Poker forum archive

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of Bally Technologies and International Game Technology, 3G Studios has announced they have applied for an online gaming license in the state of Nevada. The local video game company is hoping that they will be granted a license and then begin offering online poker as soon as this spring.

The CEO of 3G, James Kosta, stated that the company has teamed up with Eldorado and they would love to be able to provide online poker in the spring. Kosta commented: “What we are looking forward to is two, three, or four years from now at a federal level, you’ll be able to start gambling on casual games and arcade games with your friends.”

Kosta has also stated that online gaming is the next step for the gaming industry. Kosta is envisioning betting on sports option via the iPhone and then eventually offering $1 to $2 on the cell phone on games such as Words With Friends.

KTVN spoke with Kosta and asked him about what he would say to those who are against his support of gambling as well as his idea of offering it online and he stated: “When people contain themselves within that box and decide they’re going to spend $10 an hour gambling or $50 an hour gambling, whatever they can afford that’s responsible, then it absolutely is a form of entertainment.”

Despite Kosta’s ideas, they will not be able to begin until online gaming is available on a federal level. Congress must pass the option and it has seemed unlikely to be in the near future. However, in a recent debate between Dean Heller and Shelley Berkley, Heller commented that legislation for online gaming will be passed by the end of the year.


3G Studios Hopes to Provide Online Poker This Spring

Being among the first European countries to legalize the opening of the online poker market, Italy is currently facing a difficult situation. Indeed, the AAMS (Amministrazionne Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato) announced at its annual report that online gambling revenues in Italy are down significantly. By referring to figures, a decrease in revenue of approximately 30% was observed between August 2011 and August 2012. On the results of online poker, a sharp decline of 75% was recorded in tournaments income. If cash games have been a very important source of income at the beginning of their implementation fifteen months before, now the revenue that it brings to the State fell by 40%.


The problem that afflicts to the Italian online poker market is caused by high taxation that infuriates operators looking for a good return and players wanting to get a little profit, not to mention the fact that the game is restricted to local players. Other operators of online games in Europe must therefore take account of the case of the Italian market to improve the management of their respective markets. In France, the balance sheet is not yet as negative. Indeed, tournament results showed a marked increase. Note that a project aimed at bringing closer the Italian and Spanish market is considered by regulators in both countries to reboost the online poker industry.


Poker News - Online poker: The Italian market in regression

In August, South Point Poker LLC became the first company to receive a license to operate an intrastate online poker room and was confident it would have its site up and running to serve Nevada residents this month. As it turns out, that will not happen, but South Point has said that everything is still on track despite it taking a bit longer than it had hoped.

The hold-up appears to lie with the independent testing process, not with South Point itself. The company’s Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Vaughan told VegasInc-com, “We feel we could launch today. But you’ve got to go through the independent testing labs, you have to satisfy the State Gaming Control Board and because we are the first, we’re going to be under the microscope. They’re going to prod us every which way, and that’s good. We don’t want to come out and fall flat on our face and be an embarrassment for Nevada.”

South Point has developed its own poker client, which makes it different from many other Nevada applicants who are looking to partner with software developers. In a July interview with eGaming Review (EGR) magazine, South Point CEO Michael Gaughan said that an independent lab was in the second wave of testing its software. There is no indication that the software will not pass, the tests are just taking longer than expected.

South Point now estimates that its new site will go live sometime near the end of 2012.

The company is no stranger to the online poker game. In October 2011, South Point launched the free-to-play South Point Poker on the ZEN Entertainment Network. No fees whatsoever are required on the network – games are completely free. Despite the zero cost and cash and prizes, the poker room has not done as well as Gaughan anticipated. It (the software) was complicated and hard to download,” he told EGR. “[The poor results were] partly down to the provider and partly because I lost interest in it when it didn’t grow as fast as I thought it would.”

