Poker forum archive

Annie Duke's at another charity poker tournament, and we'd like to know how she gets the energy to do so much, especially with the formation of that poker league on the horizon. This time, she's hosting a special tournament called, imaginatively, "A Night Of Poker" at the Hustler Casino in Gardena, CA on Saturday, May 7. Prceeds from the No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament go to Jesse Billauer's Life Rolls On Foundation, a nonprofit that works to improve the qualify of life for kids affected y a spinal cord injury.

As with all poker tournaments in the LA area, celebrities are expected to be on hand and Scott Caan (of the Oceans movies and Hawaii Five-O), Jason Mraz, Amy Smart and model Joanna Krupa are just a few of the names attending.

Here's a line from the press release to sum it all up for you:
"Annie Duke is an icon in the poker community and to have her support for this event, along with the participation of so many of my friends, is truly an honor," said Billauer, who also serves as the Life Rolls On's Director of National Outreach. "I'm grateful to everyone who made this event possible, including the outstanding tournament team at Hustler Casino, because proceeds raised from the evening will fund LRO's quality of life programs that push the boundaries of possibility for individuals living with paralysis."

It looks to be a heck of a nice event and with a WSOP* seat on the line up for the main prize, you can bet there's going to be some fierce competition on hand. In the meantime, of course, you can play for one of Bodog's Poker World Series of Poker qualifiers for as little as $1.

Each and every Sunday, Bodog's online poker room hosts a weekly $100,000 guaranteed tournament and you can get on the action for as little as $1 thanks to our aggressive satellite schedule. Bodog hosts its regular weekly tournaments to players and here's the winners of last week's events:
# str8blin ($2,813.25)
# gfunkera ($3,000.00)
# elchonco ($3,000.00)
# narf ($3,000)

She seems to be everywhere there is charity involved when it comes to poker,etc.alot of redbull is her diet.

Sounds interesting dont have a dodog account think maybe i need to get one...haha

Ira Rubin, one of the 11 people indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on illegal gambling, fraud, and money laundering charges was arrested on Monday, April 25, 2011, in Guatemala. According to Bloomberg.com, Rubin is “charged with nine counts, including conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act; three counts of violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act in connection with Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker; three counts of operation of an illegal gambling business in connection with Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker; conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering conspiracy.”

On Wednesday, Rubin made his initial court appearance in Miami where the question of his legal defense was raised. “I signed an agreement with a lawyer in New York Friday. I have no idea whether he’s been paid as of yet. I haven’t been able to make a phone call since Monday,” Rubin told U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea M. Simonton in Miami.

As it turned out, the attorney in question, Stuart Meissner, confirmed for the judge via a telephone call that he had in fact not been paid. As a result, Simonton set a hearing for April 29 to determine whether Rubin can find new representation. Rubin also has an additional hearing set for May 2. In the meantime, Rubin was taken back to the Miami Federal Detention Center, shackles and all.

While news about the crackdown on internet poker sites has been grabbing the headlines in the United States and around the world these past couple of weeks, the battle to introduce online gambling on a state level continues across the country. Recently, Iowa’s Senate passed a gambling bill, making available funds for the study into the regulation of online poker in the state.

The bill, which passed by a 38-12 margin, states that the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission conducts the study. The bill is now ready to move on to the State House, where it is hoped it will do just as well. Gambling activists believe that Senate File 526 has a good chance of climbing further through the pipeline on its way to law.

Some of the provisions in SF 526 will see some significant changes in the current laws governing gambling in Iowa. For example, the legislation will do away with the need for Iowans to go to the polls every eight years in order to vote for the continuation of casinos in their regions. In addition, the new law will allow gamblers to make advance deposits at racetracks, either by telephone or over the internet.

The poker study will require the Gaming Commission to report on a wide range of issues, including consumer protection, responsible gambling, regulatory recommendations and unregulated online poker.

If the bill passes, it has the potential to generate tens of millions in dollars in tax revenue for Iowa.

Each and every Sunday, Bodog's online poker room hosts a weekly $100,000 guaranteed tournament and you can get on the action for as little as $1 thanks to our aggressive satellite schedule. These huge tournaments take place at 4pm EST on Sundays.

Who won during came out on top in Sunday, April 24th's Tournament? bizzybstarr took first place this week, earning $25,000. They were followed by dlanger610 ($15,000) and AV8 Pounder
, who rounded out the top three spots while taking away $9,500. Here's the rest of the final table results: lukew
($7,000); Knockouter ($5,500); konajoe ($4,500); Skeeeter ($3,500); wineguytx ($2,200); wineguytx ($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!

