “We’re in the black. We have a surplus. I don’t think that’s the reason to do this.”

Kaufmann doesn’t agree that its not about the money. “I think it’s about dollars coming into the state coffers,” Kaufmann said. “I think it’s about dollars going into the pockets of people that own these casinos. A lot of those owners are in Nevada and they’re on the west coast, and they’re not here in this state. I’d rather talk about property tax for the rest of the session rather than spend two days talking about gambling.”

The debts of around a dozen poker pros including Phil Ivey, David Benyamine and Erick Lindgren are the reason for the deal in the sale of Full Tilt Poker to French investor Groupe Bernard Tapie, according to GBT attorney Behnam dayanim.
"$10-$20m still owed"

Between $10 million to $20 million in loans is still owed to Full Tilt Poker by the poker pros in question, Dayanim told online gambling news site Gaming Intelligence last week. He said Groupe Bernard Tapie discovered the outstanding loans while conducting its own investigation into FTP's financial situation.

Questioned further about the investigation by another poker news site, Dayanim said that the investigation indicated that Full Tilt's situation was worse than the investor had initially anticipated, and that this meant there were still a few obstacles that would need to be sorted out before the deal could be closed.
Solution for Players?

This constitutes a setback, but hope is still on the horizon for players who have been unable to access their accounts since US authorities prosecuted Full Tilt Poker officials following the events of Black Friday in April last year.

As it stands, GBT still has a deal with the US Department of Justice in which GBT will acquire Full Tilt for $80 million, and in return authorities will dismiss all civil complaints against the poker site. Once the deal goes through, players should hopefully be repaid shortly afterward.

In 2009, a beefy logger named Darvin Moon spent $130 to enter a satellite Texas Hold 'Em tournament at the Wheeling Island casino in Wheeling, W.Va. The prize was an entry into the 2009 World Series of Poker and $6,000 in expenses.

Moon won that tournament and rode what he says was luck all the way to the final table that year, coming oh-so-close to winning it all but finishing second. That $130 Moon spent turned into $5.18 million, the second-place prize in 2009, a pretty good return on investment.

Satellite tournaments are a way to get a coveted seat at the WSOP without spending $10,000 to enter. Of course, you need to beat a lot of people to get the tourney entry, but it's possible.

Petaluma's 101 Casino series of single-table tournaments has started (there were events Monday and Wednesday), but there are more opportunities at 7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Feb. 18, 20, 22, 27 and 29, and March 5.

Each winner gets a seat at the 101's final table. If you win at the final table, you go to the World Series of Poker, which starts July 7.

The buy-in at Petaluma's 101 Casino is $155. Floor manager Mike Stan said a second tournament for a WSOP seat will be held starting later in March.

Of course, the WSOP isn't the only major tournament you can qualify for via satellites.

The Bay 101 Casino in San Jose has a series of World Poker Tour satellites, six days a week (9:30 a.m. Sunday-Friday) through Feb. 29 for the $10,000 World Poker Tour event that starts March 5.

Buy-in for most of these satellites is $250; of that, $230 goes to the prize pool. The tournament winner gets a $10,000 WPT seat; the rest of the prize money is divided among the second- through 10th-place finishers.

On Saturdays, the buy-in is $540 and the typical prize pool exceeds $50,000. That means the top five finishers get a WPT seat for the March 5 televised tournament.

At 9:30 a.m. from March 1 to March 3 are larger buy-in satellites: $1,050 is the entry and for every 10 players, one gets a seat in the $10,000 event.

However there is a cheaper way in to these big buy-in satellites: a 7 a.m. feeder tournament with a $250 buy-in that can land you a seat in the $1,050 satellite.

Bay 101 tournament director Brian Gudim said he expects the March 5 first prize to be about $1 million with 350 to 375 people playing, down slightly from last year's 415.

About 60 people came into last year's tournament via online satellites, he said, but those have been shut down since last spring's crackdown on online- poker sites.

It's every poker player's nightmare to lose a hand of Hold'em while holding bullets and flopping quad Aces. But for Poobah911 at Americas Cardroom (Doyles Room), it was a dream come true. On February 7th, the online poker player popped Americas Cardroom's Bad Beat Jackpot, which had skyrocketed to well over $500,000. Poohbah originally opened his online poker account at Americas Cardroom less than a week ago.

"The latest Bad Beat Jackpot win will go down in Americas Cardroom as legendary," stated Michael Harris. "Not only did a brand new player pop our $500k Bad Beat Jackpot, but sharing in the prize pool is one of our frequent Bad Beat Jackpot winners, proving that anyone can win this game."

It happened at a 6-max table in a faceoff against online poker player toptrainer, who won the hand with a straight flush. Poohbah takes home $175,232,10, and the winner of the hand, toptrainer, left the table with a healthy $116,809.70.

It's all part of the ongoing Bad Beat Jackpot game at Americas Cardroom. The US-friendly online poker site is softening the blow of losing at the poker tables by paying poker players big money when misfortune strikes.

But it's not just the recipient of the bad beat who walks away a winner when the jackpot hits. The winner of any Bad Beat Jackpot losing hand stands to win 20% of the jackpot, and those who participated in the dealt hand will share 10% of the jackpot (30% of every jackpot goes to reseed the next big one).

Sharing in the 10% was Word Son, who earned $14,605.59 for participating in the hand. Word Son is a 3-time Bad Beat Jackpot winner, having won $37,224.24 in December, and another $8,089.57 the same month.

More info on Americas Cardroom's Bad Beat Jackpot game can be found at AmericasCardroom-eu.

And that's Blair Thein's decided to name it: Pool, Poker & Pain (or, if multiple syllables aren't your thing, PPP.) It looks like it's trying to replace some of the programs that got canceled in 2011, including High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark and NBC’s National Heads-Up Championship with a…we'll call it unique blend of events inside of a single program.

