When you've turned nothing into something once already, you tend to believe you can do it again. There's faith your luck will turn. Perhaps it's delusion. But for a professional poker player, self-confidence is essential.
So it is for Walter Wright, who now finds himself in Costa Rica. He left his wife and two children behind to redeem their failing finances and faltering marriage by doing something that's now illegal in the United States — playing poker online. Wright's life began to change in 2005, when he followed his then-girlfriend from New Orleans to Virginia, where she was beginning law school at Washington and Lee University. He'd played strategy and role-playing video games as a kid in Houston, and later began to obsess over chess. That's when Wright noticed his chess buddies were becoming increasingly dedicated to online poker and raving about the returns. Wright became engrossed.
He started as most do, playing what's known as the "cash game." It's simple poker — win by pushing your advantage when the cards are good and bluffing when they're not. If you know the odds, bet wisely and seek out tables with lesser players, within a year or two you can be making a grand or more a week. Five to 10 times more.
Wright started with low-stakes Texas Hold 'em with table limits of just 25 and 50 cents. The beauty of playing online is that he could work eight tables at once. It wasn't the best of money; PokerStars.com was taking its own cut from the pots, generally capped at $2 to $3 each. But as a volume player, he also received rewards points redeemable for things like Amazon gift certificates, which he used to buy food in bulk.
"I was grinding my face off," Wright recalls.
As he honed his feel for the odds and what his opponents were holding, he moved up to Sit-n-Go games, which are essentially small-scale tournaments that can be finished in an hour. It took time, but he began to see more money than he'd ever made as a waiter in New Orleans.
Wright made $17,000 that first year and quit his job. He made $28,000 the next, and $55,000 the year after that.
Four years ago, when his wife got a job in the Las Vegas public defender's office, the Wrights shipped out to Nevada. Wright dabbled in casino poker, where the stakes are higher. But it also required a bigger bankroll and presented wider swings of fortune. He wasn't ready.
"I made some money to, like, get some new tires on the car. Make some money and pay a bill. ... I was getting a little frustrated with that."
That's when he discovered multitable tournaments online. They're like Sit-n-Gos but feature as many as 200,000 participants in a single tourney — and much bigger pots.
It was easier than playing head-to-head in cash games, since the competition was generally worse. Wright's strategy was to play dozens of tournaments a night, primarily on PokerStars, moving conservatively through the early rounds as the lesser players fell away, then amping his aggressiveness as the field was whittled down.
It was still a grinding way to make a living, sometimes requiring Wright to stare at a computer for 24 hours straight. But he'd spent his teens pulling World of Warcraft all-nighters. And now, instead of making bank with tiny pot after tiny pot, he could bring home as much as $15,000 in a single session.
The first year of online tournaments brought him $100,000. A year later, his earnings had doubled, thanks to more than $100,000 he won by reaching the final table at the 7th World Series of Poker event in the summer of 2009.
But the money was coming a bit too easily. "We never really learned to manage money because nobody in our family has ever had any," he says. "So we didn't manage it well. ... My mindset became, 'How much money do you need? I'll make more.' Rather than, 'We need to cut down on expenses,' it was, 'Don't worry, I'll shoot for this goal.' "
Wright found himself retreating more and more into the casinos, especially when he and his wife would fight. He was becoming a classic workaholic, and he didn't enjoy the soul-sapping casino atmosphere. He was equally worried about the effect of Las Vegas on their kids.
Last year he convinced his wife to move to Asheville, N.C., to be closer to her parents. The plan was for her to take the year off, care for their newborn daughter and study for the North Carolina bar. Wright would support them by playing online.
Most of their bank account was consumed by the move, but he had few worries. Why should he? He could always make more.
They moved April 1. Two weeks later, the federal government took his job.
In the online poker world, April 15 is known as Black Friday. That's the day the U.S. Department of Justice shut down and seized the assets of the three biggest companies serving the American market — PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker (which also operated Ultimate Bet) — charging them with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling.
The recent chapter in the ongoing US online poker saga targeted Bodog.com, one of the only more well-known online poker sites still accepting US players. The US Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice seized the Bodog.com domain on Monday just before four individuals including Bodog founder Calvin Ayre and three other of Ayre’s executives, James Philip, Derrick Maloney, and David Ferguson, were indicted on charges of money laundering and running an illegal sports gambling operation between June of 2005 and January 2012, according to the Baltimore, Maryland US Attorney’s Office.
