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Almost exactly two years ago, on the morning of April 15, 2011, Mazin (he prefers to keep his last name private) got out of bed to find that his roommate was already queuing up for his computer. Shortly after, another friend from nearby dropped in. Online poker was a hobby they all shared, though Mazin, then a 20-year-old computer engineering student at North Carolina State University, had begun to take it more seriously. He arranged his schedule so that he only had 12 hours of class a week, two of which were online, so that he could spend more time on his laptop playing on PokerStars.com, the largest online poker room in the world. He won’t say how much exactly, but it did provide him with “a comfortable living.”

“Uh, guys? Is this a problem?” Mazin’s roommate said when a banner popped up on PokerStars’s website, advising that games were no longer available in the United States. Mazin didn’t worry too much at first—he thought maybe PokerStars would have to change its domain to a .EU address. But on further inspection, they realized it wasn’t the domain, it was their physical location that was the problem. On that morning of April 15, 2011, also known as Black Friday, online poker players across America lost the capacity to make financial transactions at online poker sites. Professional players were suddenly left without a source of income. All of them, professional or not, were left without access to their online accounts, many of which held significant portions of their net worth.

Since then, many of those players have relocated to Toronto.

“I’ve been involved in the poker business for a long time, as a journalist and also as a consultant to the big companies, so anything that’s coming you tend to have at least some advance notice of it,” said Chris Tessaro, host of The Poker Show on Sportsnet Radio Fan590. This wasn’t the case with the United States government’s decision to charge the three biggest online poker sites (PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker/UltimateBet) with bank fraud, illegal gambling, and money laundering. “Nobody knew this was coming until it happened. Nobody knew. It was just an instant, hard slam lock down.”

The way Tessaro describes it, Black Friday resulted in war-like pandemonium in the poker world, with no word about when, or if, players would be seeing the money in their poker accounts again. And Toronto suddenly became a life-saving destination.

“People started weighing their options…a lot of the online grinders went back to their regular real lives, got real jobs, and stopped playing poker. And the rest had to move somewhere in order to ply their trade,” said Tessaro. As a well-known name in the poker industry who was also based in Toronto, he was instantly flooded with requests from friends to help them make the move, and fast. “It was a crazy situation.”

Canada was and continues to be an obvious choice for many poker players urgently needing to cross borders, with its geographical and cultural proximity to the United States. Within Canada, there are two major communities of expatriated online poker players: Vancouver, and Toronto. Shortly after Black Friday, Mazin turned 21 and traveled to Las Vegas to play in a live poker tournament, then made the trip to Toronto to meet a friend already living on Brunel Court, right beside the Rogers Centre.

“I really liked Toronto, but for me, it was an experience because I’ve never really lived in a big city of any sort. Just to be able to walk out the door and walk to anything I could think of was awesome to me. We didn’t have a car or anything, but you didn’t need one,” Mazin said. He and his friends were comparatively lucky: because they had been using PokerStars, they wound up getting their money back in a matter of weeks. On the one year anniversary of Black Friday, Full Tilt Poker still owed its users $300 million, and Absolute Poker/UltimateBet owed $60 million. (Full Tilt Poker was eventually declared a “Ponzi-style scheme, and was bought by PokerStars, which had its charges dropped.)

As a 20-something with no commitments and a clear schedule, Mazin decided to seize the opportunity and see more of the world. Since spending July and August in Toronto in 2011, he relocated to Costa Rica, and again, about a month ago, to Vancouver. “There aren’t a lot of professions you can have at 22 where you can be anywhere in the world, as long as it’s not the States, and if you have your laptop with you you can make a decent living,” he said.

It’s typical for online poker players to move around a lot, according to Kristin Wilson, founder of Poker Refugees, a service that facilitates relocation for online poker players, which officially launched in August 2011. Since then, Wilson has moved 230 players, including Mazin, everywhere from Canada to Panama to Malta. In the couple of years since Black Friday happened, she has noticed a “snowbird” trend, where players will head south for the winter and then back north for summer.

Wilson says she has moved about 20 clients to Toronto, but suspects that number is low because many are able to make the jump without her help. Take Dan Smith for example, a Maryland native who got his start online and was ranked the number one poker player in the world in 2012. He’s now living on Queen West, and even as the U.S. gets closer and closer to re-establishing online poker gambling, he’d be hesitant to leave.

“I’m incredibly happy in Toronto. Even if poker came back, I’d still enjoy spending lots of time here…I have a bunch of friends here. It’s a bit expensive, but besides that I’m really happy with everything that Toronto has to offer,” Smith said. Mazin is also in no rush to return to the States, though he visits about every four months, and says he’s open to being in Toronto again.

Toronto’s community of expatriated online poker players mostly remains quiet in the press, since many would prefer to remain anonymous for tax or immigration purposes.

There is nothing online poker players love more than bragging about their best hands and biggest wins, and now everybody will have the chance to do it thanks to the new ShareMyPair app.