The concept of PPP is definitely different: contestants will compete in all three sports, but to be crowned the winner they will have to thrive in each discipline. Over the course of the first season, sixteen contestants will travel from Florida to Las Vegas while competing in games of high-stakes poker and pool, and also duking it out in the MMA ring. Coaches from each discipline will tutor the contestants along the way and if a player, say. takes a bad beat in a poker hand? They can take on their opponents in the “Circle of Truth” — a 32-foot fighting cage.

The executive producer for the series, Doug Stanley, laid out his hopes for the series in a Letter of Intent published on the PPP website:
It is our assessment that the program concept for “Pool, Poker and Pain” has tremendous potential, possibly even exceeding that of the many shows that are of enjoying enormous success in similar genres today. The addition of high-stakes pool playing to two other compelling subjects that have been proven through the television ratings process and also through the persistence of the programming through multiple broadcast seasons, is very likely a positive addition that will 'stretch' the demographic. We believe that pool will bring in additional viewers who might not have been interested in either poker or in mixed martial arts fighting programming. We at Ridgeline find the addition of pool to these other proven elements to be the very reason that has compelled us to join with Blair Thein and his partners at Team Believe Promotions. We will work hard to see this show come to life as a premium entertainment property.

It sounds like their heart is in the right place, but will the show actually make it to air? Considering what's showing up on The History Channel and the like of late, I'd say there's a good chance.

In the meantime, if you want to play poker online and not worry about somebody challenging you in a steel cage, then Bovada's got the game selection and player support you want!

Belgium yesterday published its first official online poker operator blacklist.

Chilipoker.com, 888.com, Titanpoker.be, and Everestpoker.be are among the online poker operators who have been excluded from operating in the country. A number of online casino operators were also placed on the list.

The government is now expected to ask Internet Service Providers to block access to these URLs.

Elsewhere PokerStars.be announced it was one of the first sites to be officially granted a license to operate under Casino de Namur’s A+ license. The site has been operating since spring last year.

Partouche.be is also currently operating online poker in the country.

Etienne Marique, chairman of the Belgian Gaming Commission, said, “This is an important step forward for the regulation of online gambling. Not only is the legal framework offering the possibility for operators to offer their online games of chance, but from an economical point of view gambling operators are given opportunities in Belgium.

“And all this in an environment that protects players more than illegal websites do – for example, excluded players cannot play at licensed websites and an average hourly loss is applicable to each player.”

Online poker in the U.S. is being prohibited under the false premise that poker is a game of chance. Poker is not a game of chance. It is a game of skill. For this reason, online poker must be legalized for the millions of American poker players who play every day.

Sitting behind a stack of poker chips at a Madison, Wis. casino playing Texas Hold’em, I found myself holding ace-king unsuited in late betting position.

When it was my turn for a pre-flop bet, I made an average-size raise. The other players folded their hands and two players called my bet.

I already knew at this point that both players had pretty good starting hands, although I wasn’t sure if they were better than my ace-king.

The flop brought a jack, queen and ace, all unsuited. I had gotten top pair on the board along with top kicker. The board made me worry, though, because the other two players had acted strong before the flop.

The first player in position checked, with the second player making a bet about half the size of the pot.

I pondered what to do with my current ace-king. I was worried one of these players had a big pair pre-flop and had now made a set or, even worse, flopped the nut straight. I folded because the first player seemed ready to put all his money into the pot as he leaned in closer to the poker table.

After I folded, the first player called the bet made by the second.

The turn card brought a low- numbered card. The first player bet out this time and the second player raised the first player, which the first player then called.

The river card brought another queen, pairing the board. I replayed the hand in my mind, trying to figure out what the other players’ cards were.

I thought the first player had either pocket jacks or aces, while the second player must have had cards to give him a straight or two-pair.

The first player made a final bet, which the second player called. The first player flipped over pocket jacks, giving him a full house.

The second player flipped over his cards, exposing a king-10 suited which gave him a straight, realizing he lost the hand on the river card.

Many new poker players would be tempted to stay in the hand I just described with an ace-king, after getting top pair on the flop. They think ace-king is too good a hand to simply fold in this situation. This is incorrect.

A more experienced player would have seen that holding ace-king, with top pair after the flop, was vulnerable to possible set and straight possibilities from two other opponents in the hand. When these players acted aggressively, showing that they had strong hands, the correct move was to fold ace-king and wait for another hand. That’s exactly what I did.

Every hand of poker includes chance, but in the long run, poker winnings are determined by the skill of individual players.

This is self-evident by professional poker player Phil Ivey’s career winnings of approximately $14 million.

The hand I described demonstrates how poker is not a game of chance or luck.

It is a game that requires an understanding of math, recognizing betting patterns, reading player’s body language and understanding different poker strategies, proving that poker is a game of skill.

Recently, the federal government has been going after U.S. online poker sites for violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

Under this law, companies can be prosecuted for knowingly accepting payments related to wagers or bets placed on the Internet that is unlawful under any federal or state law.

The problem with this is that many people have been prosecuted under another law, the Federal Wire Act, for online poker. Except this law was meant to apply exclusively to sports betting, not online poker.

With the UIGEA, the federal government is trying to apply the misinterpretation that FWA applies to online poker to arrest company CEOs who decided to allow Americans like myself to play poker. This is a huge misinterpretation of FWA and UIGEA that must be changed soon.

Many legal scholars argue that there is no concrete federal statute criminalizing online poker.

We need to stop making criminals out of innocent people.

The U.S. needs to liberate poker players like myself and let us play the game we love without interference.

Sooner or later, Congress will finally recognize that poker is game of skill and legalize online poker for millions of Americans who love the game.