Maryland US District attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commented, “Sports betting is illegal in Maryland, and federal law prohibits bookmakers from flouting that law simply because they are located outside the country. Many of the harms that underlie gambling prohibitions are exacerbated when the enterprises operate over the Internet without regulation.”
The indictments allege that Bodog Entertainment Group, aka Bodog.com, facilitated payments by processors, namely ZipPayments and JBL Services, to transfer more than $100 million to US gamblers and Bodog business promoters.
The four Canadian defendants are facing up to 25 years in prison. As for the company, Bodog is still in operation, as the company was no longer using the Bodog.com domain and had moved operations over to Bovada.lv for US players. The Bodog brand and Bovada.lv domain are run by the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group located in Quebec, Canada in the Mohak Territory of Kahnawake.
Ayre, a philanthropist billionaire, said of the allegations, “I see this as abuse of the US criminal justice system for the commercial gain of large US corporations. It is clear that the online gaming industry is legal under international law…it will not stop my many business interests globally that are unrelated to anything in the US and it will not stop my many charity projects through my foundation.”
Leading online poker room Titan Poker's Lord of the Grind promotion will begin on Thursday March 1, and it promises to reward players each month for their performance at poker tables and live tournaments.
Lord of the Grind
Lord of the Grind sets players targets in four different levels, with can be reached by earning Titan Poker Points through cash games and tournaments. Targets must be reached within each calendar month. So if you miss out in March, no need to worry, they will be reset again from scratch at the beginning of the following month.
Players will receive specific rewards pertaining to the highest level they reach. This could be as valuable as $250 in free playing money, which be attained for hitting the top of the four levels. Of course, players can continue receiving other cash prizes and rewards through participation in the Club Titan VIP Program.
To participate in Lord of the Grind, just log in and play poker at least once each month. Then track your progress as the month goes on via the special widget which can be found on the Titan Poker site.
Titan Poker
Titan Poker has had a massive start to 2012, having already upgraded its software in January to bring customers a fresh new lobby design, user-friendly navigation bar, quicker loading and performance capabilities, and of course the new and improved bonus redemption and points progress bar.
This may not be everyone's cup of tea, so here's a helpful little hint: if you don't like the new version, you can switch back to the old version just by clicking on options > lobby view > mode. Facebook would never let you do that, but Titan Poker will!
Among one of the cleverest in the world of online poker, Mickey Petersen won with brightness the title of the European Poker Tour Copenhagen (EPT). The Danes won against his opponents on the final table and also succeeded in ousting his competitor's final duel, who is none other than the Belgian player Pierre Neuville with his aggressiveness and his talent. For the second time, Pierre Neuville had to give up his dreams, because indeed, he has already missed the title at the EPT Vilamoura in 2009. This is then a huge success for the Danish player who comes to record his first major achievement in live tournaments and in the EPT circuit and who has also just bring up the flag of his country. This victory let him then to win the first prize amounting $ 455,000, the trophy and a Shamballa bracelet. Regarding the fate of the other finalists, Spencer Hudson was the first eliminated, victim of the attacks of the chip leader, Aage Ravn. Steve O'Dwyer also suffered the same fate and had to settle for the 7th place, especially as he started the game with the lowest stack. Niels Van Alphen and Jacob Rasmussen occupied respectively the 6th and 5th place while Aage Ravn finished 4th. Bjarke Hansen was entitled to the third place. Note that this event brought together 299 participants. After this stage of Denmark, the EPT will visit a city of sun, Madrid, Spain from March 12 to 17, 2012.
The Black Diamond Poker Open is the best tournament series out there and it's giving online poker players more and more reasons to get in on the action! Thanks to satellites that start as low as $1 and an aggressive tournament schedule, players with any size bankroll can get started right away.
Not familiar with the Black Diamond Poker Open? Here's how it works. There are two different levels of play: the Contender Series and the Championship Series. The Contender Series features over $100,000 in guaranteed online poker tournaments that have low to mid-range buy-ins, culminating in a $25,000 Guaranteed Main Event on Sunday, March 18.
If you have a little bit more in your bankroll, the Championship Series is perfect for you. It starts right after the Contender Series wraps up and features tournaments with mid-to-high buy-ins starting on March 19th. Like the Contender Series of tournaments, the Championship Series is all leading up to a main event, but this one is massive, to say the least: it's a $250,000 Guaranteed Tournament on Sunday, April 1st where the winner gets at least $50,000 along with a Championship Watch worth $5,000.