Share Your Pair

ShareMyPair, developed by poker industry veteran Steve Miller and his business partner Richard Sondheimer was recently launched for iPhones and iPads, and will be released for Android devices in June.

As owners of iOS smartphone and tablet devices are already finding out, users can quickly enter all card and betting information from their most memorable poker hands into the app. Once the data has been entered, ShareMyPair instantly creates an animated video of the hand which can be rated and commented upon by other app users.

Learn From Others

According to Miller, this creation is more than just an app - its' Poker 2.0, a free social network exclusively designed for the 100 million poker players from around the world who routinely discuss, dissect and analyse their hands with the intent of improving their game.

Business partner Sondheimer added that the app was made free so that it could be accessed by anybody who enjoys a game of poker. He pointed out that it includes extra features like Pro's Corner, where top poker pros will post hands they've played and comment on hands posted by amateur players.



Online Poker Players Share Stories With New App - The Headlines - Onlinecasinoreports-com

ZetPoker, a lesser-known skin on the Revolution Gaming Network, “temporarily suspended” operations over the weekend due to what it cites as non-payment from its network.

In a statement posted on its ZetPoker-info, previously ZetPoker.EU, the poker room informs players that it is “pursuing all avenues to secure the timely receipt of players [sic] payments,” and will keep customers informed of future developments.

ZetPoker is operated and powered by Curacao-based BTG Gaming, a sportsbook-focused online gaming operation that counts over a dozen other brands as clients, including WagerUp.EU, PurePoker, VIPSports.EU, Sportsbook.CA, Neverfelted.EU, Betting Champs, Daily Dime, DimeLine, Latino Poker and LinesMaker.EU. These other operations, all of which apparently have online poker rooms on the Revolution network, remain active.

The statement on ZetPoker states that the suspension of operations “is due wholly to the fact the Zetpoker-com has not received any player settlement payments from the network/operator for some time.”

In online poker parlance, these settlement payments reconcile outstanding player wins and losses between the network and its skins for the previous month. If the total of all players on a particular skin lose money in a particular month, that skin owes the network the sum of those losses; in turn, the network owes the sum of those losses to other skins where the winning players are registered.

In March, Adamevepoker suspended payments to its players, also citing the lack of settlement payments from Revolution as the reason.

US-facing Revolution has suffered from serious payment problems both to its US and non-US player base. Pros have withdrawn endorsements and prominent advertising has been pulled. Juicy Stakes, the US-facing spin-off of dominant Revolution skin Cake Poker, is rated F for payment processing, with average cashout times of 7 months. Revolution spearhead Lock Poker is rated D and even non-US players face withdrawal times times of two months or more.

Lock money trades at 40 cents on the dollar amid widespread fears of nonpayment.


Revolution Skin ZetPoker Closes, Cites Network Reconciliation Issues | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

PokerStars successfully attracted 225,000 players over the weekend to its record-breaking attempt for largest ever poker tournament, beating a previous record set in December 2011.

Reaching the target was all but assured: With a buy-in of $1, the total number of players was capped at 225,000, and $300k was guaranteed in prize money, all entrants were guaranteed an overlay. PokerStars also gave away approximately 20% of the seats via freerolls. Still, the feat is impressive given the increased segregation of the marketplace and maturation of the industry.

After a little over four hours, Russian player “SlavaPro”, outlasted the other 224,999 players to win the $25,000 first prize .



225,000 Players Set New Record for Largest Poker Tournament | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

One player, who says he is still owed $30k by Everleaf Gaming, has mounted his own personal campaign against their regulator, the Malta Lotteries & Gaming Authority (LGA).

Valdis Troņenkovs has sent an email to all the LGA licensees and the members of the LGA itself. The email is vociferously critical of the LGA’s failure to respond to players who are still owed money and its failure to provide the player funds protection laid out in the LGA regulations.

He asks licensees to “reconsider paying fees of any kind to this organization” describing the LGA as “a fraud that exists solely to collect license fees without providing any of the player protection services they claim.”

He links directly to four 2+2 threads: Everleaf Poker (non)Withdrawals Thread ; MintedPoker / Minted Poker Official Support & Promotions Thread ; Everleaf is Dying and Minted/Everleaf Official Where is our money? Thread. All of which contain posts from affected players complaining about the LGA.

A similar, although more coordinated campaign has begun with regard to PIVgame and player action groups are also operating for 5050Poker and Purple Lounge, all LGA licensed operations.



One Man's Campaign Against Malta

A hot topic at last week’s iGaming Super Show 2013 in Amsterdam was the online currency Bitcoin.

Viktor Bogdanov reported that attendees of the conference emphasized the advatages of the virtual currency to online gaming including “low transaction costs” and “faster access to new markets”

Operator concerns about Bitcoin prevented greater enthusiasm. Two of the most complex problems the volatile currency faces are difficulty complying with anti-money laundering regulations, especially with regard to anonymity, and the problem of maintaining matching cash liabilities—required by many regulators.

