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Online poker room, Big Bet Poker on the Merge network, is about to close its operations.

Big Bet Poker is a site that was re-launched onto the Merge network in 2009 and it now appears that a shutting down is on the cards. It is reported that some players began to receive calls that a closure was just around the corner and that new players would not be able to join from 3rd January 2011.

According to an Internet post, from Jay Parcells, a manager and friend at the Big Bet Poker site, operations are being ceased.

He writes “I am writing to inform you that Big Bet Poker is closing our poker room for good on Friday, January 31st, 2011.”

“As of today, Monday, January 3rd, we are no longer accepting deposits. You will still be able to access your account through the client and either play out your current balance or request a withdrawal. The minimum withdrawal amount is $30. If your balance is under this amount, you will have until Friday, January 31st to play out the remaining balance.”

Mr. Parcells adds that the final day of January 2011 will be the last possible date to request a withdrawal.

Seemingly aware that this is a surprise to the site’s customers, Jay Parcells offers apologies for the inconvenience caused. An e-mail address for queries is presented ([email protected]) and the post is signed off from Jay Parcells, Head of Poker and Your Big Bet Poker Team’.

Once i sent proper documentation recieved withdraw in one day

Harman Baweja stood second in the recently held India Poker Championship (IPC) in Goa. However, the actor took part in the tournament just to enjoy the game at the behest of a friend.

Talking about his love for poker Harman says, "I was in Goa for a friend's birthday and we got to know about the IPC being held around the same time. My friend Sameer suggested I participate in the tournament. Even though initially I was apprehensive I decided to take part just for the fun of it."

While he sat for the game with a casual attitude, he soon got involved in it as the hands progressed. "Yes, I did want to win when I started playing. I think when you play any game the intention is to win it. So it felt great when I was playing contenders and winning rounds. My stack kept growing bigger and in the end I had to play opposite the finalist and finish second."

Is he a serious player? "Not really. I picked up poker recently and am not sure my mom would like to know about it!

I have friends who are experts at the game and even play it online on their Facebook accounts. I don't think I would like to pursue it seriously, as I play it re-creationally."

Natalie Galustian's collection of poker ephemera and books has been the talk of certain circles for a while now. The London-based bookseller, whose shop is located in Cecil Court (just off Charing Cross Road and St. Martin's Lane) has been focusing on the game for a few years now and accumulated some very rare artifacts including tomes with titles like A Treatise On Jack Pot Poker by Uncle Jack Abbott: With The Game Of Sancho Pedro, When Played For Stakes and 1880's The Complete Poker Player: A Practical Guide Book to the American Game Containing Mathematical and Experimental Analyses of the Probabilities at Draw Poker. In addition to books the All In catalog of goods included gelatin prints from Ulvis Albert's fantastic collection of photographs from the game, featuring greats like Doyle Brunson and Stu Ungar.

The 250 volume collection, which was perused by the likes of Andy Bloch and Phil Ivey, recently sold for over $200,000. Understandably, Galustian has kept the name of the buyer under wraps, but has already started putting together another collection, giving poker fans a reason to swing by her shop the next time they're in London.

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If you've been following the saga of Peeps and his run for a seat at the 2011 World Series of Poker in Bodog's King Of The Felt promotion, we've got bad news for you. After nine weeks at the top and $11,500 in winnings, he was finally toppled by millhouse11 in a heads up game.

How do you compete to be King of the Felt? Just cash in during three or more qualifying Sit-and-Go tournaments at Bodog. The more you play, the more chances you get to win a shot at the throne and our online poker room is even offering up special freerolls for those that go the extra distance and beat the bubble in six or more tourneys. If you play in 3-5 Sit and Go tournaments, you earn one ticket; 6-8 tickets, you get 2 entries into the draw and a seat in our $1,000 freeroll; 9 or more, you earn three tickets in the draw and entry into both the $1,000 freeroll and an additional $500 freeroll.