Satellite tournaments for the Contender Series and the Championship Series are underway as we speak! Satellites start from $1 and players have over 2000 chances to qualify for the Contender and Championship Series with the array of events on the schedule. If you don't qualify for the main events using the normal schedule, Bovada's also going to be holding Super Saturday Satellite Days the day before each Main Event. On Saturday, March 17th you can qualify for the Contender Main Event and on Saturday, March 31st, players can win their way into the Championship Main Event.
Want to get started? Visit Bovada's Black Diamond Poker Open page and get more details! In addition to the Black Diamond Poker Open, players can also get a bonus of up to $1,000 with their first deposit while enjoying the best player support in the business!
Bodog.com, the long defunct online sports book web site that was recently seized by the Department of Homeland Security did not cause any financial stress because there were no accounts associated with the location. Becky Liggaro or as some call her Bodog Becky a spokesperson for the Calvin Ayre empire Bodog Brand says there isn’t any thing to worry about. Bovada she maintains has nothing to do with Bodog Brand. It is ‘business as usual’ according to the message board Becky puts up. Bodog related brands that are located in Europe and Asia are unaffected by the latest developments in America.
The iconic business man Calvin Ayre doesn’t seem to be over reacting to the news that he could face some serious time in the slammer should the American authorities manage to put their hands on him.
On Calvin Ayres' web site one of his writer contributors produced Mr. Ayres’ statement as a reaction to the indictment and allegations, he said, “I see this as abuse of the US criminal justice system for the commercial gain of large US corporations. It is clear that the online gaming industry is legal under international law and in the case of these documents is it also clear that the rule of law was not allowed to slow down a rush to try to win the war of public opinion.
These documents were filed with Forbes magazine before they were filed anywhere else and were drafted with the consumption of the media as a primary objective. We will all look at this and discuss the future with our advisors, but it will not stop my many business interests globally that are unrelated to anything in the US and it will not stop my many charity projects through my foundation. You can also follow this story here on the number one global online gaming news and entertainment site and the only site I will be doing interviews with for the next while…CalvinAyre.com”
On Thursday, social gaming powerhouse Zynga Inc. announced the launch of a new platform to be available at Zynga.com — marking a separation of sorts from Facebook.
According to the L.A. Times, Zynga’s bold move could give it more freedom to one day pursue a real-money online gambling business without going through Facebook.
However, the San Fransisco-based company, with its millions of players on popular products such as Words with Friends, CastleVille, Zynga Poker and CityVille, will remain intertwined with the business of billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.
Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus said in a statement:
“In 2007 Facebook changed the game with their courageous move to open their platform to us all. We’re proud to be a part of Facebook’s ecosystem and we built Zynga.com to complement their pervasive social graph. Zynga.com will be one of the first sites completely integrated with Facebook which has become the world’s social dial-tone.”
Facebook, which takes a 30-percent cut from Zynga’s sales of digital credits, derived 12 percent of its $3.4 billion 2011 revenue from the relationship.
A spokesman for Facebook told AllThingsD that it doesn’t have any plans to get into real-money gambling.
In January, Zynga Poker publicly announced that it wants to “explore” the possibilities of such a venture. In order to do so in the U.S., the company would have to be licensed in a jurisdiction where it’s legal.
Efforts for a federal online gaming bill are treading water on Capitol Hill, but in Nevada the activity is already legal and regulators have begun to look at possibly licensing companies. Zynga Poker, which would be required to partner with a casino in order to offer real-money games in the Silver State, hasn’t expressed any formal interest to enter the intrastate market. However, Dow Jones Newswire reported on Wednesday that Pincus suggested possible partnership with a company like Wynn Resorts. The Nevada brick-and-mortar hasn’t announced any plans for a partnership since its tentative agreement with PokerStars dissolved after the April 2011 indictment.
Zynga’s home state of California recently introduced a new proposal to make licensed and regulated online poker a reality.
Professional poker player Phil Ivey, who once formed part of Team Full Tilt Poker Pro and made headlines owing to his association with fallen online poker giant Full Tilt Poker (FTP), will participate in his first US live poker tournament after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) charged him following the events of April 15, 2011, commonly referred to as Black Friday. It may be recalled that a number of online poker players in the US could no longer access their online poker funds after the DoJ seized the domain names of FTP, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker and arrested key people associated with these poker sites. Ivey has played on the first day of the Main Event of the 2012 LA Poker Classic, a live poker event that he won in 2008.