WinPoker, a skin on the iPoker network, is the most recent room to begin processing Bitcoin transactions, joining smaller sites such as SealswithClubs who have built a track record using the new currency.



Bitcoin Big Issue in Amsterdam Conference | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

WPT, FOXSports Ink Pact

The World Poker Tour’s new three-year deal with FOXSports assures the venerable tour of running through at least Season XIV. The new deal runs into 2017 and kicks off with coverage of the WPT Legends of Poker at LA’s Bicycle Casino in late August, with four more televised events on slate for the rest of the 2013 calendar year, the Borgata in Atlantic City, Paris’s Aviation Club, WPT Montreal, and the Bellagio’s annual Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Classic.

Massachusetts Online Gambling Amendment

Jettiso ned Over Unspecified Co nstit utionality Co ncerns Attempts to tack an online-gambling amendment onto a 2014 budget measure currently progressing through the state’s legislature was yanked from debate over general concerns over constitutionality, though legislators declined to define exactly why. The amendment, had it gone through, would have granted online licenses (including poker) only to those entities which are expected to be added under the state’s controversial land-based debut, including three full-service casinos and one slots-only venue.

Technical Blunder Briefly Allows Real-Money Play on WSOP-com Poker Site

A small number of Nevada residents who downloaded the Mac version of the upcoming WSOP-com poker site were briefly able to play for real money after that portion of the client software was accidentally enabled. Caesars Interactive officials quickly confirmed the error after deactivating the code, which is not yet officially approved by the state of Nevada for real-money play. At least two players made phantom deposits of $100 which were never actually charged against their credit cards with one player profiting some $14 before the play was discovered and the transactions and play annulled. The site officially remains in a play-money, beta-test mode.

Ultimate Poker Expands Pro-Endorser Lineup

Ultimate Poker, the Fertitta Interactive-owned online poker site which became the first to offer real-money play to Nevada residents, has quickly expanded its roster of endorser pros. In addition to Antonio Esfandiari and Terrence Chan, who signed on with Ultimate Poker before its live debut, another eight sponsored pros were announced by the site in early June: Jonathan Little, William Reynolds, Jason Somerville, Phil Collins, Dan O’Brien, Gavin Griffin, Lauren Kling, and Randy Dorfman.

New Jersey Draft Regulations Released

New Jersey’s push to join Nevada as an active vendor of internet poker services continued with the state’s recent release of draft regulations for its approved operators to follow. A public comment period on the preliminary regulations will run until early August, running concurrently with the state’s license application process, which is open until July 29th. The state is expected to issue its first licenses later this year, with the possible of real-money online poker for the state’s residents by year’s end.

“Runner, Runner” Trailer Released

“Runner, Runner,” the Ben Affleck / Justin Timberlake flick with a plot based on the activities of a sometimes-crooked online poker world, has released its first theatrical trailer in advance of the film’s upcoming September 2013 release. The film was written with the assistance of Affleck himself, who was a frequent player on UltimateBet, and was among the thousands of players cheated on that site. The movie itself contains an online-cheating subplot as part of its larger tale.

Olympic Champ Phelps Makes WSOP Debut

High-stakes poker’s allure for celebrities from other walks of life continued in late May with the World Series of Poker debut for all-time Olympics medal winner Michael Phelps. Phelps, who collected 22 medals (including 18 gold) over three different Summer Olympics, played in the 2013 WSOP’s Event #2, a $5,000 NLHE tourney, and is expected to play in later events as well. Phelps has been an infrequent player at other tourney stops since 2008, when he logged $5,200 cash at the Caesars Palace Classic.



Poker News: World Poker Tour Gets New TV Deal and more | Poker Player Newspaper

Ville Wahlbeck is a high-stakes cash game player from Finland, who turned pro back in 2004, and has since gone on to become one of his country’s highest profile players, along with Patrik Antonius and Juha Helppi.

As well as cash games, Wahlbeck enjoys competing at tournaments, especially the World Series of Poker, which accounts for $1,177,486 of his $1,626,398 in casino winnings. The multiple award winner even captured a prestigious bracelet in 2009 at the $10k World Championship Mixed Events 8 Game for $492,384, but despite his past successes still describes the tournament series as “that brutal, masochistic thing..[with] more tournaments than anyone can handle and enough cash game action to drive people insane.”

Recently, Wahlbeck posted an interesting article on his pokerstarsblog entitled “My embarrassing WSOP memories” in which he describes some of the memories he would much rather forget about from his time playing at poker’s annual showcase series.

One such event occurred in 2006, after Ville Wahlbeck had just busted from the WSOP Main Event and was about to fly back to Finland as a small winner, but first decided to kill some time at the cash tables before catching his early morning flight. Taking his $40,000 stash to the table, Wahlbeck then explains:

“Four hours later, I was broke. I did have some small change to buy a sandwich from the airport and I managed to pay the cab driver. But that was about it.”