That site has finally been closed. “We thought there was a lot of confusion happening,” Lawrence Vaughan told VegasInc. “People see something in the press saying we’re the first to be licensed, and then they go to the site and see this free play thing. Now that we’re licensed, we put so much effort in to building our own stuff that we wanted the focus to be on that.”

Despite the delay, South Point should still become the first intrastate online poker room in the United States. Monarch Interactive also received a license from the Nevada Gaming Commission, but it did not have its own software and had not even partnered with a provider yet.

Said Michael Gaughan in July, “I may not be the biggest or the best, but hopefully I’ll have a head start by two or three months.”


South Point Intrastate Online Poker Room Delayed

The internet has given a new lease of life to the game of poker. In the past, the card game was usually the preserve of bricks and mortar casinos, which meant the casual punter may have felt uncomfortable taking it up.

Now though, anyone wanting to take part in poker games, at sites such as poker-ladbrokes-com, can do so with just a quick download and a few clicks of the mouse.

It's true that the game's profile was boosted by TV shows such as Late Night Poker, but the real boom came with the internet age.

The fact people can play online for low-stakes or even for free helps smooth out the steep learning curve of a game which despite its apparent simplicity requires skill and a keen mathematical mind.

This isn't to say online poker is any easier than its real world equivalent, indeed the vast majority of top players partake in both forms of the activity.

What it does mean is that people can easily find opponents who match their skill levels, and stakes which suit their pockets.

Of course, poker has faced a few stumbling blocks along the way and these may prevent it from becoming the most popular online game.

It has had to struggle with legal considerations around the world, most notably in the United States were a number of sites were shutdown on the pretext of the game being against the law.

But poker continues to grow in other ways, and social gaming versions of the activity have helped spread its appeal even further.

Freerolls, deposit bonuses and sign up bonuses will also help the game to reach new players.

The game has also taken advantage of the boom in mobile betting, with major names in the sector rushing to develop apps which bring poker to smartphones and tablets.

With the game continuing to enjoy a high profile as big name sports, TV and film stars attend tournaments worth millions and promote online poker to new markets it seems clear its popularity will continue to rise.

Quite whether it will go all the way and become the most popular online game remains to be seen, it has a lot of competition for starters.

It is also important to remember what makes the game so appealing for some may be off putting for others - the skill-based nature of poker means it takes time to master, and big tournaments can last hours, even if the game is quicker online than in a real life casino.

This means people who want a quick slice of enjoyment are going to stick to things such as online slots.

Still, poker's complex nature means that for those who enjoy it, it will undoubtedly stay as their number one online game for sometime to come.

With improved technology, great promotion and celebrity backing, poker will remain a huge player in the online gaming industry.

Quite whether it can knock its rivals off the number one spot is yet to be seen, but it will certainly have a good go.


Could poker become the most popular online game? | This is Cornwall

Moderator i just want to ask a single question which poker game is best to earm money from small amount of dollers?

It depends on your skills!

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email]ftsales-support@ft-com[/email] to buy additional rights. Spanish boost for 888 revenues - FT-com

Spanish poker players have helped boost quarterly revenues at 888 Holdings.

In a trading statement, the online gambling company said revenue in the three months to September 30 rose by 7 per cent to $92m, compared with the same period last year, driven by a 21 per cent rise in poker revenue to $22m. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email]ftsales-support@ft-com[/email] to buy additional rights. Spanish boost for 888 revenues - FT-com

“Poker in Spain has assisted significantly in the growth of our poker business,” said Brian Mattingley, 888’s chief executive. “Since we entered [Spain], we have become second in the market with 20 per cent share.”

He attributed the rapid take-up to the company’s ability to attract recreational players even in an economy in deep recession.

“Our poker product is attractive to the casual player, and that’s our market...we actually encourage the fish to come into our pool and we dissuade sharks, or professional poker players.”

Adapting quickly to new gambling regulations in Spain also played a part, according to Nick Batram, an analyst at Peel Hunt.


