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This Sunday’s Super Bowl XLV outside Dallas has practically everything that the NFL’s biggest game could ask for.

You have two historic teams in the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, who have combined to win nine Super Bowls in their rich histories. Both teams are led by superstar quarterbacks in Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers. And both clubs have stellar defenses, with the Steelers and Packers No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in fewest points allowed during the regular season, making this the first time the NFL’s top two scoring defenses are in the Super Bowl since 1982. There’s even the most state-of-the-art stadium in America, the $1.6 billion Cowboys Stadium. The NFL is projecting that 105,000 people will fill the stadium and an outdoor plaza, which would be a record for the league’s biggest game.

But Super Bowl XLV is clearly missing one very important thing: cheerleaders. How can there be no cheerleaders at the home of the Dallas Cowboys? They only have the most famous cheerleaders on the planet. There are just six teams in the NFL that don’t have cheerleaders. The Steelers and Packers, two of the NFL’s most conservative franchises, happen to be two of the six, meaning for the first time in Super Bowl history there will be no cheerleaders at the NFL’s biggest event (the other teams without are the Bears, Lions, Browns and Giants). The Packers haven't had cheerleaders since 1988, the Steelers since 1970.

Green Bay does have a cheerleading squad at home games, but that’s courtesy of the St. Norbert College and University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s cheerleading squads, and they were told their services wouldn’t be needed for the Super Bowl because what they do is unique for Lambeau Field. The cheer coach for UW-Green Bay told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that the cheer teams were invited to the two Packers Super Bowls in the 1990s, but that they had to raise most of their own funding, which they did. From 1961 to 1969, Pittsburgh had the Steelerettes, who were students from Robert Morris Junior College in Pittsburgh. In the late 1960s, Robert Morris got its own football team, and the Steelerettes were never replaced.

There simply can’t be a Super Bowl without the lovely ladies on the sideline, so Bodog has started an online petition to ensure that this never happens again. To further this goal, Bodog has created a football cheerleader Facebook page

“Bodog believes that cheerleaders are as American as apple pie and the Super Bowl itself," said Anique Gooden, Spokeswoman for Bodog-net. "The tradition of spirit squads patrolling the sidelines of football games, no matter the level of competition, is crucial in creating the best possible football experience."

Perhaps Jerry Jones will take notice and offer his Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders for Super Bowl XLV. But if not, sign Bodog’s online petition and “like” the football cheerleader Facebook page to help make sure cheerleaders are a staple at every Super Bowl.

Down in Gainsville, a club known as The Vault was the scene for an unusual charity event: a strip poker tournament that raised money for the St. Francis House and Goodwill Industries international. While charity poker events are nothing new – some of the biggest names in the game have been attached to them and some online poker sites have gotten in on the action by offering guaranteed tournaments that raise funds for worthy causes – the idea of a strip poker tournament is a new spin on an old favorite. Don't worry, though – nobody's reputation was sullied, as players were only allowed to go as low as their swimsuit.

While players could get in on the action for free, a $15 entry fee gave them access to wings and beer as well as priority seating, a t-shirt and a raffle ticket that gave them a shot at putt-putt-putting away on a brand new scooter. During the event, over 500 pounds of clothing was collected and donated by players and fans alike.

We talked about Aussie Millions winner David Gorr over in this week's The Water Cooler, but another player got the attention of thousands of people on Twitter after declaring that the game sucks when he got bounced out of the tournament. Former cricket (a game that, much like soccer, everywhere that's not America seems to love) player Shane Warne, who actually serves as an online poker pro for a major website, wrote “Just got knocked out… Steaming… My pocket queens ran into pocket aces😡 No worries….Poker sucks 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡!” on his Twitter page.

While we can sympathize with the man and even understand that he was likely making a joke, it seems unwise for a player with such a high profile to say that the game that helps him stay afloat after the he leaves the sticky wickets for the semi-retired life out-and-out sucks. At least it's not as bad as the time that Phil Ivey tweeted that he would rip out Daniel Negreanu's heart and eat it on live television.*

There's a lot to be said about keeping a civil tongue in your head and Warne's outburst just makes him look petty to those who aren't familiar with the man's typically Australian, tongue-in-cheek outlook.

*That never happened.

Running bad at that level is definitely running BAD.

Ouchhhh.