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Money makes money and with money processors the size of Mastercard and Visa that means a ton of money.
MasterCard and Visa have complied with the regulations set out by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the USA that went into full enforcement mode in 2010 but that does not mean these companies are happy campers.
The UIGEA has put the onus on the money processing companies and the banks to police the activities of online gamblers in the States making it increasing difficult for players to deposit and collect funds associated with internet betting. This has created a situation in America where commissions on billions of dollars are not being gleaned by the banks or money processors much to the dismay of these financial institutions.
MasterCard allocated $840,000 for lobbying the federal government of America in the third quarter of 2010 mostly for a policy change when it comes to the prohibition on online gambling.
MasterCard spent twenty-four percent more than in the third quarter of 2009 on it’s efforts to change the law to favour regulating the industry.
The conservative right wing anti gambling group the Republicans have once again gained control of the House of Representatives in the USA and it looks very unlikely that any overturning of the current state of affairs will come about.
Senator Harry Reid, the representative from the gambling state of Nevada, pushed a bill that would have regulated online poker federally at the end of 2010 with a less than positive result. The originators of the UIGEA have dug in their collective heals and look determined to scuttle any efforts to make even online poker legal.
Mastercard and Visa would benefit from any changes in the law and so would players who would have a safe and secure method of processing their funds.
Some light at the end of the legal and financial tunnel may lie in individual state governments such as California and New Jersey which are considering legalized online poker within state boundaries.

Could it really be? According to various sources, the world will soon know the true identity of Isildur1, recently signed anonymous PokerStars Team Pro and online poker player. Supposedly, before the day is over, the unidentified poker player will reveal himself to the poker community at the commencement of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event which will take place at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. A press conference has been scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Bahamas time.

For almost a year now, many have believed that the mysterious, unnamed Swedish character is in fact Viktor Blom, a very successful cash game player who is very well respected in the European poker circuit. Online, Isildur1 is known for the dramatic swings that involve bets worth millions of dollars. Not known in the live circuit for having high stacks of cash, attention was raised when Blom became one of 38 players competing in the $100K High Roller Event at the PCA. Once the news of Isildur1’s supposed appearance started buzzing around at the PCA, people started to make a connection.

Over the past year, Isildur1 has held his own against some of the biggest and boldest high-stakes online poker players to ever play the game. Isildur1 has swapped huge pots with such players as Patrik Antonius, Tom durrrr Dwan, Gus Hansen, and Phil Ivey at the high-stakes tables over at Full Tilt Poker before he signed with PokerStars.

And as if there wasn’t enough hype surrounding the PCA this year, Tony G has expressed interest in taking on Isildur1 for a rematch after losing against him at the SuperStar Showdown, a series created by PokerStars specifically designed for those who wished to try their hand against the anonymous player. Tony G just might get that chance at the PCA.

Phil Hellmuth is perhaps the most recognizable name in professional poker. His name transcends different areas of life, making him a prime candidate for a reality show that is considered to be one of the most popular in the US.

Dancing with the Stars has millions of viewers each week and rumors are circulating that the show has picked Hellmuth to be in the next group of celebrity competitors. The show always goes after high profile entertainers, and Hellmuth would fit that description.

Hellmuth has had himself a busy couple of months. Recently, the poker legend announced that he would be severing endorsement ties with Ultimate Bet. The company is one of the leaders in online gambling, but Hellmuth and Annie Duke have both decided to go away from Ultimate Bet in the new year.

Hellmuth would be considered a top addition to any of the major online poker brands. It has been reported that Full Tilt and PokerStars are the leaders in the effort to land Hellmuth. The player has not tipped his hand, but he has acknowledged both Full Tilt and PokerStars as possible suitors.

Hellmuth's agent, Brian Balsbaugh, has alluded to the fact that Hellmuth will be seen on television a lot more in 2011. That was a possible hint that the Poker Brat has already struck a deal with DWTS to appear on the show. The dancing show takes amateurs from sports, music, and entertainment and pairs them with professional dancers. Each week, eliminations are held based on fan voting.

Hellmuth has won at the World Series of Poker, poker's premiere event, more than any other player in history. Even if Hellmuth appears on DWTS, it is likely he will continue to play the high stakes cash games being played at the biggest Las Vegas casinos.

Two Tampa area women shared the largest poker jackpot in Florida history on Saturday when they hit a record-setting $584,864 Mega Bad Beat Poker Jackpot in the new poker room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa.