Read More: Spanish boost for 888 revenues - FT-com

Online poker site Cafrino-com today announced it had dealt its millionth hand, less than a month after it launched. The milestone was reached just as the California Attorney General’s office began questioning whether it is operating legally.

Cafrino-com co-founders Sean Stavropoulos and Jonathan Aiwazian are confident that no laws are being broken, since it does not accept any kind of payment from its players. There are no subscription fees, membership fees, virtual currency or anything else that requests cash, so players never risk their own money.

Instead, prizes are paid by pooling advertising revenue from tournament sponsors. According to Stavropoulos and Aiwazian, this means that Cafrino poker games are classified as sweepstakes and as such are legal in all 50 U.S. states.

A spokeswoman for the California Attorney General Kamala Harris said the statute relevant to online poker basically means that “playing for something of value is illegal.”

Real-time video ad platform LiveRail handles the advertising, according to news reports.


State questions legality of poker site Cafrino-com

At Thursday’s Gaming Commission hearing in Las Vegas, Boyd Interactive Gaming, which plans on utilizing the software of bwin.party digital entertainment, formally snagged a license to operate online poker in the state of Nevada.

About a year ago, Boyd Gaming Corp. inked a deal, along with MGM Resorts International, to jump into the online gaming business through a partnership with the parent company of PartyPoker, once a dominant American-facing operator.

“We knew we didn’t want to write code or write a big check to buy an Internet gaming company,” the new licensee told regulators Thursday. In other words, it didn’t want to develop in-house software or takeover an existing technology firm like others have done. It “interviewed” 18 different possible partners before deciding on bwin.party.

Boyd Gaming called bwin.party the “second largest poker network in the world.”

A previous version of the United Kingdom-based firm left the American market after the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, while PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker stayed around. The latter two eventually fell into boiling water with the feds, while PartyGaming avoided a comparable scandal. Although trailing far behind PokerStars in terms of players these days, bwin.party is still one of the dominant players in the web poker industry.

The parent company of Boyd Interactive Gaming owns numerous properties in Las Vegas, such as Fremont Hotel and Casino, Gold Coast, Orleans Hotel and Casino. Boyd Gaming Corp. also has interests in other states, including Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Boyd Gaming won’t offer games until bwin.party also is licensed in Nevada. Bwin.party has applied, but hasn’t had a public hearing yet.

Bwin.party also owns the World Poker Tour brand.


Read More: PartyPoker Parent One Step Closer To U.S. Return

Belgium is an important country in Europe mainly because it is at the heart and soul of the European Union. Belgium recently announced it offer online poker firms a chance at licenses to offer the skill based activity. The strictest of regulations doesn’t make the application process easy for operators but many have gone and jumped through all the hoops to acquire the right to offer internet poker services in Belgium.

One of the most controversial requirements was the requirement for applicants to find a terrestrial casino partner to align ones fortunes with. Unibet which started in 1997 now has 5.7 million customers in over one hundred different nations. This is one of the largest gambling firms in the world today and it has been looking forward a great deal of late.

The company recently announced a deal with The Rank Group, based in the U.K. to make entering the market in Belgium a possibility. Rank’s Grosvenor Casino group has two brick and mortar establishments in Belgium and the Casino van Blankenberge supplies the home ground for Unibet’s new license to operate on Belgium soil. Poker players in Belgium will now be able to enjoy the fruits of Unibet’s labours and access the Microgaming poker network an established and trusted brand. Belgium is not a separate entity the pools are all in and this means more liquidity and bigger prizes. The licenses to operate internet wagering in Belgium have been available for almost a year already with Poker Stars Partouche, Win2day and Golden Palace already operating in the Belgium domain.

It has been suggested that poker is on the decline in Europe with reports that revenues have dropped by thirty percent in Italy in 2012. It could be there isn’t as much cash around by looking at the Eurozone debt crisis people may be not spending as much on games of poker or maybe they are betting more on sports.