:dance:


They all had really bad days 😄

Every Sunday, Bodog Poker hosts its weekly $100,000 guaranteed tournaments and so far, 2011 has offered up some fantastic action for players interested in big-money games where you can get in on the action for as little as $1 thanks to our satellites. These massive all-hands-on-deck events take place at 4pm EST on Sundays and feature some of the best online poker action going. AKbigfish took first place this week, earning $23,600. They were followed by karolrad ($13,600) and MaliceUW , who rounded out the top three spots and pocketed $9,100. Here's the rest of the final table results: AaKkNumbr1 ($7,000); bates35 ($5,700); mypepe ($4,500); EgonTowst ($3,300); Panicked ($2,200); Schaffer42 ($1,300);

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 24 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack youngwarrior
* January 25 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack crow1955
* January 26 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack jdavis44
* January 27 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack thailand4life
* January 30 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack amaru34
* January 30 $10k Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack 011jp

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

UK poker pro Marcus Bebb-Jones, accused of killing his wife Sabrina and leaving her body in a national park in Colorado, has been denied his extradition appeal and will be coming to the US to be tried. Bebb-Johnes lived in the states for eight years before returning to the UK a year after his wife Sabrina disappeared. When initially questioned, he told police officers that his wife had walked out on him after an argument they had in Dinosaur National Monument Park in September of 1997.

After speaking with the authorities, Bebb-Jones took his three-year-old son Daniel to Las Vegas where Sabrina's family lived to search for her. Daniel was found alone in a hotel room four days later and taken into the care of the state while Bebb-Jones was found in another hotel room suffering from what investigators determined to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a massive pile of credit card debt he'd run up in what someone has coined a "playboy weekend."

Bebb-Jones faced no official charges despite Sabrina's blood being found in the family card and has lived in the UK since 1998 with Daniel. In 2004, Sabrina's skull was discovered and five years of investigations led to the arrest of Bebb-Jones. He faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted.

Play online poker at Bodog today and keep reading The Beat to keep up to date with poker news and more!

A DUBLIN-based subsidiary of the world’s second largest online poker room, Full Tilt Poker, has confirmed the creation of a further 100 jobs. The recruitment drive will bring to 800 the numbers employed at Pocket King Ltd’s operations at the Cherrywood Science and Technology Park.

Pocket Kings acts as a service provider to Full Tilt Poker and established in Dublin in 2006.

One of Pocket Kings’s two directors is Ray Bitar, who is one of the founders of the US-based Full Tilt Poker that controls Pocket Kings.

A company spokeswoman said yesterday the numbers employed at the company had almost doubled from the 390 employed at the end of April 2009.

“From our last accounts filing [for the period up to April 2009], we have sustained our accelerated growth and almost doubled our headcount,” said the spokeswoman.

The accounts for the 12 months to the end of April 2009, which were only recently filed to the Companies Office, show the company’s pretax profits declined by 26 per cent from €8 million to €5.9 million. Its gross profit fell 5 per cent from €47.1 million to €44.7 million.

The company said it would continue to recruit even after the current posts were filled, the spokeswoman said.

“This growth trend is estimated to continue at this strong rate for all of 2011 and beyond. All of our positions are for highly skilled technical and marketing positions with a significant number requiring a second European language.”

Some of the latest jobs are quite specialised, including fraud analysts for the Italian, German and French markets along with Norwegian, Japanese, Greek, Russian, Hebrew and Korean customer service agents.

“Ireland has always been an attractive location for us and continues to be so,” said the company spokeswoman. “The accessibility to a skilled and educated workforce in Ireland along with an attractive corporation tax rate continues to be deciding factors in our decision to remain here.”

Since beating Dan “jungleman12” Cates for about $50,000 in the third installment of the PokerStars Superstar Showdown, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom has been running red hot on the virtual felt.

The majority of Blom’s profits over the past week have came from Phil “mrsweets28” Galfond at $25-$50 pot-limit Omaha. Blom is up more than 30 buy-ins against his opponent in the short time span.

With the solid week Blom has finally clawed out of the red since joining PokerStars. He is now in the black about $300,000 since becoming one of the site’s pros in December.