That experience may have been painful enough, but Ville Wahlbeck describes one of his most embarrassing moments coming in 2004 whilst playing a $5,000 Stud event. During a dinner break, Wahlbeck said he went off to play the slots and lost $2,000 over an hour and a half before then returning to the poker tournament, only to find someone else sitting in his seat. As he subsequently explains:

“I walked to the table and looked at the dude and the other players. They looked at me and one of them said: “It wasn’t a dinner break. It was just a normal break. Your stack got blinded away.” I probably went all red from my face. It didn’t really help that one of the players staring me from the table was one of my poker idols, Doyle Brunson. I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just blurted, “Shit happens,” and walked away.”

Over the years, however, Ville Wahlbeck says he has now learnt to organize his time better so as to avoid burnout and avoidable mistakes. At this year’s WSOP, for instance, Wahlbeck says he has limited himself to playing just three tournaments, namely, the $50,000 Players Championship, $10,000 PLO, and the Main Event.





Poker Pro Describes Embarrassing Moments From WSOP

As regulated online poker in Nevada nears its two-month anniversary, player traffic reveals that viability hinges on interstate and international partnerships.

Ultimate Poker launched on April 30 and industry observers have been analyzing the results thus far as somewhat of a test case. The launch has been deemed a success with the country’s first legal site inching up to 32nd place in PokerScout’s worldwide rankings. That ranking has been achieved only from Silver State residents and tourists.

The numbers show a consistent seven-day average of roughly 200 players. This total has remained constant for at least the last two weeks. And with many of the world’s greatest players in town for the 43rd annual WSOP, indications are that the ceiling may have been reached in regards to growth.

While the current player traffic numbers may be acceptable for one poker site, keep in mind that WSOP-com and several other regulated sites will soon be up and running as well. With that much competition vying for the limited amount of players available considering Nevada’s population of about 2.7 million residents, player traffic is likely to be spread very thin.

Nevada lawmakers are fully aware of this and have acted accordingly. Governor Brian Sandoval signed legislation allowing for interstate compacts in February. Recent legislation has also advanced that would expand player pools beyond U.S. borders and allow for international agreements to enhance liquidity.

It is safe to say based on statistics to this date that Nevada’s online poker scheme would not be sustainable without such partnerships. New Jersey and Delaware are expected to go live with their online poker offerings later this year. Though there have been no reports of agreements with Nevada being discussed or reached, it would certainly be advantageous to do so sooner rather than later.

Other states have also been considering online poker and gambling legislation. Though progress has slowed somewhat in that regard, most industry experts are in agreement that the more states that join together, the merrier.

In the same vein, collaborations with online poker sites operating overseas can only benefit the small player pool that Nevada currently draws from. Let’s hope that such agreements can be forged shortly after other licensed online poker operators in Nevada make their long-awaited debuts. The Silver State’s online poker regime depends on it.



Nevada Needs Online Poker Interstate Partnerships

Sheldon Adelson was on BloombergTV earlier, arguing against the legalization of online gambling.

As the CEO of Las Vegas Sands, a big physical casino company, his opposition to online gambling is understandable, except... he says it's not about the money or the business. Instead he says, it's all about how online gambling is bad for society, since gamblers can get so hooked.

During the interview he also made a comment that should infuriate poker players.

He says there should be no special exemption for online poker, since it's a game of luck, not skill.

Here are his exact words:

On not making an exception for the skills based Poker:
“That skill base is, in my opinion, just a bunch of baloney. To get a card is not skill base. I know people say it is skill based, but it’s just so they can categorize it in a certain segment.”

On making an exception for online poker:
“Absolutely not. Look, I’m a father, grandfather. I do not want my children – I’m a veteran of the Korean War. I do not want my children to have the opportunity to become addicted to gaming. And poker, in my opinion, would become one of the most addictive games. People do not get addicted to necessarily playing blackjack. They get addicted for the game. It is one of the many compulsive behaviors and somebody is addicted to gaming, they are addicted to some other compulsive behaviors. Can you tell me one good reason why internet gaming should be allowed.”

That poker is a game of skill, not luck, is an article of faith among avid poker players.

Sure, you can have a bad beat here or there, or maybe someone flops a set of aces to beat your set of kings, but the idea is that that's just noise, and that because poker is a game of skill over time the better player will win out.

Anyway, because poker pros argue that it's a game of skill, they think that even if online gambling remains broadly illegal, that online poker should perhaps still be eligible to be played online. And so for Adelson, it's important to slam poker to make his broader anti-online gambling argument.

Read more: Sheldon Adelson Says Poker Is A Game Of Luck - Business Insider

For the past few months, Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas has been running up the frequent flyer mileage.

With federal Internet poker legalization prospects seemingly at a standstill, Pappas focused efforts of the 1.2 million-member lobbying organization on various individual state legislative activities.

