Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

If you have been trying to get to the Full Tilt Poker (FTP) website lately, and noticed it was down, this is no accident.  It looks like internet relay chat (IRC)-based botnets have been going after several gambling related sites using a method called a distributed denial of service attack or DDoS.

For the non-techies out there, this means that they are sending mass floods of traffic to a specific port or service offered by these websites (in this case port 80 http traffic), which then causes them to be so busy that they can no longer respond to all the legitimate requests that they are receiving making the site appear to be down (in this case, the homepage of FullTiltPoker.com).

CD Poker managed to survive these attacks, but Titan Poker and FTP did not seem to manage so well and appeared to be down for many of their visitors throughout the day on Monday.

Other big name sites inlcuded in the list of attacked sites were PartyCasino.com and VirginGames.com.  The remainder of the list showed that the attackers were being performed on several smaller Russian based gambling sites.

A compulsive gambler has launched a lawsuit against UK Bookmaker, William Hill after losing £2 Million British Pounds.

Graham Calvert, 28, who began betting in August 2005 and set up his account with William Hill in May 2006, wants the betting agents to pay back his losses.

Mr Calvert, a respected greyhound trainer from Tyne and Wear who at one stage was earning up to £30,000 a month, initially bet £1,000 to £5,000 a time but this quickly grew to single bets of up to £30,000.

In May 2006, he claims he told William Hill that he wanted his account closed and his “self-exclusion” appeal was taped by the bookmaker. He repeated this request a month later but was allowed to carry on betting until December. Due to some holes in their self-exclusion system, bettors can still place bets even after requesting to be excluded.

He claims he asked to be barred after betting £3.5 million, of which he lost £2,028,858.

Some days he would place 20 bets at £30,000 a punt. He bet a whopping £7.5 million in 16 months, sometimes bringing bin liners stuffed with £100,000 cash to place his bets.

In 2006, he placed a £347,000 bet on America to win the Ryder Cup but lost. At this time, it was the biggest recorded golf bet in history.

Mr Calvert, whose marriage broke down because of his gambling, said: “If I’d known I had the problem and didn’t do anything about it, I would see myself as being 100 per cent responsible.

“The fact is that I did try to go through the right procedures and I was let down.”

Mr Calvert alleges the betting chain failed in its duty of care and is taking William Hill to the High Court on Monday. William Hill continues to deny these charges.

Article Source: Yahoo News

Set around an international poker tournament. A middle-aged guy goes all-in to save his dead grandfather’s hotel-casino from a real estate developer. His master plan is to win the world’s most famous high stakes tournament, the Grand Championship of Poker (Basically a knock-off of the WSOP).

The movie looks pretty cool and features some big name players like Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari along with many other big name pros. It stars Werner Herzog, Richard Kind, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta and Ray Romano. Who knows, this may just be the best poker movie ever…. only time will tell.

Release Date: March 14th, 2008 (limited)

After spending the evening catching up on some poker talk in the popular online poker community, Pocket 5’s, I went into the Off Topic section and found a lot of interest in the US Presidential Race. Many of the treads that caught my attention had titles like: “Why Obama will win the primary easily” and “Barack Obama will fight for you” and “So I signed up on Obama’s Website” There were many more along those lines posted just today.

The threads discuss everything from spam generated from email lists being sold associated with the candidate’s site to how he is taking the steam out of the Clinton Machine. It is obvious that the Poker Players are watching this election very closely.

The most impressive line of discussion includes one players fund raising efforts for Barack Obama. Jon Wiesman, aka Underdog, has organized some online poker tournaments specifically for Pocket 5’s players. Each one is a 50/50 win. The tournament champ will donate 50% of the cash pot to the Obama camaign for President of the United States. This movement has successfully raised more than 100 dollars for the first tournament with double that for tomorrow’s event. As part of the tournament promotions, he is also accepting straight donations for the campaign. With the second Poker Stars Tournament for Obama set to get underway tomorrow, he has already raised 150 USD in straight donations.

Donations can be made here.

It appears that the poker player’s canididate is Barack Obama.

UPDATE: Since writing this article, we have updated our list of online paypal casinos.

Several online casinos have started to adapt to the use of Paypal as a deposit method for their casino.

Betfair Casino is one of the only online casino sites that accepts paypal deposits from some countries.

Paypal Casino - You can fund your account instantly via Payal, ONLY if your Paypal account is registered from one of the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Your Betfair preferred currency must be GBP or EUR.

Here is a screenshot of their online casino software (zero-blackjack):

We are continuing to look for more casinos that will let you deposit using your paypal, so bookmark this page for updates. Also, check out our paypal poker page for some more information.

If you would like to try the Betfair Casino and use your paypal account, simply click the PLAY NOW button below. Good luck! (for more information visit our casino bonus page)

The following is an excerpt from the Pocket 5’s Poker Forum. It applies directly to one of the candidates running for President of the United States of America. This man, Barack Obama, has been known to organize a poker game or two of his own, and below is a copy of a eye witness testimonial along with pictures of the candidate, supporting some of those who doubt him.

This poker player is in a position to run the government who authored the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. This is the opportunity for many to take a stand for some one who is for personal freedoms and liberties.