However, all of this could change because at the time of this article’s release (around 11 a.m. PST) Blom and Brian “$tinger 88” Hastings, arguably the Swede’s biggest poker nemesis, were six tabling $25-$50 pot-limit Omaha. Hastings was the player who derailed Blom’s poker career late in 2009 by winning more than $4 million in a five-hour duel at $500-$1,000 pot-limit Omaha on Full Tilt Poker. Although the stakes on Wednesday are meager compared to what the duo have played in the past, the battle is important for Blom as he tries gain traction since reemerging onto the scene. Hastings had jumped off to an early six buy-in lead against his opponent when this article was published.

Gus Hansen is the biggest winner so far in 2011 — with a profit of nearly $900,000. Hansen has been on fire in the pot-limit Omaha cap game lately, winning about $300,000 from Cates this past Friday in a short match.

Despite 2010 being one of Hansen’s worst years ever (he was down close to $2 million online), the Danish pro has been able to turn things around drastically since 2011 began.

Also at the time of this article’s release, German limit specialist Kagome Kagome was sitting at six limit hold’em tables, ranging from $200-$400 to $3,000-$6,000, with zero action. The games have been dry recently for the 21-year-old, but according to him it isn’t too surprising.

“It’s kind of frustrating, but not that unexpected,” Kagome Kagome said. “At the stakes I wait at money really matters even to most regular players, so they are afraid of risking a lot in a marginal situation like that.”

The Italian online gaming market is already the biggest in Europe and has steadily grown over the past few years, rising from €3.4 billion in 2009 to
€4.8 billion in 2010.

Despite being one of the first European countries to legalise egaming and now having such a huge online gambling market, revenues are expected to grow even more in the country as two important changes are made to the industry in 2011.

Up until now, Italians have had to content themselves playing solely online poker tournaments as cash games are not permitted in Italy. In addition, there exists an outright ban on online casino gambling inside the country but that is all about to change over the coming months as these two new gambling verticals are introduced.

As far as Italian gaming analysts are concerned, the addition of online poker cash games couldn’t come at a better time as they believe the poker market had stabilised and was in need of a further boost to growth. As Stefano Acciavatti of TrustPartners explains:

“Even if game accounts and revenues for poker increased in 2010 with respect to 2009, during the last four to five months of last year there were clear signs of stabilization. Game sessions, tournaments and amount of money spent per each game were down in number and volume compared to the comparable period in 2009.”

However, the addition of poker cash games is expected to add another €400 million to margins in 2011, with online casinos also adding a further €200 million in 2011 and €1 billion in 2012.

With online poker cash games now expected to be introduced in March and online casino in summer, major operators are already positioning themselves to take advantage of the lucrative new opportunities presented. Companies already manoeuvring for a slice of the business include Neomobile and Prima Networks Limited.

Lawmakers in Florida are kicking the tires on a plan to bring regulated online poker to the state through pari-mutuel facilities. The legislation, if passed, could hurt pari-mutuels much more than it will help.

The Seminole Indians are always the wild card when it comes to gaming in the Sunshine State. By law, the Seminoles are permitted to offer any form of gambling that is legal in the state. That means that if online poker legislation is passed, the Seminoles could automatically earn the right to offer Internet gambling.

Through the course of history, the Seminoles and their team of lawyers have made every attempt to find gaming laws they could exploit. Most recently, the Seminoles began offering blackjack at their Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, despite the fact that they had not completed a compact with the state.

Fearing they would lose in court, the state decided to negotiate a compact, which was completed last year, instead of trying to shut down the blackjack games at the Hollywood casino. The precedent in the state is that the Seminoles will find any and all loopholes in gaming laws.

If the pari-mutuels were given the right to offer online poker rooms through third party sites, the Seminoles would likely do the same. The Seminoles may even have their sites up and running before the pari-mutuels. That would create an unregulated Internet gaming industry for some online gamblers in the state, while others would play at the regulated pari-mutuel sites.

Florida lawmakers appear serious about bringing online poker in a regulated form to the states millions of online gamblers. Another risk they take by doing so and not including the Seminoles is possibly a battle over the Seminole gaming compact.

Indian tribes all across the US have used new gaming laws to try and eliminate revenue payments to the state. It is unclear if the Seminoles would seek that type of option considering that they currently have a cordial relationship with the Florida government.