Debate over Internet gaming and online poker surfaced this year in California, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

Pappas is spending part of the weekend at the World Series of Poker in the organization’s booth inside the Rio’s Convention Center. He plans to discuss the various online gaming legalization efforts with the tournament’s attendees.

“We cut our lobbying spend in D.C. pretty dramatically,” Pappas said Friday. “There is no reason to spend a lot of money when the outcome is uncertain.”

But now, Internet gaming talk on Capitol Hill is once again heating up.

At least two pieces of Internet gaming legislation could be find their way to the floors of Congress before the July Fourth recess. Pappas, while hopeful there will be discussions, isn’t optimistic about the outcome.

“Congress has a lot of challenges, and having this issue rise to the top of things they tackle in the next 18 months is hard to believe,” Pappas said.

Rep. Peter King, R-NY, submitted legislation earlier this month that would legalize all forms of Internet wagering by establishing a federal licensing and regulatory system.

Meanwhile, Pappas said Rep. Joe Barton,. R-Texas, is expected to introduce online poker legislation — similar to a bill he sponsored in 2012 — by next week.

Pappas thought the King bill wouldn’t fly, primarily because it addresses gambling activities other than poker. The “permissiveness” of the bill was “excellent” from a policy perspective, he thought, but might entrench gambling expansion opponents.

Pappas, who has spent more than 14 years in Washington D.C. in both lobbying and political consulting, said a poker-only bill might be more palatable to federal lawmakers.

However, he is concerned state efforts could weaken Washington’s position on the issue.

“We favor a federal a solution,” Pappas said. “That is what the players want and that is what the (gaming) industry as a whole wants.”

Earlier this week, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson, in an opinion article on the Forbes-com website, advocated a federal ban of all online wagering activities. Pappas challenged many of Adelson’s points through his own commentary on the PocketFives-com website.

“He makes certain claims as if they were fact,” Pappas wrote. “However, there is no evidence whatsoever that the introduction of an online gaming regime would negatively affect the offline casino industry.”

The Poker Players Alliance is chaired by former Republican U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato of New York. The organization has state directors in most of the 50 states.

Nevada and New Jersey have both legalized Internet poker — New Jersey has legalized full-on Internet gaming.

Station Casinos-owned Ultimate Poker launched in Nevada on April 30, becoming the first regulated pay-to-play Internet poker website in the U.S. Other sites, including a World Series of Poker real money website, are waiting in the wings. New Jersey hopes to have its first online gaming websites operational by Thanksgiving.

Other states legalizing the activity could lessen any federal push.

“Once you get some of these bigger states, that are not viewed as a traditional gaming state, then momentum can build,” Pappas said. “There are those in Congress who are concerned about the expansion of gaming. Doing nothing, however, could lead to a bigger expansion of gaming.”

Pappas believes California and Pennsylvania could legalize Internet gaming by next year. If that happens, he said states would begin forming interstate compacts to pool players and share resources and revenues.

How the compacts would work, however, is still subject to debate.

“The real issues need to get sorted out,” Pappas said.



Poker players' official to discuss Web gaming legalization | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Kentucky’s infamous anti online gambling crusader, Steve Beshear announced that he has earned over $6 million for state coffers after reaching a settlement with online poker rooms Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker. The announcement stems back to a case that began in 2008 when Governor Beshear seized the domain names of 141 online gambling firms. Later, federal laws were filed against online poker rooms by the Southern District of New York and the District of Maryland, and Beshear jumped on the bandwagon and joined these lawsuits.

The $6.2 million settlement was the result of the 2011 lawsuits filed against the poker rooms, according to Beshear in a statement his week.

“As a result of our bold and steadfast determination to protect Kentucky consumers, our signature horse-racing industry and legitimate charitable gaming interests, unlicensed and unauthorized Internet gambling has been substantially curtailed in Kentucky, and we’ve created a framework for the rest of the country to manage the issue in their own jurisdictions,” Beshear said in his announcement.

Beshear said that the funds paid out would be directed to the state’s General Fund and that neither Full Tilt Poker nor Poker Stars operated in Kentucky’s market any longer.

The state’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary, J. Michael Brown, said that Kentucky would continue to pursue action against the other online gambling groups listed.

“I’m pleased with the disposition of this case with regard to the two major players in this arena, and I’m grateful to our legal team for their persistence over the past five years,” said Brown.

Brown continued: “This agreement with Kentucky is the first payment made to any state.”

“This may just be the beginning though as Poker Stars may find that they can clear their name with a state by paying back taxes and licensing on revenue earned within jurisdictions the company is attempting to enter.”




Online Poker Rooms Settle with Kentucky Governor

Hopefully they are making a big change soon.