According to the casino, Patricia Dumas, of Lutz, FL, won $292,430 with her "losing" hand of four kings, while Mija Choi, of Tampa, FL, took home $175,458, thanks to her "winning" hand of four aces.

A bad beat jackpot occurs when a seemingly unbeatable hand of at least four 10s loses to an even better hand.

Six other players at the table each won $19,496, for a total jackpot prize of $584,864.

All were playing $2/$4 no-limit Texas Hold 'em.

The former record payout was $366,534 on Feb. 9, 2010, at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa.

The exclusive Mega Bad Beat Jackpot has hit on average about twice a month, paying out 23 times for a total of $5,332,727.

The last Mega Bad Beat Jackpot happened on Nov. 3, 2010 Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, paying out $298,909.

Yesterday's hit in Tampa was the 13th Mega Bad Beat awarded at the Tampa property, the most of any of the Seminole properties.

To date, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa has awarded over three million of the mega bad beat jackpots.

Wyoming poker players wouldn't have to know their opponents to play a legal hand under a proposal by a Sheridan lawmaker who wants to clarify the state's poker law.

Republican Sen. Bruce Burns tells the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that he'd like to see the state Legislature revisit their decision four years ago to legalize friendly games of poker.

Bruce says the poker law raises questions about whether bar owners can hold poker games and then profit off the food and drinks that players buy while playing poker against strangers. Bruce says his proposal wouldn't pre-empt city ordinances like Cheyenne's, which requires a permit for large, advertised poker tournaments.

Bruce says his bill would still outlaw video poker machines.

One of the mysteries that gripped the online poker world this past year has been the identity of an anonymous poker pro, known only by his moniker Isildur1. Very few facts were known about the player – only that he hailed from Sweden and that he was a very, very gifted poker player.

Since Isildur1 started playing highroller poker games against some of the world’s greatest players, rumors began to circulate that he was none other than the reclusive Swedish wunderkind, Viktor Blom.

Late last year, Poker Stars announced that it had signed Isildur1 on to its professional team of players, and the natural assumption was that his identity would therefore need to be revealed. Poker Stars promised that this would happen in due time.

On the first day of the 2011 Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure Main Event this weekend, the online poker room finally decided to reveal Isildur1’s identity as they set up in a heads on match against another player. The media was called in to witness the ‘unveiling’ and it turned out that Isildur1 is indeed 20 year old Viktor Blom.

Although Blom started playing poker when he was 14, it wasn’t until he turned 18 that he turned to online playing at top European poker sites. His aggressive playing style, incredible insight into the game and sheer guts saw him turn $2,000 into $2,000,000 in just three short weeks. He manages to win and lose extraordinary amounts of money in single sessions, and even lost an eye-watering $4,100,000 in one day to an opponent.

It remains to be seen how Blom will fare on the internet and offline circuit now that his true identity has been revealed and he has the backing of one of the best online poker sites in the industry.

If you enjoy poker in Wyoming, one lawmaker is in your corner and looking out for your interests. Republican state senator Bruce Burns told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that he'd like the state legislature to take another look at their decision four years ago to legalize friendly games of poker. Four years ago, the state changed Wyoming's gambling laws to allow social games of poker as long as business owners made no money from the games themselves and players had a "bona fide social relationship."

As you can imagine, every country attorney interprets what constitutes a "social relationship" differently and began raising questions about whether two players meeting for the first time in a regular game and wagering against each other counted as gambling as well as whether or not food and drinks served by businesses at a poker event counts as "profiting from gambling." Burns seeks to loosen the restrictions on what constitutes a social relationship and give players the ability to meet for the first time at the table.

Even if the law is changed to broaden how two players know one another, city officials would still retain the authority to pass ordinances to regulate or ban poker. For instance, the city of Cheyenne's poker ordinance allows casual poker games without a permit as long as businesses don't get a cut, the buy-in is under $25 and no one advertises a venue as a place to play poker.