Last year saw Ali Tekintamagac being ousted from the Partouche Poker Tour final table for cheating and it looks like a suspected compatriot just got ejected from the €1,500 Holland Casino Main Event. Kadir Karabulut was disqualified after poker pro Pieter de Korver became suspicious of the interaction Karabulut seemed to be having with a photographer who was circling the table. Karabulut was one of the reporters accused of helping Tekintamagac cheat last year using hand signals.

de Korver spoke to the tournament director and once they were aware of the situation, other players refused to continue with the game until Karabulut was booted from the proceedings. As a consquence of the director's investigation, Karabulut and his associates were banned from the casino.

"[Entrance by] the three persons to Holland Casino [has been] immediately denied. The stack of the player remaining in the tournament [Karabulut] was taken out of the tournament. We particularly regret that this occurred and it goes without saying that this is totally unacceptable for Holland Casino," said Mark Woldberg, the Holland Casino's spokesman.

The possibility of crooked media involvement in a game has been highlighted even further with this incident and both game security and the media's access to the tournament floor are under scrutiny.

"To avoid such problems in future, we will see if we – in addition to the press regulations [that] currently have to be signed [by media personnel] – can have even stricter regulations for bloggers and journalists."

Want to play poker online with the best security and player support in the industry? Bodog's there for you with great deposit bonuses and more!

It was online gaming firm Zynga (the company behind the Facebook click-addiction masterworks FarmVille and CityVille) and their Facebook Poker game that were the targets for the high-tech heist in which British hacker Ashley Mitchell pilfered their e-coffers and removed $12m worth of virtual poker chips and attempted to move them through a series of Facebook profiles designed to launder the funds. Between June and September of 2009, Mitchell posted as an administrator for the Zynga Poker game on Facebook to gain access to the computer systems for the game and steal the chips. He charged £430 per billion chips and netted about £53,000 from sales before he was apprehended.

At Exeter Crown Court, Mr Mitchell pleaded guilty to five charges brought under the Computer Misuse Act and the Proceeds from Crime Act. He was remanded until a date was fixed for sentencing. The sheer amount of chips going missing tipped Zynga off that someone was stealing from it and a sting was set up to track and catch the thief.

Zynga has been at the center of a number of controversies involving both intellectual property theft and security. The noted technical blog Ars Technica pointed out that Zynga's Cafe World and Playfish's Restaurant City were "nearly identical"; Cafe World was released six months after Restaurant City. Its gameplay, design, graphics, avatars, and even in-game items are almost identical to the ones in Restaurant City. Zynga also had to settle out of court over their game Mafia Wars after they were sued by Pscyho Monkey, creators of…(wait for it)…Mob Wars.

Controversies like the Zynga theft get play because they happen on Facebook, the most popular social networking site of all time. A few minutes with Zynga's poker game makes it obvious that the company took cues from a number of major online pokerrooms but without utilizing the security that sites like Bodog Poker have to offer in order to ensure that their players' data and money is as safe as possible. While Bodog monitors all transactions is aware of the smallest discrepancy, it took 400 billion chips to go missing for Zynga to take action. Bodog also offers top-flight customer support (unlike Zynga) and players concerns are addressed as quickly as possible.

Viktor Blom is not a happy man anymore :helpme

After Peeps's domination (and subsequent fall) at Bodog's King of the Felt promotion, it looked like it would be a while before someone else stepped up to wear the heavy crown for more than a week or two but millhouse11, a familiar name for those of you who play at Bodog's online poker tournament tables, just hit his fifth straight win, earning him an additional $2,500 and bringing the total he's made from being Bodog Poker royalty to $7,500.

If you've somehow missed out, King of the Felt is a Bodog-exclusive event where players defend their throne against those that have proven worthy of the challenge. To qualify to play in the King of the Felt event, you must be paid out in three or more qualifying Sit and Go Tournaments in a week. The more you play, the more chances you have to sit down and take on the reigning King.

Cashing in three to five sit and go tournaments earns you one entry into the draw; six to eight tournaments gets you two entries and entry into a $1,000 freeroll; 9 or more sit and go cashes gets you three entries into the draw, entry into the $1,000 freeroll, plus entry into an additional $500 freroll. If the draw is held and your name comes up, you'll face down the current king for a shot at poker greatness.

What does being King mean? Outside of being crowned by Bodog poker, you defend your throne in a tournament with a $1,000 prize each week, and the more you win, the bigger the prizes get including a chance at a seat in 2011 WSOP Main Event.