Online Poker License For Unibet in Belgium

Three more casino operators received online poker licenses today to compete in Nevada's developing intrastate market.

They are online subsidiaries of Boyd Gaming Corp., for Station Casinos LLC and the founding Fertitta family's Ultimate Poker brand, and for the Golden Nugget with casinos in Las Vegas and Laughlin.

The applicants were approved today by the Nevada Gaming Commission, which met in Las Vegas, and had received initial approvals Oct. 3 from the state Gaming Control Board.

The licenses are not for video poker but for players to compete against each other online as now occurs in physical casino poker rooms.

Bob Boughner, executive vice president and chief business development officer at Boyd, told gaming commissioners the company sees online poker as a way for Nevada to diversify its economy.

Nevada is positioned to lead the nation as online gaming expands on a state-by-state basis or nationwide, as many of the biggest operators will be based here and are creating jobs, online operators say.

Boyd expects online poker to grow the Nevada market rather than cannibalize physical poker rooms, in part because in the online sector players can play in multiple games at the same time -- something not possible in physical casinos.

"This is a significant reason this market will grow,'' Boughner said, adding the online component could double the size of Nevada's current land-based poker market generating annual revenue of 132 million from 872 tables.

Today's approvals lift to a dozen the number of Nevada online poker licensess.

The others approved this summer and fall are South Point Poker, Global Cash Access Holdings, Bally Technologies, SHFL entertainment (formerly Shuffle Master), American Casino and Entertainment Properties, PokerTrip Enterprises and NetEffect Networks, all of Las Vegas; International Game Technology and Monarch Interactive of Reno; and WMS Industries of Waukegan, Ill.

Additionally, physical casino giants, including Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts, have submitted online poker applications.

South Point Poker is among the companies that appears to be close to receiving final technical and regulatory approvals to go live with its site, and it hopes to do so by the end of the year.

Boughner separately was asked about Boyd's stalled Echelon resort on the Las Vegas Strip and said there's no current economic catalyst to resume construction.

He said the company is working on plans to improve the appearance of the site with improved landscaping and wraps for exposed structures, and they should be in place next year.

Gaming commissioners separately approved plans for contract operator Navegante Gaming of Las Vegas to operate the LVH hotel-casino once it's foreclosed on, which is expected on Oct. 31.

LVH officials said it will be business as usual after the foreclosure for the property's customers and vendors and that "substantially all" of its 2,200 employees will be rehired.

Foreclosing lenders including investment bank Goldman Sachs plan to own the LVH indefinitely while they decide what to do with it.



www-menafn-com/menafn/7d4849d9-b5f0-4934-afb0-e762d6312dc3/Three-more-casino-operators-get-online-poker-licenses?src=main

On Thursday, the Golden Nugget, located in Downtown Las Vegas, acquired a license to operate real-money web poker. It will run its games via a partnership with Bally Technologies.

The brick-and-mortar property is one of the city’s oldest casinos, opening way back in 1946. The Golden Nugget started offering a free-play poker site earlier this yer.

Its games were run by Chiligaming, which has been acquired by Bally Technologies.

In addition to the Golden Nugget, Fertitta Interactive, which is under the umbrella of Station Casinos, as well as Boyd Interactive Gaming, received licenses Thursday.

Bally Technologies, a business-to-business provider, was licensed this summer.


Golden Nugget Gets OK To Run Online Poker

Roughly a month after an summary of the long-rumored Reid/Kyl bill found its way into the hands of the media, additional details regarding the legislation are emerging.

Rich Muny, VP of Player Relations for the Poker Players Alliance, confirmed to pokerfuse that a legitimate draft of the bill does exist and the PPA has acquired a copy.

According to Muny, the full draft of the bill does not differ significantly from the summary that circulated in September, save one critical change: Language regarding player penalties has been removed from the bill.

The original summary of Reid/Kyl contained a vague and controversial provision: “To deter U.S. players from patronizing illegal sites, the bill makes explicit that any property involved in or traceable to a gambling transaction in violation of the new act (including winnings) is subject to forfeiture.”