Online poker in Nevada has undergone a lot of changes since the 2012 World Series of Poker. In the past year, the first regulated, real-money online poker room launched in the state, and several other companies are expected to follow in the coming months. Other states like New Jersey and Delaware are also planning to launch online gambling platforms by the end of the year, generating a lot of excitement for online poker players in those regions.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has played a major role in the push for legalized online poker. On Friday, PokerNews' Sarah Grant spoke with the PPA's John Pappas and Rich Muny about what has taken place in the past year and how poker players can get involved in their own states.




WSOP Video: WSOP Video: John Pappas and Rich Muny of the Poker Players Alliance Talk Online Poker | PokerNews

It seems all but certain that online poker will not be legislated at a federal level before states begin negotiating gaming pacts. There are a number of potential issues that need to be addressed before states can agree to share player pools.



Rake Allocation Formulas

The most important issue facing potential online poker gaming pacts is how to allocate rake. There are five formulas that have been used in online poker to determine how rake is distributed to players. This distribution is important in terms of taxes and player promotions.

Dealt – The dealt rake method was once used by most online poker rooms. The formula is rake divided by the number of players dealt into a hand. Each player dealt cards receives the same amount of rake regardless of whether they contributed to the pot.

This formula has been abandoned by all offshore online poker rooms with the exception of Revolution Gaming. It was thought this formula attracted too many players that abused the system by receiving rakeback or clearing bonuses without giving any action.

Ultimate Poker, the only regulated U.S. facing online poker room, uses this formula to determine bonus clear rates. Gamesgrid once used this software and also used the dealt method to determine rakeback and bonus requirements. The software may be capable of other rake formulas, but this could require testing for approval, which does not appear to be a part of the original launch.

Weighted Contributed – This formula attributes rake by determining what percentage of the pot a player contributed and dividing the rake taken by that amount. This is the most common formula used today by online poker rooms.

Average Contributed –This formula distributes rake equally among all players that put any money in the pot. This means that a small blind that folds preflop will receive the same amount of rake consideration that a player that reached the showdown receives.

Winner Takes All – The player that wins the pot is credited with all rake taken when this method is used. High Pulse Poker, which has since failed, is the only online poker room that ever used this method.

Recreational Player Model – The recreational player model rates players based on their previous win totals. Stronger players receive less rake credit than weaker players seated at the same table. This is an advanced model currently used on the networks of Bodog and Ongame. It seems very unlikely this method could be used in an already confusing regulated U.S. market.

Clearinghouse

Money that is lost and won with each hand must be held in a clearinghouse until sessions have ended. Online poker networks typically settle up at the end of the month, but sometimes these are settled daily or weekly. There are multiple issues that must be considered when players across state lines win or lose. These include the frequency of payments, as well as how the interest on these accounts will be distributed to participating states. It must be determined whether the online poker room or the state will receive the interest on this money that is held in what is certain to be a segregated account.

Bad Actors

Absent a uniform federal law, each state must determine how to handle offshore companies that accepted U.S. online poker players in the past. A blanket bad actor clause could prevent most legitimate online poker companies from participating in the U.S. online poker market. Some state legislators feel the need to exclude companies that operated in the U.S. after the UIGEA went into law. Nevada will license a company as long as it left the U.S. market on or before December 31, 2006, while New Jersey did not include any such language in their interactive gaming law. These discrepancies must be resolved before a compact is signed.

States with a strict bad actor clause will need to address how a company that fails to qualify under its licensing guidelines may participate in its state through gaming pacts. This may require adjustments to bad actor clauses or force states to only create gaming pacts with others that have similar restrictions on these companies. A change to a bad actor clause may require legislative action. This could be especially troublesome to Nevada where the State Assembly only meets every two years, though a special session could be called by the governor.

Software Testing

The lack of flexibility in Nevada’s online poker testing requirements has been shown in the inability of Ultimate Poker to launch its version 2.0 in a timely manner. New Jersey seems confident that it can approve online poker and casino software in just five months, less than half the time it took to approve Ultimate Poker. Nevada has a stringent process that seems to require months to approve even the slightest software improvement, even if the software has a proven track record. While it is still up in the air whether Nevada and New Jersey will ever enter into an online gambling pact, this is an example of how testing procedures will need to be mirrored before any such agreement may be reached or else there will be major delays in enacting interstate online poker.

Banned and Excluded Players

States that have approved or even considered online gambling have all addressed banned and self excluded players. In most cases, players that are not allowed in live casinos are also banned from virtual ones regulated by the state. Gaming pacts between states must address how to handle a situation where a player is excluded in one jurisdiction but not another. Nevada will not be quick to accept a player finding a back door to its online poker rooms by simply moving to another state. There is also a responsibility to exclude players that felt the need to ban themselves from casinos due to gambling problems.

Banned Software

The legality of certain types of software has become a common discussion among poker players. A mutually agreed upon list of ba

What games do the smartest people play? Bridge? Chess? Magic: The Gathering?

Well, we can actually look at the question from a Darwinian point of view and more or less prove which game attracts the smartest people. It pretty much has to be poker, because, as Madonna sang to us many years ago, we are living in a material world.

