Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Making headlines at the final table were two popular online poker players. Ryan ‘Daut44′ Daut, and Jordan ‘Octavian_C’ Rich, the first took the final table in 6^th while Rich took the 2^nd seat at the final table of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Championship.

Here is the Chip Count for the start of the Final Table (courtesy of P5’s on the scene live reporter Court):

Eugene Katchalov 8,360,000
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich 6,585,000
David Ulliott 1,900,000
Ted Kearly 1,620,000
Kenneth Rosen 1,135,000
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut 330,000

The drama began on the felt tonight, as with his first hand Ryan Daut went all in, holding a pocket AJ. Ted Kearly called him with pocket 8’s. The flop was black, while Daut’s AJ were not, leaving him sitting on the edge waiting for the wheel to come through. The turn awarded Kearly 4 of a kind, and Daut played one hand at the final table, finishing with 192, 715 USD.

Evidently the banks are once again speaking out against the enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). In the past, and during a recent round table discussion published about in the Financial Times, the banking industry has verbalized many concerns pertaining to the development and enforcement of the UIGEA as it stands now, even pointing out the fact the current descriptive wording would force the banking industry to mimic law enforcement officers. This newly attached responsibility would force the banking officials not only to be aware of the often conflicting state vs. federal laws pertaining to online gambling, but to become intuitive of the person who is moving the banking funds, and their motivation. This would become one of the costliest laws on the books for the industry as a whole. Not to mention it would create a level of chaos that would reverberate down through their customer base.

The Department of the Treasury has published the entire report at Financial Services Roundtable.

On a side note - if the banks have doubt in the enforceability of this law, why are the politicians so confident of it’s viability?

The United States and the World Trade Organization are at a dead lock since the United States withdrew Online Gambling, which in this case includes the online poker rooms, from the obligations under the WTO Treaty.

The scantions that were going to be awarded to the island of Antigua were to be determined this past Friday. There has been no ruling at this point. It was delayed, creating speculation that some kind of a deal is being negotiated at this time, that will be amicable between the two WTO nations.

Mark Mendel, attorney for the Island Nation of Antigua, stated that due to translation needs and finalization of the disclosure report, the WTO will make an announcement tomorrow regarding when this ruling will be released. Some of what is anticipated to come out of the ruling are things that include the copyright protection of United States Software and Music, which would allow Antigua to obtain, copy, and market the products developed in the United States, which would exact restitution from the United States and their citizens for the protectionist application of the WTO Treaty regarding online gambling. The island nation’s primary economic industry is online gambling, and casinos. The other highly anticipated aspect of the ruling is going to be the total amount the United States is obligated to pay to Antigua for the withdrawal from the treaty.

This decision is highly anticipated and will be released soon. How soon will be announced on Monday, Dec. 17th, 2007. The implications will be far reaching, as the United States is facing additional claims from at least 6 other countries. The fines could reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars, or the United States could change their protectionist legal standing on the subject.

In an international news release the Gaming Intelligence Group confirmed that Austria would be entering the Online Poker Community. This is confirmed with Boss Media and Svenska Spel. Jesper Kärrbrink, of Svenska Spel made it clear that Austria will be launching a state run online poker site with their assistance.Austria is expected to go live with their online poker site early 2008. In an effort to provide a secure online environment to Austrian Citizens, the site will model their environment based upon their successfully regulated Swedish state run counter part. In order to assure best practice for money management and player protection, the site will implement software automation that will regulate responsible playing habits, as required by the Swedish Online Poker Rooms.

Jesper Kärrbrink will not reveal the online poker operating organization who will participate in the creation and management of the new site, however Gaming Intelligence Group confirmed Osterreichische Lotterien will offer the online poker site through their own online gaming website, win2day.at.

There is a strategic collaboration in discussion between Svenska Spel’s poker site and Osterreichisches Lotterien in the on going development of this site. When Svenska Spel’s was launched in March of 2006, they ran a very successful champaign to promote this sites popularity. The promotion offered no bonuses or free rolls but it captured players attention and currently boast a position on the top 10 list of best poker networks worldwide. This site represents over a third of the Swedish market and exceed projected revenues on a daily basis. The percentage of their market share in the online poker industry is a mere 2.5%, however when the Austrian government were considering models for an Online Poker Room, the Svenska Spel’s poker site provided an impressive model for rapid establishment of players, and for financial success.

The Svenska Spel’s online poker room has distinguished themselves as a leader in the industry and gained brand recognition, and a very high level of trust since 1997. In conjunction with the Osterreichische Lotterien, the online poker site being established by Austria both sites will thrive from the strategies successfully implemented by Svenska Spel’s site. Their online gaming and gambling site, Win2Day.at was established 2003 with two platforms Casino Austria and Austrian Lotteries. Both venues proved popular to the citizens of Austria, which will promote the safe environment to be maintained for their citizens.

Poker has not been viewed in the gambling industry as a game of challenge and skill. With a government owned site, the online poker community is having a positive response seeing this as progress in making online poker one of the most common pastimes globally. Austrian citizens will now join the ranks of other countries such as Sweden to have the opportunity to play poker online.

Friedman’s Attempt to Rap

More than a year later, this is still stirring controversy in Pocket 5’s.After evidently watching a replay of WSOP 2006 Faaaaaaaaaa-Q commented on this saying.
I crack up everytime I see this on ESPN. (2006 Main event)

Lassandro should have kicked his teeth in.

LMAO @ “ive been in poker long enough” - prahlad friedman

and he didnt even know who Lassandro was!! LOL

Question is, was prahlad friedman out of line for pressing the issue when he had no clue that Lassandro CLEARLY put in the 5K ante?

Or was Lassandro out of line for telling prahlad friedman “I’ll take your head off”

IMO he should have taken his head off. to call a poker player a cheat is worse than wishing death on your mother.

In responces that followed, most aggreed with him, that Friedman was trying to tilt the opposition, however when the above video was embedeed into the thread, the conversation changed to the horrible attempt at creating a rap.

Gogetsit made his thoughts clear saying, I heard hes gonna release a rap album.

No, Serious though, worst raps I HAVE EVER HEARD. I have seen some serious bunners try and rap but he takes the cake.

The sentiment was echoed by MONEY_STORM when the thread continued with looool this makes poker look sooo gay

It appears to be the general consensus that this man will certainly need to keep his job, as he is NOT going to win any awards for that performance.

Does anyone know who this hot girl is from Sky Poker TV?  I think her name is Kara Scott, because that is one of the only announcers names I could find that seemed to match her description.  In her profile on the Sky Poker Website it says that she is from Canada, but this girl seems to have an accent.  Also it says, “Kara Scott trained as a thai boxer, competing 6 times in the ring“, but this girl doesn’t really look like a fighter.

Either way, she is pretty cute and apparently plays poker.