Many read this to mean that any and all US player funds at unlicensed online poker sites would be under constant threat of seizure from the government.

Muny asserted that this language is now completely absent from the current bill draft. “It’s very clear and explicit that there are no criminal penalties for players,” Muny said. “They knew we would likely oppose a bill with player penalties and were willing to answer us on that.”

Instead, Muny explained, the bill draft contains language that simply prohibits players from seeking restitution from the federal government if the government seizes funds from unlicensed sites or associated payment processors.


Read More: Draft of Reid/Kyl Online Poker Bill Obtained by PPA | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

Full Tilt Poker is just weeks away from relaunch and players and fans of the site are ready to see Full Tilt back in action. Good news continues to stream in about the relaunch and what Full Tilt is going to be offering, however, for former affiliates, the news is not so good. The Rational Group has just informed affiliates that they will not be earning their past commissions, which is unfortunate for former affiliates of the online poker room.

The Rational Group is the parent company of both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker and they stated that they have removed the previous payments made from player accounts along with not paying the past affiliate commissions. A letter was sent out to former affiliates by the group which read:

“Other than the non-U.S. player balances, The Rational Group did not assume any liabilities of the previous Full Tilt Poker companies and therefore previous contractual agreements that Full Tilt Poker may have had with affiliates were excluded. As such, The Rational Group is not liable and will not pay for any affiliate earnings which may have been due to you under your agreement with any former Full Tilt Poker company.”

Affiliate payments were in question just a few months ago as a Full Tilt Poker representative was asked a question on the subject at TwoPlusTwo online poker forums. The representative had stated: “I don’t have the answer for this (affiliate payments). I’m confident that once the affiliate plan is solidified all of the affiliates will be updated”

One option affiliates had was to be paid though their Full Tilt Poker account and these accounts have had the funds removed. The letter to affiliates read: “For those accounts where player funds are commingled with funds derived from affiliate earnings, The Rational Group will only be making the portion of the funds relating to your previous player activity available for withdrawal.”

The Rational Group is still working on the current affiliate program and have announced that it will not be available until 2013.


Former Full Tilt Poker Affiliates Losing Out On Payments

WSOP Main Event chip leader Jesse Sylvia believes he might be destined to win this one.

“Every day I felt like I was going to make the final table,” he told Pokerfuse in an email. “I was playing well and running well, and I felt a bit invincible.”

One of the key moments for him came at the feature table on Day 7, when he hit a running full house against Greg Merson, after Merson turned a flush.

“The crowed gave an 'oooooooh,’ but I was already collecting my things,” Sylvia said. “Then the river was a 3, bringing my full house. I ran to my rail, and we all went nuts. It was a sign, to me, that this was my tournament to win. A few hours later, we made it to the final table, and I had a mountain of chips in front of me.”

Sylvia will return to the final table with 43,875,000, which is 14.5 million more than the second biggest chip stack of Andras Koroknai.

The 26-year-old grew up in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and still considers that home.

Sylvia started playing online while living in Massachusetts, and made a bunch of small deposits before finally finding success. He chopped a Pokerstars Sunday Million in college and that gave him “financial flexibility” and the confidence to turn pro.

He wants to bring as many friends and family from back home to rail the final table later this month.

“Where I live there is a pretty large, tightly knit community, and I expect a lot of friends will come out,” he said. “The support of friends and family is so, so important. They make me want to be a better person, player, etc. I really believe that the people close to you keep your head straight, especially in times like this, where there is so much that can rattle a person.”

If he takes down the $8.5 million top prize, his first priority is to party.

“Really hard,” he said. “Then I’ll buy my mom a house.”

He also believes the Main Event champion should promote the game.

“It’s a game of skill and strategies,” he said. “If I win, and become an ambassador, I’d like to promote that image of the game; that it isn’t just another form of gambling.”