Every Sunday, Bodog Poker hosts a weekly $100,000 guaranteed tournaments and the new year kicked off in style with another installment in the blockbuster series. These massive all-hands-on-deck events take place at 4pm EST on Sundays and feature some of the best online poker action going. VOITTAJATYYPPI took first place this week, earning $25,000. They were followed by CobaltBlue ($15,000) and Panicked , who rounded out the top three spots and pocketed $9,500. Here's the rest of the final table results: PokerChump87 ($7,000); jkli ($5,700); Paz5050 ($4,500); 3pounder ($3,500); ibangedyourwife ($2,200); azn_synergy ($1,700);

In addition to our show-stopping Sunday events, Bodog hosts its regular weekly tournaments to players, and here's the winners of last week's events!

* January 3 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack free2pal
* January 4 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack jblankz
* January 5 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack Deyrockz
* January 6 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack Blieden16
* January 9 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack mmmo
* January 9 $10k Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack michaelahci

Bodog's guaranteed tournaments mean that there's always a big cash pool. Play poker online at Bodog and get your share!

I think he's good at short handed poker, but in a 10 handed game he lacks discipline. I guess its best to play what your good at eh? Thats why he tends to play short handed or heads up.

With players literally lined up out onto the casino floor to register for the first event at the World Series of Poker Circuit Stop at the Choctaw Resort and Casino, it was obvious that the outcome of the $345 no-limit hold em event was eagerly anticipated. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint one bit. Poker legend T. J. Cloutier, who gave the "Shuffle Up And Deal" announcement, was among those who played at the tournament. As the Choctaw Resort and Casino is just about an hour outside of the very poker-friendly city of Dallas, there were a lot of Texans out and about in the field, making aggressive, big calls and collecting pots.

After two days of play, the final table was set: Josh Evans; Chris Nash, Reynaldo Cantu, Jr; Howard "Tahoe" Andrew; Don Icawat; Ernest Bell; David Clark; A.J. Sporinsky; Shawn Halwes and Doug Gerda. David Clark, a 32-year-old player from Dallas took the final pot after 13 hours of play at the final table and earned $50,921 in first-place prize money and one of the gold-and-diamond encrusted WSOP Circuit Rings.

When it comes to online poker legislation it usually turns out be a good news/bad news situation for the poker players themselves, and this is precisely what residents of New Jersey could be facing as soon as July.

Yesterday the New Jersey State Assembly passed the online gaming bill that was passed by the Senate back in November 2010, and the bill now has only one more hurdle to clear to become law; a signature by Governor Chris Christie. The Assembly passed the bill with an overwhelming majority of 63-11 –similar to the Senate’s 29-5 passage—and all signs at this point indicate it will be likely for Christie to sign the bill into law.

The good news is the bill would make it very easy for players to deposit and withdraw their funds from these licensed New Jersey operators which would attract many new, entertainment-seeking, type players. But there are a number of problems with the bill if you are a current online poker player.

First, the bill would effectively cut-off New Jersey from the rest of the world, which would cause the “legal” NJ sites to be poorly trafficked with a small player base to pull customers from –this could be made all the more problematic depending on how many online sites are allowed.

Secondly, these new laws would make it officially illegal for online poker operators outside of New Jersey to offer games to New Jersey residents. Therefore, we could see a similar scenario to Washington State play out, where current providers like Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars would leave the market to comply with US laws –thus keeping their hopes alive of someday being licensed in the US.

So not only would the legal poker rooms be small entities, but the global network of online poker would lose yet another small player base, which seems to be the way things are turning at the moment –first Italy, then France, Washington State, and now New Jersey. As more and more of these locales get chipped off piece by piece we could eventually end up with an online market not dissimilar from the brick & mortar casino industry; where everything is based locally.

This could be devastating in the short-term for online poker –especially if more states follow New Jersey’s lead—with the only hope being that multiple states band together to create online poker networks of sorts, pooling their players much like the current online poker world.

Here's something you probably knew: keeping a poker face can be taxing on your emotions. A study conducted at Rice, Toronto and Purdue universities found that professionals that work in an industry that requires a neutral expression can take its toll.

"It takes energy to suppress emotions, so it's not surprising that workers who must remain neutral are often more rundown or show greater levels of burnout. The more energy you spend controlling your emotions, the less energy you have to devote to the task at hand," said Daniel Beal at Rice University.

