Gambling News Blog

A debate triggered by comments made by the director of the Copyright Law Division of the World Intellectual Property Organization at least temporarily raised the question of whether Antigua and Barbuda would be able to collect on its annual $21 million World Trade Organization judgment against the US.

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Students enrolled at Indiana University are returning to classes after a long and much-needed winter break. Many students eagerly anticipate their return to campus, if only, perhaps, for their favorite poker games. With so many poker options throughout the state, student poker players have much to look forward to this semester. The University of Indiana has eight campuses located throughout the state, and students attending any of the campusus have plenty of poker options for satisfying their poker appetites.
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Two days after Chip Reese won the WSOP’s first-ever $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event in 2006, I was in traffic at a red light at Flamingo and the Strip. As I looked up at the biggest electronic video billboard in Vegas, in front of Bally’s, there was this great picture of Chip Reese in victory, the newly crowned king of the poker world. Chip had a beautiful, big smile, and was holding up in the air a portion of the $1.8 million he won in poker’s most challenging event.
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Locale: Heads-up in Monte Carlo for a million dollars, featuring Phil Ivey vs. Paul Jackson.

The Blinds: 12,000/24,000 with a 4,000 ante.

Chip counts: Jackson, roughly one million; Ivey, roughly four million.

The Hand:
Jackson: (more…)

It came as no surprise that the Nevada Gaming Commission has unanimously approved the license for the turnover of Binion’s Gambling Hall and Hotel. After all, the license application was from Terry Caudill, owner of the Four Queens, who is no stranger to the Commission or meeting the challenges of casino management in Las Vegas’ once-thriving downtown. It will be the first time since 2004, when gaming regulators closed the facility in the wake of mounting debt, that a local manager will walk the floor of the casino, much like Benny Binion did back in the casino’s heyday. But Caudill knows it will take more than a stroll past the tables or a reawakening of Binion’s rich legacy to turn the property
around.
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UK fans of televised poker have a treat in store tonight when new episodes of “PartyPoker Poker Den: The Big Game II” begin to air. The popular show is the UK’s rough equivalent to “Late Night Poker,” which offers a slightly different format and is more familiar to North American viewers.

Nonetheless, “Poker Den II” offers a stellar lineup of players for what is billed and filmed as a “24-hour continuous cash game.” The series was organized by Matchroom Sport and filmed at an East London studio late last year.
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On January 28th, the sale of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. to private equity firms Apollo Management, L.P. and TPG Capital, L.P was completed. The sale closes the public ownership chapter of the largest casino operation in the world and marks the largest leveraged buy-out in the industry’s history. On December 19, 2006, the firms entered into a sales agreement whereby the private firms would pay $17.1 billion and assume an additional $10.7 billion of Harrah’s debt. Shareholders approved the buy-out in April, 2007 and will receive $90 per share.

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The first day of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Dortmund Main Event got off to a late start for the best of reasons – too many entrants. With longer registration lines than organizers expected, the tournament started an hour late. However, once the competitors took the field, everything ran smoothly for Day 1a. 198 top players from Europe and around the world descended upon the Hohensyburg Casino for Day 1a, including Juha Helppi, Alex Kravchenko, Julian Thew and Team PokerStars member Katja Thater.
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Those of you who follow poker closely – or even not so closely – have probably heard of Susie Isaacs the poker player. She has been very successful. Most notably, in addition to a number of solid finishes in major tournaments throughout Las Vegas, she placed tenth in the $10,000 Main Event in the 1998 World Series of Poker. She also won the Ladies Event in both 1996 and 1997. Most recently, in the 2007 Main Event, she placed in the top 5%, easily cashing.
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Seven-card stud is a complicated game, significantly more so than hold’em. Successful stud and hold’em players both must attend to the betting actions of their opponents to figure out their likely holdings. Stud and hold’em players both must have a good understanding of how their starting hands are likely to develop into profitable or unprofitable final hands. Both must be able to calculate ‘outs’ and understand pot odds and implied odds. But in stud alone, the good player must also keep track of his opponent’s exposed cards. Knowledge of these exposed cards, both the ones in play and the ones that have been folded, allows the good stud player extra insight into the chances that his hand will improve.
Knowing, for example, that three hearts have been folded during the play of a stud hand may convince the good stud player that drawing for that flush doesn’t make sense.
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