People gravitate to where there is the most money. So even if there are smart people playing these other games, the smartest ones would be inclined toward playing poker where they can make the most money.

We've seen several countries crack down on online poker. The main reason is politics, but another reason is some people fear that some of the smart kids who were going to be their brightest doctors and engineers were enjoying themselves more playing online poker than they were going to class and getting that education.

Even back in my day, I played a lot of poker in college -- in fact, I was already a professional player. But I did something then that I think is absolutely essential to becoming a professional poker player, and that is to fit poker into my non-poker schedule and not the other way around. My life wasn't totally determined by my poker schedule. Instead, I had poker revolve around my life. What that meant was during the day I went to my classes, and then I engaged in sports and social activities after class. I usually played poker in the evenings and on the weekend, and I ended up graduating by age 20.

I never let poker stop me from following the ancient philosophers' mantras: "have a sound mind and body" and "everything in moderation." I would say that if you are successful at poker, it doesn't dominate your life, but rather it complements your life.

Now that we are noting the 10th anniversary of Chris Moneymaker winning the WSOP Main Event, we might recall what happened next. After Moneymaker's win, a lot of people followed that poker dream and spent their late teenage years and early 20s tethered to their computers in their parents' basements. Then, when they finally came out to go to the televised PCA or WSOP events, many of them were pale, out-of-shape, socially awkward nerds. It was certainly something to be questioned: whether or not poker was good for society.

This is where mobile online poker comes into play. By allowing people to play on the go, it gives these young people a chance to go to class, to play sports, and--in the spaces between those activities---to pull out their iPads or Android devices and play during their downtimes. I'm not referring to filling all of one's free time with poker, such as in that brilliant Rafa Nadal commercial in which he's playing while walking around. However, mobile online poker allows these bright young people a way to play poker while enabling them to lead a balanced life. They'll be able to play, but they'll also still be able to get their education, compete in sports, and have a well-rounded life.

I expect the next wave of poker players to be much better, much more socially adjusted, and also more likely to get their education. Mobile online poker can help these young, intelligent people achieve that goal of finding a good balance and being productive members of society while also playing a game which many of them are naturally going to want to play.

Barry Greenstein is a member of Team PokerStars Pro





Mobile online poker for the benefit of mankind - PokerStarsBlog-com

This month, the nosebleed action at Full Tilt Poker has picked up noticeably, especially for no-limit hold’em, which has seen multiple pots of nearly $500,000. It is arguably the most intense action at hold’em that online poker has had since sometime before Black Friday.

At least the top 25 largest no-limit hold’em pots of this year have occurred in June. The action has been at the astronomically high stakes of $400-$800 — and at six-max tables no less.

The most gigantic was for $498,028, which was won by unknown “Denoking” after all the money went in preflop with him/her holding pocket aces against an opponent’s A-K. The flop brought a king, but the board ran out safe for the pocket rockets and a bad beat was avoided.

Only two hands this entire year have been larger. There was a $553,080 pot-limit Omaha confrontation in February won by unknown online player “patpatpanda”.

One of the largest winners during this hold’em bonanza has been Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton. According to HighstakesDB, he is up more than $700,000 this month. However, the most profitable has been Hac “trex313” Dang, who is up just under $2 million in June.

In addition to his online wins, Haxton took $1,313,879 for a final-table finish at a tournament in Asia earlier this month. He has been on one heck of a heater, partly thanks to the increase in action. Haxton Tweeted a few days ago: “Can’t remember the last time there was so much $200-$400 [or higher] NLH action online. Have barely slept last few days.”

Despite the upswing online, he said on Twitter that he’s on his way to Las Vegas, where one cannot play the games on Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars.

In addition to the insane no-limit hold’em six-max action, nosebleed pot-limit Omaha has also been buzzing lately. This all despite the World Series of Poker now running in Las Vegas.

The likes of Gus Hansen, Phil Galfond, Brian Hastings and Ashton Griffin, among other high-stakes regulars, have been grinding along at the Rio trying to win a bracelet.




Huge No-Limit Hold'em Poker Games Return Online

Poker is an American game, and it is heartening to see a regulated online poker market emerging in some states.

Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada have all passed bills regulating online poker and on May 1st UltimatePoker in Nevada became the first online poker room regulated in the US. Other states are in different stages of doing something similar, e.g. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Mississippi. There is also a new federal online gambling bill on the table, recently introduced by Peter T. King, Republican Congressman from New York and even talks about another federal bill, but we know from previous attempts how difficult it is to get these through Congress.

It is obvious that for states with small populations, like Delaware and Nevada, player liquidity will be a problem-in the case of Nevada it already is. Many people argue that inter-state sharing of liquidity would be the solution but as always when money is transferred across borders legislators will find it hard to agree on the rules. Between big states and small states there is also the classic poker network conflict: Why would bigger operators, or in this case states, want to share their liquidity with smaller operators/states? With all the ring fencing many poker networks have introduced we know the answer to that question: They don't. A fair rake distribution model is important to bridge this gap but how do you explain that to legislators?