Among those interviewed in the study were police officers, journalists, and social workers – people who have to suppress both positive and negative emotions. For the study, the researchers trained participants to perform as poll workers in two different conditions – in the first, the training emphasized being positive and upbeat to provide a good impression to the respondents and in the other, the training emphasized being neutral so as not to bias the responses of those being surveyed.

Results supported the idea that neutral displays require greater emotion suppression and this greater suppression led to less persistence at the surveying task and greater avoidance of potential survey respondents.

"The more energy you spend controlling your emotions, the less energy you have to devote to the task at hand," Beal said.

Obviously, it's easy to relate this to the stress and strain that playing in a real-world tournament or cash game can place on anyone. Online poker at Bodog, thankfully, allows you to make whatever face you want or even dance around in your underwear if you've got pocket rockets and feel the need to get down to Daft Punk.

(Please note that we did not mention Lady Gaga once in this piece.)

James "Catfish" Bullard, a 70-year-old native of Wills Point, Texas has a nickname that makes him hard to forget. He earned it after spending three years living in a tent in Vietnam and selling fish and is one of those players that commands the room with an authority that speaks of decades of experience. He cut his teeth on $.25/$.50 hold 'em poker games in Vegas and eventually started playing tournaments and his years of patience paid off as he came out on top of the second ring tournament at the Choctaw Casino World Series of Poker Circuit Series event being held this this month.

566 players sat down to play in the $555 no-limit hold 'em event with the top 63 spots walking away in the money. After about eight hours of poker not he second day, the final table was set and Catfish sat down with the second largest chip stack: 1,180,000, just 2,000 behind Joe Hall. Others at the table included Nathan Jessen, Jeremy Vaughn, Jack McCraine, Lance Federick, Christopher Curry, Justin Kruger, Doug Paxton and Sam Murphy.

Bullard earned $56,772 and a WSOP Circuit Ring for his victory and reports from the floor state that despite the final hand not wrapping up until almost 3 in the morning, he called his family and let them know he's done it.

Remember how 1 vs 100 was going to revolutionise the way people spend their evening as well as something else involving lots of awesomeness and cool stuff (according to Microsoft)? Well, it didn’t and Microsoft pulled the plug after the online game failed to attract any advertising support.

Microsoft looks like it will be filling the gap left by the quiz show with something new that comes in the form of Texas Hold-Em Poker.

More after the jump.

Full House Poker will allow players to enter 30 player Poker tournaments that can ultimately be won by moving up through the games and ending up as numero uno. If you win you move up a table and if you lose you move down a table. Beat the 10 other folks at your table, then keep it up and you could find yourself the winner.

Players will play real people as well as computer controlled players including some famous names that bring with them some unlockables if beat.

In fact, there will be quite a lot of content to unlock such as shirts, cool accessories and even the ability to make your avatar do cool little tricks with his chips. Sadly it looks like almost all of the +/- 150 awards will remain inside the game and won’t be able to be taken out to your dashboard avatar. If you bust out you will always be able to get more chips from the in-game ATM (we are told this will always remain a free process) and reports also say that there will be a Windows 7 phone version of the game that you can share and play with.

Will this work out in the end? Well, I kinda liked 1 vs 100 although I really couldn’t ever be bothered to actually play, which says something. I like poker and so do many other people out there so I can actually see something like this doing very well.

I still don’t know if it’s such a hot idea to promote the idea of gambling to the very young audience that Microsoft is attracting in the with the Kinect though, so we will see if that causes any issues of its own.

There was some debate and a bit of bidding between several interested parties, but The Weinstein Company (who also will be producing the second Rounders film in association with Miramax) have acquired the domestic distribution rights for Cogan's Trade, an adaptation of a George V. Higgins novel that will star Brad Pitt. Andrew Dominik wrote and will direct what the studio is calling a "comic crime saga" that is centered around Pitt's character, Jackie Cogan, a "professional enforcer who investigates a heist that takes place during a high stakes poker game held under the protection of the mob."

The movie will see Pitt reunited with two of his co-stars from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Casey Affleck and the much sought-after Sam Rockwell. With the distributor in place and money now firmly in the coffers, the flick will start production at the end of February and get an early 2012 release.