When the US federal government cracked down on major online poker rooms Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and PokerStars on April 15, 2011, Phil Ivey had publicly criticized FTP’s failure to refund its ex players in the US. He had also stated that the online poker room had not managed its accounts properly.
Following the events of Black Friday, Phil Ivey sued Full Tilt Poker, demanding $150 million, which was the total amount of money that FTP owed its former poker players. When Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) began expressing interest in purchasing FTP, Ivey withdrew the case.
It was later revealed that Ivey is one of the professional poker players associated with FTP, who actually owe the company money. Allegedly, Ivey has to pay the company around $4 million, and poker media reports claim that debts owed by Ivey and many other online poker players to FTP is delaying the successful completion of GBT’s acquisition of FTP.
Ivey again made headlines when he stated that would not participate in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) of 2011 as a mark of protest against FTP’s failure to refund thousands of ex players. However, Ivey participated in the Macau Main Event of the Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) a few months back, his first poker tournament after Black Friday. Later in January, he participated in the Super High Roller event of the Aussie Millions, in which he won a large prize of $2.1 million.
The first day of the Main Event of the 2012 LA Poker Classic commenced on Feb 24.
We're not making this one up: police in Cyprus have summoned a 98-year-old woman and her fellow elderly poker players to court on gambling charges. The women, most of whom are in their 70s were surprised to receive a court summons this week, more than two years after the raid that got them all in trouble with the police.
That's right: the bust was two years ago, in November of 2009. The ladies had gathered for a four-hour simplified poker-and-bridge party over sandwiches, pastries and tea when the police came knocking.
"They were playing with only very small sums of money, just to make it interesting," Yioula Diakantoni, daughter of the eldest player, told the media. "It's silly for police to concern themselves with such trivial games when there are more serious things they should pursue."
In fact, Diakantoni said that the raid was so shocking that some of the women playing in the coastal town of Limassol attempted to flee the scene while others didn't realize what was going on. In fact, one player asked police to wait until she had finished playing her hand.
Diakantoni said two of the women have since died and another two are in a nursing home. Her mother, Eftychia Yiasemidou, was reluctant to go to court but will if her doctor approves it. Most of the women are simply amused by the affair, she added.
"My mother has never done anyone harm and we hope she continues playing because it keeps her mind sharp," she said.
On Thursday, online gaming giant Zynga announced that it is launching a new proprietary platform at Zynga.com where users can find their favorite games without logging into Facebook. The new platform is expected to go live later this month and will feature five of its most popular games, including Zynga Poker.
For years, Zynga has relied on Facebook to accumulate users. The company boasts as many as 30 million users per month but gets more than 90 percent of its revenue from Facebook. Meanwhile, Zynga accounted for 12 percent of Facebook's revenue last year, according to documents filed in conjunction with Facebook's IPO. Those figures will change drastically now that Zynga has taken steps to separate itself from the social networking leader.
"It's our hope that our Platform partners, and eventually anyone in the industry, can extend the reach of their games and connect to even more players on Zynga.com," said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus in a blog post on Thursday. "Later this year we'll make our platform available for all social game developers through a Zynga API."
The extension from Facebook gives Zynga more financial independence and paves the way for the company to employ a real-money gaming platform. In January, a Zynga spokesperson said publicly that the company was in discussions with several partners about a shift into the real-money online gambling market.
Pincus said Wednesday at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that he sees the opportunity to integrate real money gambling into social games in the U.S. once regulation is in place. He added that the company may partner with a major casino company in the coming months.
"We're definitely talking to all of the players that you would suspect," Pincus said. "We have incredible respect and admiration for brands and groups like the Wynn. I would expect that you'll see a lot of these players kind of figure out their go-to-market partnerships for sure before the end of this year."
According to Dow Jones Newswire, Pincus added that real-money gaming would be a "natural fit" for Zynga.