WSOP October Nine Profile: Jesse Sylvia | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

Terrence Chan pays his bills by playing poker. He’s been doing it since 2004. But he doesn’t consider himself to be a full-time poker pro. Chan also competes as a professional mixed martial artist. He’s been doing it for the last couple years. But he doesn’t consider himself to be a professional fighter either.

Truth be told, the 31-year-old Canadian has pretty diverse interests, much more than consumes the typical poker player these days and Chan credits this balance for his longevity in a career that has produced thousands of has-beens and one-hit wonders.

Poker Beginnings

Chan was born in Vancouver on Dec. 8, 1980 to a middle class family of immigrants. His parents didn’t come to Canada with very much, but they worked hard to provide him with a childhood full of opportunities.

Chan’s parents expected the typical things from their son that most parents expect. They wanted him to go to school, work hard and stay out of trouble. For the most part, Chan kept his nose clean, but he did find himself drawn to gambling from an early age.

“I’ve always been a gambler,” admitted Chan. “Even as a kid, I would always be gambling on whatever I could. I remember playing the sports lottery and my cousin and I would bet our spare change playing Big 2. Even when I was in school, I’d spend my lunch hour playing cards or setting up sports pools. In the 10th grade, I kind of acted as the bookie of our class.”

In 1999, Chan enrolled in Simon Fraser University, studying for a degree in Business Administration. His cousin convinced him to visit a local casino and the action hungry Chan couldn’t resist.

“It was my first year in University and my cousin took me to check it out, wanting to play some blackjack,” recalled Chan. “I noticed another game going on where people were sitting at these lower tables, firing chips into the middle. I was interested, so I sat down.”

Chan was the youngest player in the game by a couple decades, but was able to figure out that the men were playing poker. He had seen the poker movie Rounders earlier that year, but still didn’t understand the rules. He went home and studied a bit and came back with enough knowledge to give himself a chance.

“I still didn’t really know what I was doing, but on the third trip, I somehow managed to win about $500 playing $4-$8 limit hold’em. At 18 years old, that was all the money in the world, so I was pretty hooked.”


Read More: A Poker Life -- Terrence Chan - Poker News

The poker website Bodog have closed their virtual doors to players in the United Kingdom and Europe, who will now be unable to access the poker rooms at Online Sports Betting, Casino, Poker & Horse Racing at Bovada. In addition to this, the main UK Bodog casino website has temporarily closed for the overhaul, with new sign ups not being accepted. A partner brand of Bodog recently said in a statement that the website will also be removing a number of features, including the sportsbook, racebook and poker rooms.

It appears it is only players from the UK and Europe who will suffer these changes from Bodog, as the companys licensees, Bovada have stated that the United States and Canadian versions of the site will be unaffected, and will continue to accept new players. Following the purchase of Bodog Asia, their Bodog88-com website has also been left untouched.

UK customers have been left feeling confused, as the BodogEU website recently shut down and redirected their online traffic to Bodog.co.uk. The freeze on this website has resulted in many UK players feeling dissatisfied with Bodogs treatment of them. In addition to this, Bodog removed their services from 20 European countries earlier this year; including some Eastern European areas, parts of the Middle East and Belgium.

BodogUK stated that upon the sites relaunch there would be no poker features available. They instead wanted to focus more on traditional casino games, such as baccarat, and live dealer games. If players are not satisfied with this service anymore than Bodog informs them that they can cash out and leave with their funds.

For those wanting to stay with the Bodog brand, then they can attempt to create a new account with the Asian facing website, Bodog88-com. However, the appearance and features of the website are designed to attract the Asian audience. The organisation is set to pour most of their focus on the Asian market, much to the negligence of their UK customers. Robert Gustafsson, the Managing Director, stated There are estimated to be at least 100,000,000 Chinese living outside China and if you then include Thai, Malay and Vietnamese expats, you have more than just a niche market but one that has been ignored by other operators despite being far and away the largest consumer group of casino games on the planet...