* April 18 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: tarheels2895013 ($3,342.00)
* April 19 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: doylesoldier ($3,561.25)
* April 20 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: bluffington12 ($3,509.00)
* April 21 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: SoxSide ($3,660.25)
* April 24 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: Bob_Loblaw ($3,130.87)
* April 24 • $10k Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack THEHOLYGHOST ($4,290.00)

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

This weekend, Bodog Poker awarded two more seats at the World Series of Poker* Main Event to a pair of savvy players. united511 and troutman101 have both won WSOP Prize Packages worth over $12,000 that include a buy-in to the main event, $2,000 in travel expenses and spending money, VIP access to one of the (in)famous Bodog poker parties, a swag bag and more!

If you see them out at the tables, congratulate them! They deserve it!

And hey, if you want to get in on the action yourself? We've made it easy to qualify and play with cheap seats that start at a buck, qualifiers for the midrange player and direct buy-ins to the satellite events that give you direct access with no muss and no fuss. Take a look at a guide to your WSOP online qualifier options and win your way into the biggest tournament in the world of poker today!

A once-controversial gambling bill has sailed through a House Committee, drawing support from some ardent gambling opponents. The vote in the House State Government Committee was 20 in favor and only three opposed to legislation that calls for a study of how the state’s casinos might run an on-line poker network.

Representative Stewart Iverson, a Republican from Clarion, says requiring the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to conduct a study of online betting is a good first step. “I think it behooves all of us in the state to really find out how big internet gambling is in the state of Iowa,” Iverson says.

Backers says online poker players are getting fleeced by websites today, and having the state casinos in charge of the games would be a consumer-protection measure. “And it’s something we do need to get a handle on, but it’s kind of tough to get a handle on it when we don’t actually know what’s going on out there,” Iverson says, “so I think that report would be helpful.”

The bill as originally drafted would have given the casinos the go-ahead to run poker games on-line, but the bill was scaled back in a senate committee. The legislation cleared the full senate last week.

The bill includes other gambling-related proposals, like establishing racing payouts for the horse industry and limiting how often voters must approve gambling referendums in counties with casinos. The bill passed the senate last week on a 38 to 12 vote. It is now eligible for debate in the full House.

The season's biggest and best poker event in Atlantic City, the Borgata Spring Open Championship, has wrapped up with local boy Russell Crane of Howell Township, New Jersey earning $279,649 for the win.

“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Crane told the Borgata’s poker blog. “It felt great to have a lot of people from my home state supporting me.”

Crane's made a bit of a name for himself in the last few years, having earned about $376,000 in live tournament cashes before his win yesterday. His biggest score to date was a $220,000 cash at the 2009 World Series of Poker* for third place in a No-Limit Six Handed event, but he'd been seen locally over the last six years playing in tournaments of all shapes and sizes.

Heads-up play against Maryland player Adam Cook only lasted two hands. Crane had pocket queens, Cook had pocket 9s in the second hand and went all-in against Crane's 2-1 chip advantage. “I didn’t want to play a huge pot,” Cook told the Borgata. “But two 9s heads-up is a good hand and I just got it in.”

Cook took home a very nice $159,866 for his second-place finish.

The Borgata Spring Open doesn’t actually end with the championship wrap-up — there's a couple more events are on the schedule including a Deepstack Semi-turbo, $200 + $30 No Limit Hold’em tournament today and No Limit Hold’em, $200 + $30 buy-in event tomorrow at noon.

Play online poker at Bodog!

*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc. or its affiliates (collectively Harrah's). HIE does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with, Bodog Poker or its products, services, promotions or tournaments. Any promotion or tournament on this site will not guarantee your seat or ability to register for any WSOP event or any WSOP affiliated event which is at the sole discretion of Harrah's.

Bodog Poker helps you get into the World Series of Poker* Main Event for as little as $1! That's right, if you play your cards right and win a seat to the Main Event with us, you get access to a prize package worth over $12,000. Not only do you get your $10,000 buy-in to the main event, you'll receive $2,000 in spending cash and be taken care of by Bodog's staff every step of the way.

With $1 cheap seats tournaments, quarterfinals with buy-ins ranging from $5 to $15 and seats in semifinals going for as low as $35, it's easy to see how we give players more ways to get in on the action! Of course, if you've got the skills and know your way around the felt, you can dive directly into the action for $470 on this Sunday, May 1st at 4:35pm and compete for one of two main event prize packages.