I’m not a big fan of online gambling, particularly poker. I think it preys on weak, addictive personalities and all too often can destroy innocent lives. And my feelings are shared by the U.S. government which has made online poker illegal. But not everyone agrees with either me or the U.S. government about banning Internet gambling. Richard “Skip” Bronson, for example, the co-founder and chairman of U.S. Digital Gaming (USDG), a company that provides a suite of technologies for legal online gambling, is – not surprisingly, given USDG’s products – a leading advocate of legalizing online poker. Bronson wants to change the law and transform online poker from what he says is a murky offshore business into a highly regulated industry.
One way or the other, Bronson told me when he joined me on Skype, online poker is eventually going to legalized. This inevitability, he explained, is due to the bankruptcy of many U.S. states and their desperate need to collect tax revenue from online gambling. Even in states like Nevada where casinos are critical to the local economy, Bronson told me, online poker is attractive because it can be used to drive business to brick-and-mortar gambling establishments. And this is a good thing, Bronson insists, because it will make online poker not only “safer” but will also guarantee the privacy of gamblers’ data.
So is Bronson right? Is the legalization of online poker inevitable in America? And, if so, is allowing consenting adults to play online poker a good thing?
The National Conference of State Legislatures has come out in opposition to the federal legalization of Internet poker, telling congressional leaders in a letter that the matter should be handled on the state level.
Two state lawmakers, writing on behalf of the organization, cited the last December's ruling by the U.S. Department of Justice, which said the Federal Wire Act of 1961 only applies to sports wagering, as giving states the authority to determine if they want to legalize intrastate online gambling.
"The NCSL believes the federal government should respect the Justice Department ruling and would oppose any efforts by Congress to preempt state authority over Internet gaming," wrote Hawaii State Sen. Carol Fukunaga, and Alabama Rep. Greg Wren, the co-chairs of the NCSL Communications, Financial Services & Interstate Commerce Committee.
The letter was addressed to the Democratic and Republican leaders in both the House and Senate, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The National Conference of State Legislators cited the organization's long-standing opposition to " unwarranted federal preemption of state authority." The lawmakers asked Congress to allow state legislatures to decide whether to approve Internet gaming initiatives within their boundaries.
"We ask Congress to respect the sovereignty of states and to not consider any legislation that would overturn the Department of Justice's ruling or to consider any legislation that would regulate gambling at the federal level," the letter said.
"States have long been able to choose whether or not other forms of gambling should be legal and have been very successful in its regulation. We also ask that the federal government respect the rights of states that choose to prohibit Internet gaming."
Officials from states with lotteries have also opposed federal Internet poker legalization.
Most of the commercial casino industry, including the Washington D.C.-based American Gaming Association, supports the federal legalization of online poker.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hawaii State Senator Carol Fukunaga and Alabama Representative Greg Wren, on behalf of the National Conference of State Legislatures, have spoken out against the federal legalization of Internet poker, instead advocating regulation at the state level.
"The NCSL believes the federal government should respect the Justice Department ruling [on the Federal Wire Act of 1961] and would oppose any efforts by Congress to preempt state authority over Internet gaming," wrote Fukunaga and Wren in a letter to leaders of both parties in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Fukunaga and Wren, who co-chair the NCSL Communications, Financial Services & Interstate Commerce Committee, reiterated the organization’s resistance to "unwarranted federal preemption of state authority."
The letter went on to say: "We ask Congress to respect the sovereignty of states and to not consider any legislation that would overturn the Department of Justice's ruling or to consider any legislation that would regulate gambling at the federal level.”
"States have long been able to choose whether or not other forms of gambling should be legal and have been very successful in its regulation,” the letter said. “We also ask that the federal government respect the rights of states that choose to prohibit Internet gaming."
If you want to enjoy the absolute best online poker tournament action, then you have to check out the Black Diamond Poker Open! It's giving online poker players like you a chance to get in on big-money action, no matter how much is in your bankroll! Thanks to satellites that start as low as $1 and an aggressive tournament schedule, players with any size bankroll can get started right now.
If you’ve never heard of the Black Diamond Poker Open, here's how it works. There are two different levels of play: the Contender Series and the Championship Series. The Series starts this Sunday with a special $20K Guaranteed Kickoff Event at 5pm EST. The Contender series features over $100,000 in guaranteed online tournaments with low to mid-range buy-ins, culminating in a $25,000 Guaranteed Main Event on Sunday, March 18.