So, there are two major hurdles to overcome here. One is for legislators and state tax authorities to agree across state borders, one is to convince bigger states to even want to share liquidity with smaller states in the first place. The thinking is that poker operators in smaller states will struggle but if they are allowed to offer other products that do not rely on player liquidity, e.g. online casinos, even operators in small states can be successful. The potential market size for online casinos is much bigger than for online poker rooms. Of the three states mentioned above Delaware and New Jersey will allow online casino games but Nevada will not. Online casino play is also part of Peter T. King's federal bill but that will make it even less likely for that bill to pass.

Nevada, with a population of only 2.7m, is instead hoping that they can persuade the big neighbour California to join their player liquidity and that would, of course, be a dream scenario for Nevada but, again, why would they? There would be nothing in it for California, especially as they have well documented financial problems of their own to solve.

California has a population of 37m people, and The Golden State does not have to worry about player liquidity. If California were a country it would be the 12th biggest economy in the world. If California were to regulate online poker, and there is talk about it, it would create a California Gold Rush for the online poker industry. Everybody would want to have a piece of the action. If poker operators would do things right from the start and launch with a recreational poker model instead of trying to implement it later, California alone is potentially a billion dollar market.

Jonas Odman, Former President of the Bodog Poker Network, and co-creator of the Recreational Poker Model, commented: "Inevitably, I would love to bring the Recreational Poker Model to the US and may well decide to make a fundamental change to my career. Bodog gave me a great opportunity to bring anonymous tables to the world but with that now running effectively I am tempted to drive a start-up company, based in The Golden State, which will be a B2B software provider for the regulated US online poker market. Already competitive, of course, but now that the model is a proven success I want to bring it to poker's homeland too and nobody else is offering anything tangibly different like this."

Read more here: LONDON, June 25, 2013: The Regulated US Poker Market: a New Challenge for Jonas Odman? | PRNewswire | Rock Hill Herald Online

The European online gambling market has matured like a fine wine and is clipping along at a fine pace without too many issues other than those presented to the European Commission such as monopolies.
Most of the excitement seems to be coming from the USA where the individual states are legalizing both online poker and casino games in States such as Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey.

With the advent of internet wagering including mobile gambling and poker in the USA punters are enjoying a renewed interest and renewed trust in the system. The regulated online poker market allows players to feel confident their money is safe and sound backed by regulations that protect them from the unscrupulous operators that could be lurking on the information highway.

The success of online poker in places like Nevada where the player pool is relatively small and Delaware where it is even smaller is jeopardized by the lack players. The idea of pooling their resources for greater liquidity has been put out there but critics argue when there is a transferring of money involved and legislators, common rules are going to be hard to agree on. With big states and small states there is also the classic poker network conflict, bigger operators, usually don’t like to share with small ones.

When looking at just online poker the smaller states will suffer and then they will want to introduce other casino games for the internet that don’t rely on liquidity for viability. The proposed Federal legislation before Congress introduced by Peter T. King includes other casino games in the internet gambling bill stands les of a chance of passing because it includes other gambling options.

California may be the next jurisdiction to pass online poker legislation if it works out its issues with Tribal concerns. Its 37 million plus population would provide plenty of liquidity for poker players. Nevada with only 2.7 million will want to partner with California, but again that idea is a long shot because California would not gain a thing from such a deal.



Liquidity an Issue For US Online Poker Success

The Revolution Gaming Network has ended its controversial skill separation system, dubbed Fair Play Technology, poker room representatives have informed pokerfuse.

The system, which was first introduced less than four months ago, graded players based on skill level and put them into one of three tiers. Players at the lowest skill grade would be hidden from those in the high tier. Those in the middle could play with everyone.

The system was implemented network-wide, first at only high stakes, but soon spreading to most cash games and some SNGs.

However, according to reports, first disclosed by US affiliate ProfessionalRakeback-com and since confirmed by pokerfuse, the policy has been lifted. No further grading or categorization of players will take place.

The change is understood to have been implemented earlier this week.

However, skins on the network still have the choice to separate their players from the rest of the network and games from NL50 and all heads up SNGs have been segregated by certain skins. According to one report, only Lock Poker has implemented this.

Lock had previously segregated all players at NL200 and above, a separation it pledged to remove upon the introduction of Fair Play Technology.

Cashouts at Lock Poker and Juicy Stakes, two US-facing skins on the network, remain slow, graded D and F respectively in the latest independent review of withdrawal times from Poker Affiliate Solutions. Lock Poker deposits are trading at less than 40c on the dollar.

Separating the player base on a skill metric is also implemented on PartyPoker.





Revolution Ends Fair Play Technology | Pokerfuse Online Poker News