Want to know more? Find out all the ways you can qualify for the WSOP main event! With Bodog's aggressive tournament schedule, deposit bonuses and great player support, we make getting to Vegas almost as much fun as being there.

*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc. or its affiliates (collectively Harrah's). HIE does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with, Bodog Poker or its products, services, promotions or tournaments. Any promotion or tournament on this site will not guarantee your seat or ability to register for any WSOP event or any WSOP affiliated event which is at the sole discretion of Harrah's.

Since April 14th, also known as Black Friday to the online poker community reported 50,000 professional poker players have now become unemployed thanks to the U.S.Federal Governments intrusive behavior.

With the economy in such dire straits and with no gainful employment to be found, thousands of recreational online poker players turned their game of skill and fun into a very lucrative living which took them off the unemployment lines only to have the government put them right back in it.

The U.S. debt is over $14.3 trillion dollars, the unemployment rate is over 9%, and our national debt rises on average by $4.08 billion dollars every day and what does the government do to fix the problem? First, they ban online gambling and snub their noses at the $42 Billion dollars of revenue that the industry could bring to the economy and which would also bring in over 32,000 new jobs to help with the unemployment rate. Then they proceed to add insult to injury by shutting down the top online poker sites and effectively put over 50,000 more Americans out of work and in the unemployment line! Nice job Feds, keep up the good work and maybe by this time next year the U.S. will be so bad off that China may outright own the country!

Since 2006 when the UIGEA bill was passed, many of the original Republicans that voted against legalizing online gambling have reconsidered the idea and some have even turned the corner and are now supporting legalization either federally or State by State, but the powers that be in the government are still determined to close their minds to a new opportunity for this country to become self sufficient in other ways instead of borrowing and owing other countries and putting the U.S. in deeper debt. Don’t the American people think its time for some bold new moves to get the U.S. back on track? Who would be harmed by legalizing online gambling? Vegas? Atlantic City? Not likely. They’ll all be in the game too. People spend their money everyday on objects or entertainment that someone else may not approve of, but its no one’s business to interfere not even the governments, not if America is the land of the free, or is it?

Wynn Resorts has broken its ties with PokerStars following the indictment of the online poker room's founder over accusations of illegal gambling and money laundering, less than a month after the two joined forces to lobby for the legalization of internet gambling.
Unsealed Indictment Sealed Decision

Wynn Resorts said in a press release that its decision to terminate the brief partnership was "reached as a result of the indictment unsealed by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York."

The founders of PokerStars and two other online poker companies were charged as part of an indictment by federal prosecutors, who accuse the firms of illegal gambling and other breaches under the 2006 UIGEA, which effectively outlawed internet gambling in the United States.
Strategic Alliance Over

It is amazing to think that less than a month ago Wynn Resorts Ltd and PokerStars announced that they were partnering to push for the legalization of online gambling in the USA, and to pave the way for the joint operation of an Internet Poker network in the country.

Their alliance came following a deal between Caesars Palace casino and 888 Holdings in Gibraltar to push for online gaming reform in the US state of New Jersey. Now, with the events of what has come to be known as Black Friday, all of the internet gaming community's efforts look to be in danger.

Event #10 (the Main Event, natch) of the World Series of Poker* circuit stop at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas was won by 24-year-old Chris Johnson, a recent immigrant to the city of lights who originally hails from Nebraska. The $1,500 (+100) buy-in No Limit Hold 'Em tournament attracted the biggest field so far in its six-year history with 496 entrants and a prize pool that amounted to $714,240. Johnson earned $153,559 for his first-place finish in the tournament.

"I got ran over by the deck," Johnson told reporters. "Everything went good for me today. I won two early coin flips and that pretty much made it smooth sailing the rest of the way."

Johnson's seen lot at cash games with moderate to high stakes throughout Vegas, which is the reason he moved out there. He also plays online poker and is just now embarking on a live tournament career that already has a pretty amazing start.

The World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown's final table was set this past sunday and the six remaining players are going to be competing for a stunning $1,122,340 first-place prize. Right now, Taylor Von Kriegenbergh is in the lead with a massive 4.384 million in chips, just shy of twice as much as his nearest competitor, Justin Zaki. Abbey Daniels follows close behind with 2.192 million in chips, then Allen Bari, Tommy Vedes and Curt Kohlberg round out the bottom three. Interesting, Von Kreigenbergh is going for his first-ever WPT win with a massive chip lead, Vedes, currently in fifth place, is aiming at his second WPT title, meaning that the action should be fierce.