If you have a little more in your bankroll and want to get in on big-money action, then the Championship Series is perfect for you. It starts right after the Contender Series wraps up and features tournaments with mid-to-high buy-ins starting on March 19th. Like the Contender Series of tournaments, the Championship Series is all leading up to a main event, but this one is huge — a $250,000 Guaranteed Tournament on Sunday, April 1st. The winner of this event will receive at least $50,000 along with a Championship Watch worth $5,000.
Satellite tournaments for the Contender Series and the Championship Series are taking place right now! Like we said, satellites start from $1 and players have over 2000 chances to qualify for the Contender and Championship Series with the array of events on the schedule. If you don't qualify for the main events using the normal schedule, Bovada's also going to be holding Super Saturday Satellite Days the day before each Main Event. On Saturday, March 17th you can qualify for the Contender Main Event and on Saturday, March 31st, players can win their way into the Championship Main Event.
Visit Bovada's Black Diamond Poker Open page for more details and to download their software so you can get started this Sunday! In addition to the Black Diamond Poker Open, players can also get a bonus of up to $1,000 with their first deposit while enjoying the best player support in the business!
Ryan Lane, who used to process gambling-related funds for online poker rooms, has pleaded that he is guilty of illegal gambling, bank fraud, and money laundering at a federal court in Manhattan. Ryan Lane used to work in direct association with the senior chief executive officers of Absolute Poker, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker. He told the court that he stands guilty of being involved in a scheme that deceived banks into processing gambling money worth billions of dollars. The US federal government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, according to which it isn’t criminal for players to place bets online, but is definitely illegal to accept in full knowledge funds that are somehow related to another person’s participation in online gambling.
The UIGEA made several online gambling companies to withdraw their presence from the US online gambling market. However, Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker stayed on and became the largest and the best US online poker rooms. Since it was illegal for banks in the US to process gambling related funds, these online poker companies hired the services of third-party payment processors such as Ryan Lane, who used all sorts of methods to disguise payments, making it appear as if they had nothing to do with online gambling.
Mr. Lane worked in association with the chiefs of all the three online poker companies, which were cracked down upon by the US federal government through an online payment procession company for which he worked before the UIGEA was passed in 2006. He left his job after the UIGEA was passed and began researching ways to process gambling related funds so that the online poker rooms could continue offering online poker services to US players.
Between 2007 and May 2010, Mr. Lane was associated with a number of senior executives of online poker companies and online payment processing companies who could transfer funds players’ poker funds to and from US bank accounts. He created a number of fake companies through which the poker funds passed, making it appear that these were funds used in the purchase and sale of items not related to gambling.
Mr. Lane (37) surrendered to the US government, and if proven guilty, he will have to be imprisoned for 30 years. So far, defendants Bradley Franzen, Brent Beckley, John Campos, and Chad Elie have also appeared before US courts in relation to this case.
Sky Poker celebrated online poker in the UK with a competition that ran throughout February, titled Play the Nation.
Ten regions played for their Cash for Points boosters, including Wales, Scotland and the South West. The incentive by Sky Poker was to get the UK involved in some fun online poker on a large scale - celebrating UK Poker by getting the UK to effectively play against each other.
The results are in. The top three places were filled from varying regions. The South East was first on the board, with Northern Ireland & ROW coming second and London third.
The promotion worked by handing players a series of bonuses throughout the competition period to keep the ball rolling and to keep the frequent and accumulative. Initially, players were treated to a GBP 5 bonus, the first of many throughout February. The subsequent recurrent bonuses arrived through the Cash for Points scheme, which players were automatically entered into upon joining Play the Nation and entering the promo code, PLAY. In order to qualify for this bonus they had to hit 500 Poker Points in February.
Sky Poker kept tabs on all ten of the regions success throughout the month of February. Players from the top three regions were allocated booster bonuses at the end of the month. Those from the South East were given 100% Cash for Points, second placed Northern Ireland, 50% and Londoners, who came in third place, were given a 25% Cash for Points boost.
The beauty of this Play the Nation Competition was the interconnectivity of the play. Players could feel part of a grander scheme and bigger picture. Playing for themselves, but also a player in a larger team, representing their region to be the best poker players and win maximum points and cash. Another way to win big whilst keeping the play fresh and fun for all!
Cash for Points, including Play the Nation rewards and boosts, will be paid before 6pm on 7th March 2012.
The Merge Poker Network (Lock Poker, Carbon Poker and Poker Host) is holding an Online Poker Tournament Series with over $1.5 Million worth of guaranteed cash and prizes.