He added, Bodog.co.uk can offer a totally different product to a totally different audience and while we still offers sports betting, the all important casino customer will be our main source of revenue.


Bovada Casino


Bovada Sportsbook

Like many poker players, Russell Thomas caught the poker bug during his college days. Unlike most others, for Thomas that pastime quickly led to bigger things, including a trip to this month’s October Nine and a shot at an $8.5m payday.

For Thomas, poker brought quick rewards. Within three years of his first live and online games at Temple University, he’d already parlayed his success into a WSOP trip, where he notched his first two cashes in 2010, including his first WSOP final table.

In 2011 he returned to the Rio, this time making his mark in the main event, recording a 248th-place finish worth $40,654. And in 2012? There’s $754,798 already locked up, with a chance for nearly eight million more.
That’s quite an outlier for a player who understands numbers better than most observers might expect.

Russell Thomas, though, has his own edges. The Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvanian picked up poker stratagems early by watching his older brother, who also turned poker pro. And Thomas himself quickly cultivated a circle of friends, one of whom is named Jesse Sylvia, who will occupy another of the “October Nine” seats.

And yet it almost didn’t happen. When first faced with the choice between poker and “real life,” Thomas opted to pursue a more traditional degree, moving to Hartford, Connecticut, and an actuary job with Aetna, where he worked on ObamaCare projections.

Given that his job involved assessing risk and assigning probabilities, he’s well aware that his own hot run in the 2012 main event has already beaten the odds. As he told the WSOP’s Nolan Dalla in a recent interview, “I am like there is a 50 percent chance I will be playing on Wednesday and a 20 percent chance on Thursday than a five percent chance and then a one percent chance on Saturday or something like that. I guess those probabilities didn’t really mean anything.”

Few players would evaluate their prospects in that manner, but that’s part of what sets Thomas apart, that need to apply structure to poker’s chaotic scene.

It almost didn’t happen. Like most players who run deep in the ME, Russell Thomas had to pull one out to survive. Thomas ran an all-in bluff with J-8 of clubs against Greg Merson on Day 6, only to discover that Merson, with A-K, had a hand too big to fold. Yet Thomas spiked an eight on the flop, faded the turn and river, and turned that hand’s 4-in-11 prospects of survival into a deep stack and an eventual Octo-Nine seat.

Only when Day 6 concluded and Day 7, with 27 players returning, did Russell Thomas allow himself to consider making the final. As he told the fuse, “Day 7 is when you really start to think about the final table. When Day 7 started out well and I had over 20 million chips and was the chip leader of the tournament, the final table was in my sights.”

He played steady for most of that final day, finishing with 24,800,000 chips, which kept him in fourth while other stacks clashed. Thomas noted how the aggression ramped up on Day 7, then settled in at the final-table bubble.

“When it was 12- or 13 handed,” he said, “I don’t really think people changed their play up too much. At least at my table, people were very aggressive pre- and post-flop. When it was 10-handed, I think people (including myself) correctly tightened up as bubbling the final table would be a disaster.”

Thomas is among those members of this year’s final nine who’ve already positioned themselves well, win or lose. He’s already inked a deal with 888 Poker, and will certainly be part of that venerable site’s US-facing efforts in the years ahead. Thomas also belies his young age in understanding the implied responsibilities that winning the main event would bring.

As Thomas told the fuse, “The main event champion of course has some responsibilities as an ambassador for the game. You are given a ton of attention for winning so I think you owe it to the community to do your best to promote the game in the best light possible.”

As you might expect, Russell Thomas his taking his chance-of-a-lifetime shot seriously, having taken a three-month leave of absence from Aetna to hone his game. Yet for all the quantifying and study and preparation – including bringing on Jason Somerville as a personal coach and filming his experience for the poker world to see—he’s also not afraid to enjoy the moment.