Get more information about King of the Felt and find out if you have what it takes at Bodog Poker

The number of people who play online poker could rise as a result of planned legislation in Australia.

This was the claim made by an organisation regarding government suggestions that a pre-commitment scheme should be set up for players of poker machines.

Independent politician Andrew Wilkie, a Tasmanian MP, is chairing an inquiry into proposals to employ technology to require gamblers to set betting limits before they start playing. Clubs Australia executive director Anthony Ball explained to the gathering that the plans require more research into whether or not they will work and the various opportunities that exist.

He pointed out some individuals may choose to play online if regulations are introduced, noting such a system may not deter problem gamblers or encourage them to seek help.

His comments come after a report in the Australian that a "no limit" option is being considered by the government as part of the new regulations.

With all the debate going on in the US about online poker and its legality, poker continues to be one of the most popular methods for charity fundraising.
Laws loosened for charity tournaments

Many states relax their gambling laws for fund raising events, with Florida law allowing money to be raised through poker, although games that include a buy-in charge and prizes must be held at Indian casinos, horse tracks or other gaming facilities authorized to host poker tourneys.

However, as media in the state have pointed out, many Florida charities hold poker tournaments at fancy hotels and private mansions, which helps them to raise lots of money for worthy causes.
Poker keeps on giving

Poker is the sport that keeps on giving, as the annual Raise Your Hand for Africa event shows. The tournament, which will next be held on February 18 and 19 at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, will benefit the Starkey Hearing Foundation and will be hosted by poker pro Phil Hellmuth and NFL stars Adrian Peterson and Larry Fitzgerald.

Tournament ideas continue to become more innovative as charities compete for attention. Last week the Taking It Off For Charity poker tournament was held in Florida, in which dozens of participants played strip poker (only down to their bathing suits) in support of St. Francis House and Goodwill Industries International.

Where is the password for the february freeroll that plays today? can anyone help

What is the password😟😟😟😟? I have been all over this forum and found nothing. I contaacted Bodog and they tell me the moderator has the password, only members can play this freeroll well where is the password there are over 160 people registerd now how did they do it and why is the password hidden from members?

At first, the idea of a poker tournament at the Durango Community Recreation Center in Durango, Colorado doesn't sound especially strange, until you learned that it featured 30 players all in the crystal blue waters of the facility's swimming pool, playing in the first-ever underwater Kraken poker tournament, a new addition to the town's Snowdown winter festival. The game was played with the players lying on their stomachs around a table resting on the bottom of the pool and instead of chips, players got seashells.

The fact that the game was played understate wasn't the only way that the tournament was different: cheating was encouraged on the part of participants and a pair of swimmers who acted as the titular Kraken played pranks on players and the dealers alike, at one point stealing a bucket of shells and distributing them among the players.

Organizer Kim Tucker (and co-owner of Splash Down Diving Adventures in Durango) was pleased with the event's success, noting that even at 9 a.m., participants showed up.

"When everybody’s hung over, coming in to dive isn’t probably their favorite thing to do, but this is when I get the pool," she said. "I’ve got to take pool when I can get pool."

You don't have to get wet or wear a bathing suit to play poker online at Bodog, but you can if you want. We won't tell.

One of the more popular faces at Poker Stars is Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champ. Part of the Poker Stars Pro Team for a while now, the latest buzz in the poker industry is that the star is no longer associated with the online gaming site. According to the latest spotting, Raymer’s picture is no longer up on the website and he is not listed as a Poker Stars Pro.

If there were any doubts that Raymer has moved on from this site (some say because of compensation discrepancies), the player himself semi-confirmed it on a 2+2 forum posting this week.

“There has been a lot of discussion about my representation of Poker Stars, and it is true that right now I am not representing them,” he wrote. “In the near future, I will have a more detailed statement discussing this situation, but I have no further comment at this time. For those of you who have been reading about and discussing this situation, I appreciate all of the positive comments I have received. It is very gratifying to hear so many nice things from so many good people, and I am touched by your support.”

Neither Raymer nor Poker Stars have given an official reply to the rumors though, and so until we hear from them, it’s not a done deal.

There are now five WSOP champs still part of the Poker Stars Pro team – Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Jonathan Duhamel, Tom McEvoy and Joe Cada. The site lost Peter Eastgate last year after he announced his early retirement from the game.