Starting Sunday March 4th, the 2012 Poker Maximus Series will feature 70 events. The Series will take place over a three-week period, with at least two events each day. On the 25th of March, there will be a final $200,000 Guaranteed Main event.
If you don’t have the cash to but into these events, there will be many satellite tournaments where you can win your way into the biggest events for as little as $1.10.
If you want a free entry into the events, Lock Poker will be randomly giving away free tournament entries, to players who sign-up (or have already signed-up) for accounts via CardPlayer.com.
There will also be special Card Player Freerolls hosted by Lock Poker, Carbon Poker, and Poker Host, with 24 seats up for grabs. The specifics for these will be announced on CardPlayer.com, Facebook, and Twitter.
Some additional features of the Poker Maximus Tournament Series include:
$85,000 Guaranteed Poker Maximus High Roller Main Event ($215 Buy-in)
Poker Maximus $530 Deepstack Main Event ($100,000 Guaranteed)
Minimum $200,000 Guaranteed Main Event ($109 Buy-in, with at least $50,000 Guaranteed to the winner)
A Tournament of Champions for all Poker Maximus Tournament Winners
Over $1.5M worth of guaranteed cash and prizes
Buy-ins ranging from $1.10 to $530
Unique accolades for event winners and leaderboard places.
Over $25,000 in bonus prizes for those who finish in the top 100 on the leaderboard or play in the tournament of champions.
Player’s Choice Tournament – an event decided by the players!
It's only March, but prospects for federal legalization of Internet poker this year have faded quicker than hopes of drawing an ace on the river card.
When Congress failed to attach online gaming legislation to the payroll tax cut extension in early February, many proponents mucked their hands.
Lawmakers will debate other bills that could serve as the conduit for Internet poker, but it's unlikely they'll get very far.
Trying to pin down lawmakers and lobbyists on potential legislation is difficult. With control of the White House and Congress at stake come November, the hope for Internet poker seems to be drawing dead.
One Capitol Hill lobbyist opined that most members of Congress don't wake up each morning thinking about Internet poker legislation.
The lame duck session -- the period between November's election and the new year, when outgoing lawmakers and departing party leaders try to push through last-minute initiatives --may be Web poker's last gasp in 2012.
Two years ago Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Arizona Republican Sen. John Kyl failed to push through legalization during the lame duck session. Kyl, who is retiring, and Reid, who won't be majority leader if Republicans win the Senate, might try again.
"Trying to peg a time for Congress is never easily predictable," said Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli, who spent part of last week in Washington, D.C.
This dire prediction is not what online poker supporters want to read on the opening day of the iGaming North America Conference at Planet Hollywood Resort. The three-day meeting is designed to introduce commercial casino operators to the Internet gaming industry.
While the federal level has quieted, the action is now with the states.
Nevada has in place Internet poker regulations allowing Intrastate wagering -- gambling within the confines of the state's borders. More than 20 casino operators, gaming equipment makers, and service providers have applied for licenses under Nevada new regulations.
Lipparelli said the board could begin vetting potential online casino operators by early summer. How quickly those operators can launch their websites depends on their readiness to comply with the state's technical standards and system approvals.
Some have predicted the cards could be in the air -- or on the computer screens -- by year's end. It won't be a large field, however. The virtual poker rooms will only include Nevada residents and others willing to cross state lines to open an account and play.
Hope, however, comes from California, where two state senators introduced an online gambling bill last month. A paragraph in the 46-page bill allows the state to "outsource" the regulatory process to another state with "proven" expertise, i.e., Nevada.
In a perfect world, Nevada and California would form an Internet poker gaming compact where Nevada oversees the activity and the states share revenues. Strip casino operators and Indian casinos could launch websites and compete equally for California and Nevada customers.
But the quagmire that is California gaming and politics seems certain to consume the measure. Too many competing interests will keep the bill from advancing.
Influential Indian tribes control the gaming debate in Sacramento. California card room operators and the state's racetrack industry want a slice of the pie.
Even if the tribes, card rooms and tracks could get on the same page, Facebook, Zynga and other Silicon Valley social media giants are going to seek a piece of the action.
Last week, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said real-money gambling could be woven into social games, pending U.S. regulatory changes. He suggested Zynga would partner with a traditional casino company before year's end.
Former Nevada Rep. Jon Porter said state legalization -- Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi and New Jersey are discussing Internet poker -- could push Washington, D.C., to act. Porter, who became a lobbyist after three terms in Congress, works with the Poker Players Alliance.