The “Thomas contingent” may turn out to be the largest in attendance in the Rio’s Penn & Teller Theater in a couple of weeks, with more than 100 of his friends and family scheduled to make the trip. Will they get to see him wearing the bracelet? Whatever the chances, Russell Thomas plans to make the most of them.


WSOP October Nine Profile: Russell Thomas | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

Full Tilt Poker relaunches with Gus Hansen, Viktor Blom and Tom Dwan in November 2012.

The once big, then notorious Full Tilt Poker brand, resurrected by Poker Stars, continues to dominate the news from the gambling press.

Poker players and gamblers in general are excited about the planned re-launch on November 6. This week, Full Tilt added another two poker pros to its already extensive player list: Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan and Viktor ‘Isildur1′ Blom. Also, Gus Hansen aka ‘the Great Dane’ has signed a contract to act as an Ambassador media face for the renewed online poker site.

Dwan and Blom are considered by many to be among the best characters and most exciting players in today’s online poker. The duo was featured in countless televised poker battles as well as on the front pages of newspapers.
All in for high stakes games at Full Tilt

The duo specializes in high stakes games, betting millions and engaging in long roller coaster sessions involving a great deal of drama on both sides. Naturally, they both boast a huge and dedicated following among online card game addicts. Blom’s real identity was a mystery for months before he had signed with Poker Stars earlier in 2011.

The two highly aggressive, and to some even reckless players, are sure to buzz up the newly launched Full Tilt site.

Full Tilt released a statement to the press, saying: “The game of poker is always evolving. Through our continual innovations, Full Tilt Poker is proud to have been at the forefront of that evolution. In choosing our Pros we approached the three poker players whose unique and innovative styles have had the most impact on how modern poker is played.”

According to the new owner Poker Stars, the Full Tilt site will be open for real-money online games. Pre Black Friday usernames and accounts are supposed to work, however, some restrictions apply in several countries.


Big Poker Aces Sign Up for Full Tilt Network | | Blackjack ChampBlackjack Champ

After a few days of keeping poker fans guessing last week, PokerStars finally announced Thursday that Isaac Haxton has been added to the roster of Team PokerStars Online. The world’s largest online poker room ran a promotion allowing customers to guess the new member’s identity for the opportunity to win $50.

On Tuesday, the day the promotion was launched, PokerStars offered up one clue to those wishing to take a guess: a 44 second video from Randy “nanonoko” Lew. Lew didn’t provide much info, purposely remaining very vague and stating that the new member of Team PokerStars Online was a male high stakes player and he had once made a deep run at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA).

The next day it got ugly as Daniel Negreanu provided more clues via a video in which he serenaded views with a cringe-worthy rendition of Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart.” Someone who had no idea what he was singing would find the clue of no use, but those who could identify the song might have realized that “Braxton” was the key to figuring out the new player was “Haxton.”

Haxton burst upon the scene at the beginning of 2007, achieving his first live tournament in cash in style when he finished second at the windy outdoor final table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Championship Event. That accomplishment is still important to him today, saying in his introduction video that the $861,789 cash “…was a crazy, once in a lifetime experience that’s always going to stay with me and that I always get a little nostalgic for every time I go back to the Bahamas to play.”

In 2007 and 2008, Haxton cashed in the World Series of Poker eight times before really hitting it big in 2009, when he finished second in the WSOP’s $40,000 40th Anniversary Event, scoring $1,168,565. Other significant cashes include a third place finish in the 2011 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic $100,000 High Roller Event ($581,806) and a third place in the 2012 PCA $25,000 8-Max High Roller Event ($380,730).

All told Isaac Haxton has just over $4 million live poker tournament winnings.

In his intro video, Haxton also gave a hint as to a future promotion in which he would be involved at poker stars, saying, “I can’t give you any firm details just yet, but I will tell you that it’s going to involve heads-up No-Limit. There’s going to be some very high stakes stuff and there’s also going to be some stuff that everybody can participate in and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”


Isaac Haxton Newest Member of Team PokerStars Online