Day six and the final table kick off this afternoon. Blinds will start at 12,000-24,000 for the first hour and things will go up 4,000 per hour until the final table is finished. While none of the names at this final table are megastars, they are all well-respected on the tournament circuit, with Allen Bari's reputation as a grinder getting him kudos from the rest. As James Mackey was eliminated in 7th place and was paid out $124,704, everyone at the final table is assured of a nice payday, even if they don't hit the $1.12 top spot.

Play in online poker tournaments at Bodog today!

It would have been nice to see John Racener, a Florida Pro in there at the final table. Nice paydays for the remaining players.

Federal indictments targeting top executives of three top online poker companies aren't attacks against Internet gambling itself, a defense lawyer known for handling complex financial and corporate crimes cases told a gambling industry group Tuesday.

Fred Heather of K&L Gates LLP told casino executives, government regulators and others at the iGaming North America conference in Las Vegas that the case against 11 people associated with PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker hinges on financial crimes that are separate from the act of wagering money on games online — which has become a multibillion dollar industry in the U.S.

"The heart of this case is this collateral activity, which constitutes bank fraud and money laundering," Heather said. "One of the indications of that is the fact that the government isn't resisting the return of money to the players through their deposits."

Several executives under indictment but living in other countries will likely resist extradition to the U.S. because of severe penalties they face, Heather said.

The indictments unsealed last month charge company executives and their associates with defrauding banks into processing illegal gambling transactions. Federal prosecutors in New York say the companies and payment processors used elaborate schemes — including creating fake online businesses purporting to sell sports accessories and flowers — to mask transactions that financial institutions would normally avoid.

Through related civil cases, prosecutors are going after $3 billion in restitution.

The laundering and fraud charges boosted the case beyond simple accusations of running an illegal Internet gambling business, said Paul Hugel, a civil and criminal lawyer who specializes in securities fraud, bank fraud and enterprise corruption.

Hugel said the bank fraud and money laundering charges create the potential for 20- or 30-year prison sentences, far beyond the maximum five years for running an illegal Internet casino.

"That is one of the reasons why the cases are unlikely to proceed to trial — there's going to be tremendous incentive for these defendants to be trying to work out a deal," said Hugel, a partner in Clayman & Rosenberg LLP.

Hugel said the bank fraud charges are unusual because they don't involve theft. He said a potential defense could be to show that bank executives knew what kind of transactions they were really processing — though it'd difficult to prove.

Heather, however, sees potential in the strategy.

"You've got to sell a lot of golf balls to process millions of dollars," he said.

The companies involved have said little about the legal cases, but players and others in the industry have shown outward anger toward the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney's office in New York's southern district, which is handling the case.

PokerStars and Full Tilt have since shut down their offerings to American players, while Absolute has stopped letting U.S. players deposit or register for its sites.

Heather said the prosecutors in charge of the case have a recent history of going after fraud involving financial institutions — including cases that involve many complex layers.

Hugel and Heather made the point that more prosecutions are likely if authorities think operators and banks are doing business in the same way as those indicted.

"They will pull the trigger on very complicated cases," Heather said. "They're sophisticated. And they're good. And they're successful."

Each and every Sunday, Bodog's online poker room hosts a weekly $100,000 guaranteed tournament and you can get on the action for as little as $1 thanks to our aggressive satellite schedule. These huge tournaments take place at 4pm EST on Sundays.

Who won during came out on top in the tournament this past Sunday, May 1st? Kirk50 took first place this week, earning $23,600. They were followed by PhillipRivers ($13,600) and louisjean108
, who rounded out the top three spots while taking away $9,100. Here's the rest of the final table results: RAZALGOOL
($7,000); krasark ($5,700); BadReception ($4,500); Catfish4U ($3,300); jjn4207 ($2,200); Chipsteela ($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!

* April 25 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: BEEFIO ($3,357.75)
* April 16 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: wineguytx ($3,685.00)
* April 27 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: Daddyo11 ($3,720.75)
* April 28 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: McGidd ($3,236.75)
* May 1 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: tokenjay ($3,372.87)
* May 1 • $10k Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack scottyyy_t ($4,170.00)

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

USA Today (of all the places!) had the first real details on the poker league that Jeffrey Pollack and Annie Duke started a while back. The Federated Sports and Gaming Poker League has (understandably) tough qualification criteria with each type of card requiring a certain level of skill. For instance, the five-year card requires that players have at least $4,000,000 in adjusted lifetime earnings from the game with a single largest win capped at $2,000,000. Players looking for a five-year card must also have earned at least three major titles and had at least 9 cashes since January 1, 2008 totaling at least $600,000.

For three-year and two-year cards, the qualifications are lighter, but each "qualifying tournament" has requirements that are stringent enough to ensure that it's not going to be easy to play in the league, even if you are a heck of a grinder.

"We put a lot of thought into it just thinking about what it is that would define one of the best live tournament players in the world," Duke told USA today. As mentioned above, players must be active and they all have to have won since 2008. "We wanted to make sure that we were grabbing the best of the best today," she continues. A notable player who's ineligible is Jamie Gold, who won $12 million at the 2006 World Series but hasn't gone full-time pro and has $12.231 million in lifetime earnings, according to the HendonMob-com database.

The first season has a roster of 218 players and the first event begins August 9-12 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

Don't qualify for the new league? That's ok! Online poker at Bodog lets every player get in on the action!

Online poker fans are calling it “Black Friday”: On April 15, the Justice Department charged the owners of three of the world’s largest Internet gaming companies with bank fraud and gambling offenses, shutting down their Web sites and freezing bank accounts around the world.

Now, poker advocates in Washington are attempting to turn the bust to their advantage by renewing a push to legalize online poker in the United States. The Poker Players Alliance, a lobbying group backed in part by overseas gaming interests, has unleashed a blizzard of telephone calls and e-mails to lawmakers in the past two weeks arguing that the criminal case against PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker shows the need for a legalized system.

The effort has growing support from major Nevada casinos that see an opportunity for a lucrative new market. Advocates are also dangling the prospect of billions of dollars in potential federal tax revenues at a time of fiscal distress in Washington.

“We’re trying our best to make lemonade out of the lemons,” said John Pappas, the poker group’s executive director and chief lobbyist. “I think now more than ever, people realize that the status quo is not going to work. We need legislative clarity so that there is a U.S. regulated marketplace for poker.”

The debate centers on 2006 legislation that effectively bars Internet gaming by prohibiting banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions from processing online gambling transactions.

In the April 15 indictment, federal prosecutors in New York alleged that owners and founders of the three poker companies tricked — or in some cases, bribed — U.S. banks into processing gambling payments by making them seem as though they were for pet supplies, flowers or other legitimate products. All three of the companies involved, which have denied wrongdoing, are based in offshore gambling havens.

“Foreign firms that choose to operate in the United States are not free to flout the laws they don’t like simply because they can’t bear to be parted from their profits,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said when the indictments were filed.

Opponents say the case illustrates the perils of legalizing poker or other online games of chance in the United States.

“When you’re dealing with a criminal enterprise, you should not be surprised when you are cheated or taken advantage of,” said Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), a longtime foe of online gaming. “For years, I have been warning about the particular dangers illegal Internet gambling poses, especially to our young people, many of whom are becoming addicted to gambling at increasing early ages.”

But to many gaming advocates, the case actually provides an opportunity — in part, by effectively removing PokerStars and other foreign competitors from the U.S. market.

Executives at Caesars Entertainment Corp. and Wynn Resorts, for example, have suggested that now might be the time to push for legalization and regulation of online poker games. And Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who won reelection in November with strong support from casino interests, appears to agree.

“I hope we can get something done,” Reid told the Associated Press this week. “It’s something that has to be regulated. The commodity is cash, and we have to be very, very careful that we do it the right way when it deals with interstate commerce.”

Gambling and casino interests spent nearly $30 million on Washington lobbying last year and rank as major donors to both parties, according to disclosure records. The Poker Players Alliance is planning a “fly-in” this month to allow the group’s supporters to meet with key lawmakers and staff members on Capitol Hill.

“From a grass-roots perspective we think there is a real opportunity here,” Pappas said. “The Justice Department action has been a real wake-up call.”

Events spur lobbying

A flurry of news events led to surges in lobbying on abortion, gun and labor issues during the first three months of the year, according to new disclosure data.

The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks lobbying and campaign finance reports, said abortion rights advocates spent more than $530,000 on lobbying from January through March during the fight over whether to restrict Planned Parenthood funding. The amount is double what abortion rights groups spent in the first three months of the previous Congress.

Gun control groups also stepped up their lobbying in the wake of the attempted assassination in January of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), CRP said, and labor organizations increased their Washington spending amid broad challenges to their bargaining rights in Wisconsin and other states.

Overall, however, CRP said the pace of lobbying so far this year is likely to be lower than it was in the final frantic months of 2010.