He said lack of consensus among commercial casinos, Indian casinos, racetracks and state lotteries stalled the issue.
"The gaming industry itself is the biggest problem. They have put up too many roadblocks," Porter said.
Still, most proponents are optimistic that Congress will eventually approve Internet poker legislation.
Lipparelli's message is to look beyond the next 12 months. After passage, he wants to make sure the best business model is created that satisfies all parties.
"If everybody doesn't come together, it could be a complete nightmare," he said.
So it is for Walter Wright, who now finds himself in Costa Rica. He left his wife and two children behind to redeem their failing finances and faltering marriage by doing something that's now illegal in the United States — playing poker online. Wright's life began to change in 2005, when he followed his then-girlfriend from New Orleans to Virginia, where she was beginning law school at Washington and Lee University. He'd played strategy and role-playing video games as a kid in Houston, and later began to obsess over chess. That's when Wright noticed his chess buddies were becoming increasingly dedicated to online poker and raving about the returns. Wright became engrossed.
He started as most do, playing what's known as the "cash game." It's simple poker — win by pushing your advantage when the cards are good and bluffing when they're not. If you know the odds, bet wisely and seek out tables with lesser players, within a year or two you can be making a grand or more a week. Five to 10 times more.
Wright started with low-stakes Texas Hold 'em with table limits of just 25 and 50 cents. The beauty of playing online is that he could work eight tables at once. It wasn't the best of money; PokerStars.com was taking its own cut from the pots, generally capped at $2 to $3 each. But as a volume player, he also received rewards points redeemable for things like Amazon gift certificates, which he used to buy food in bulk.
"I was grinding my face off," Wright recalls.
As he honed his feel for the odds and what his opponents were holding, he moved up to Sit-n-Go games, which are essentially small-scale tournaments that can be finished in an hour. It took time, but he began to see more money than he'd ever made as a waiter in New Orleans.
Wright made $17,000 that first year and quit his job. He made $28,000 the next, and $55,000 the year after that.
Four years ago, when his wife got a job in the Las Vegas public defender's office, the Wrights shipped out to Nevada. Wright dabbled in casino poker, where the stakes are higher. But it also required a bigger bankroll and presented wider swings of fortune. He wasn't ready.
"I made some money to, like, get some new tires on the car. Make some money and pay a bill. ... I was getting a little frustrated with that."
That's when he discovered multitable tournaments online. They're like Sit-n-Gos but feature as many as 200,000 participants in a single tourney — and much bigger pots.
It was easier than playing head-to-head in cash games, since the competition was generally worse. Wright's strategy was to play dozens of tournaments a night, primarily on PokerStars, moving conservatively through the early rounds as the lesser players fell away, then amping his aggressiveness as the field was whittled down.
It was still a grinding way to make a living, sometimes requiring Wright to stare at a computer for 24 hours straight. But he'd spent his teens pulling World of Warcraft all-nighters. And now, instead of making bank with tiny pot after tiny pot, he could bring home as much as $15,000 in a single session.
The first year of online tournaments brought him $100,000. A year later, his earnings had doubled, thanks to more than $100,000 he won by reaching the final table at the 7th World Series of Poker event in the summer of 2009.
But the money was coming a bit too easily. "We never really learned to manage money because nobody in our family has ever had any," he says. "So we didn't manage it well. ... My mindset became, 'How much money do you need? I'll make more.' Rather than, 'We need to cut down on expenses,' it was, 'Don't worry, I'll shoot for this goal.' "
Wright found himself retreating more and more into the casinos, especially when he and his wife would fight. He was becoming a classic workaholic, and he didn't enjoy the soul-sapping casino atmosphere. He was equally worried about the effect of Las Vegas on their kids.
Last year he convinced his wife to move to Asheville, N.C., to be closer to her parents. The plan was for her to take the year off, care for their newborn daughter and study for the North Carolina bar. Wright would support them by playing online.
Most of their bank account was consumed by the move, but he had few worries. Why should he? He could always make more.
They moved April 1. Two weeks later, the federal government took his job.
In the online poker world, April 15 is known as Black Friday. That's the day the U.S. Department of Justice shut down and seized the assets of the three biggest companies serving the American market — PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker (which also operated Ultimate Bet) — charging them with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling.