Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

There are many nice thing about charity events.  Chief among them is the fact that you get to participate in a game that you love, and give back to a very good cause; lately there are no shortage of good causes to give to!  Also, there are the prizes.  Not typically a monetary prize, but with a well sponsored event, the swag you can potentially walk away with is usually worth it, if you’re in the giving mood!

With that in mind, Full Tilt has partnered with Pokergives.org for a $5 +$5 charity event taking place 2pm (ET) April 4th 2010 (Full Tilt Tournament ID: 137275439 Password “PokerNations”).  Pokergives.org is a non-profit organization that states on it’s website “No Board Members or Founding Members will receive a salary in the expectation that a minimum of 95% of all funds raised will reach the charities. All efforts will be made to keep the administrative costs of maintaining the site to 5% or less.”  The charities that Pokergives.org supports are: The Special Olympics, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Step by Step Foundation.

The Prizes
I talked up the prizes at the beginning of this article, and they are absolutely worth while; particularly when you factor in the fact that it’s a charity event.  The prizes range from poker sunglasses from Blue Shark Optics, a home game set from DB Dealer, a one-year subscription to Bluff Magazine, six months of poker coaching from Deuces Cracked, poker books, card protectors, a $200 gift certificate to Andrew Shirley and Company, and private coaching sessions with Johnson, Delk, PokerXFactor’s Chris “Fox” Wallace, and Michael “tuna_fish_tank” Stroh.  Entrants can also receive a one-month CardRunners Gold Subscription, Texas Hold’em strategy cards, a one-year membership to the Down to the Felt Club, a one-year subscription to Australia Poker Weekly, and a PMS PokerWear prize pack.

To be eligable for the prizes you need to go to the PokerNations Forums and post your Full Tilt user name in the associated thread.  After posting your info (note: you do not need to provide anything other than your user name!!), and most likely registering at the forum, you will receive a one month membership to the Down to the Felt Club (retail: $25).  

So, the European Poker Tournament was live streaming to the internets, when 6 armed men showed up and robbed the place.

Here is the link to the youtube video, i will try to embed it, but it hasn’t worked for me in the past.

Long story short..it’s not just home games that can be robbed when there is a lot of money and very little security. 

While this may not be a valentines day themed post, it’s still very relevant to any player who has been able to sneak away from their significant other and load some money to their favourite online poker site.  But, in the last year doing that simple transaction has become increasingly difficult.  Recently Mastercard has come out swinging against online gambling by blocking gambling transactions.  That coupled with world governments realising what a cash cow they have been missing out on, and regulation on the horizon, many new poker players could be confused as to what their options are for depositing money to any online poker site. 

Enter PokerDeposits.org.  While still in it’s infancy, really, PokerDeposits.org offers a fairly robust outline of who’s who with regard to putting your money online, and offers many different options for players all over the world (and is very clear what works and what doesn’t in the USA).  It gives step by step instructions how to deposit using specific payment methods, and give an overview of the online rooms that accept those payment options (handy if you’re taking all of your money out ofpokerstars to move to a different room, and all of the money is being put into paypal..)  it also offers reviews of poker sites all over the net (and more crop up daily), and i was told there was rakeback news, but i couldn ‘t find it. It’s still a little rough around the edges, but overall, for the purposes of loading your online account, or moving your money, it’s a one stop shop to sort through your options quickly. 

Click below to see pokerdeposits.org

**Full Disclosure** i was not paid by pokerdeposits.org, nor do i know them at all in any way

In all my time playing poker or working as an affiliate I have had a chance to see many cool promotions.  Currently PKR.com is running one for  Valentines Day which easily tops the list as one of the best. PKR is offering it’s players a chance to win a date with Nuts Cover Model, Lindsey Strutt (yes, the one with the huge tits below):

For just $10 you can win the chance to be flown to London, put up in a sweet ass hotel, then sent on a date with the gorgeous 32F-26-32 Lindsey for the night.  The date will start off with a champagne reception, followed by dinner at one of London’s nicest restaurants and if you play your cards right (no pun intended) the night could end elsewhere.

For more pictures of Lindsey including MANY NSFW ones, check out her portfolio on her official website.

To win this date, you will need to come in first in the “Nuts about the Girl” tournament on Sunday, 14 February at 20:15 GMT which can be found in the PKR lobby.

With the blessing of the Quebec cabinet, and the go ahead from Loto-Quebec CEO it appears that Quebec will be the first Canadian province to have a government regulated online poker site. For the record, BC has online gambling, but the games are casino like games and pseudo-poker games, not the true poker game that is being proposed in Quebec. But wait, can’t we already play online poker in Canada without regulation? Isn’t it “Legal?” Has this worked in others places around the world? And wont there be too many barriers for existing players to make the jump to a publicly run site?

The “Illegal” Question

It always makes me laugh when i read stories like this and there are learned men and women speaking about the legality of online poker, and getting the complete wrong end of the stick. For example, during the press conference the Finance Minister Raymond Bachand spoke about the legitimacy, regulation and protection that provincially run online gambling would offer consumers. “Inasmuch as this is a sector that is developing exponentially in an illegal way, Loto-Québec is being given the responsibility of working to redirect this … to a site that is secure, legal and trustworthy.” I don’t know if he’s speaking about illegal live poker clubs (a huge problem in Quebec), or if he’s alluding to the “illegal” gambling site that have been allowed to run in Canada. The fact is, while it is illegal for someone to run a gambling site in Canada, it’s perfectly legal to frequent a site run on foreign ground. I dislike the vilification of people playing “illegal” games and simply by saying “look at us! we made a site and it’s LEGAL now, come play on it!” doesn’t sway me in the slightest. Quebec, you’ll need to make a GREAT online poker site and offer some GREAT rakeback and incentive offers to come close to enticing players from the already well established online poker sites like Full Tilt and Poker Stars.

What Happened in Sweden?

Okay, so there is president for this. When Sweden launched is publicly owned Swedish lottery corporation online poker offering it took %25 of the market share in four hours. I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion, or if it has been sustained over a long period of time, but in 2008 it generated $600,000 million so it looks to be a viable option. Of course, with the widespread offerings and few barriers to those offerings (you just need an internet connection and a way to get cash on the site), i maintain it will be difficult for a “Regulated” online poker room that’s state run to succeed in the way the politicians are expecting.

Barriers?

C’mon, you didn’t think that adding red tape and government control would mean an easy way to get online to play poker.

The Quebec site will be open only to Quebec residents who are physically within the province, but those players will be able to engage players in the other participating jurisdictions. Age verification will be done by an outside firm using a process that could take days and, in some cases, require the player to show up in person.

GREAT. I’m totally getting rid of my illegal online accounts to wait a few weeks to be told i have to go down to some private firm to verify my age (hello…i pay taxes, you seem to know how old i am on there..eh?).

All in all, i think their intentions are good, but you can’t all of a sudden change the rules and expect people to be excited about it. If this were happening in the states, it would be really exciting. In Canada, it seems ill conceived and not well thought out. I’ll stick with my “illegal” option thank you very much.

PacificPoker.com / 888.com recently rebranded their product (including new software which will be updated to the new colour scheme any day now) and to help launch this they are offering a sweet promotion where players get $8 FREE (no strings attached!!!) just to try them out.  This is a great way to get a free bankroll and start making money playing poker online!

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