Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

The Belgium Gaming Commission (BGC) has recently released a list of online gaming sites, including two online sports betting sites, three online poker rooms, and four online casinos, where Belgian players can legally play online casino and poker games.

The online poker sites included in the list are PokerStars.be, GPWin.be, and Partouche.be. Since Belgium does not exclude itself from the rest of the world as far as Internet gaming is concerned, Belgian players playing at PokerStars.be and BPWin.be can play against opponents from all over the world.

The only exception will be Partouche.be, which is a French online poker room. Since the gaming laws in France allow its online gaming operators to offer gaming services only to French players, the Belgian offering of Partouche Poker can be accessed only by French and Belgian players. However, Belgian players playing at PokerStars.be and GPWin.be will enjoy the same game experience available at PokerStars.com and GoldenPalacePoker.com, respectively.

Belgian online gaming laws are not only controversial, but also vague and unclear. Belgian players can play only on approved sites and will be penalized if they play at any other gaming site. The Belgian Gaming commission has instructed Belgium’s four internet service providers (ISPs) to block all unapproved online gaming sites. Besides, any online gaming site in Belgium ought to have a land casino too. While PokerStars.be has already got into a partnership with Circus Groupe, Partouche and Golden Palace already have land casinos in Belgium.

While it is quite clear that players need to be at least 21 years of age in order to sign up  for real money play, the gaming laws of Belgium do not make it clear whether the winnings are to be taxed.

Meanwhile, several online poker rooms continue accept Belgian players on grounds that Belgian gaming laws go against EU law and therefore cannot be enforced.

CardPlayer.com recently published an article in which Daniel Negreanu had conveyed his apprehensions regarding the Epic Poker League and what has been going on recently in the US online poker industry.

Negreanu claimed that he chose not to play in the Epic Poker League because he believed that the current product that has been planned will not work out and won’t survive the market since it won’t bring in the required amount of revenue. Negreanu said, “The only legitimate chance the league has to survive is if regulation happened in the U.S. and they were able to create an online poker site.”

Daniel Negreanu also opened up on why he believes that the league buy-ins are not a good investment for US poker players since the benefits have changed after the downfall of online poker.

However, despite these issues, the first EPL main event drew 137 players. The authorities are thrilled at the early success of the EPL and they think it will bring in a new class of poker professionals. The first $20,000 event was won by Chino Rheem on Saturday. Rheem, who defeated Jason Mercier and Erik Seidel was awarded $1 million. Players will compete in televised tournaments and the events will run over from August to December. The EPL will take in the top 253 players of the world and the championship will be held in January 2012.

The Poker Pro’s concerns and apprehensions should be put to rest after the results of this event by January 2012. Whether poker survives is in the hands of the people and finally the authorities, some revenue is better than no revenue at all, and that is what everyone will agree for. Whether televised or not, most poker events will get funded since there are investors still interested in these events. Whether poker pros choose to play in them or not is their choice at the end.

Bodog Poker, one of the most preferred online poker operators in America might not be a part of the US market next year. Bodog has its license issued from gambling regulator Morris Mohawk Gaming and the license is valid until 31^st December 2011. But, Bodog has officially announced plans to quit the US market next year and hence they might not get their license renewed.

This news should not come as a shock since online poker sites in the US are facing drastic conditions and Bodog would not risk it to do the same. Some online poker sites like UB Poker, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are still facing the brunt of Black Friday. Full Tilt Poker has had the worst luck and their licenses in the European market have been affected as well since US players are not allowed to play on this site due to some legal issues.

A recent announcement regarding Bodog stated that it had become the first online site to receive a positive response from the UK Gambling Commission, and that allows it to be operating there as long as it completely complies with the rules.

Bodog exiting the US market is probably a step towards solidifying this bond with the Europeam market. Meanwhile, the organization that provided Bodog with a license with which it operates currently has offered solace to US players and they have shown interest in rebranding and reorganization of structure in order to retain US players. Whatever the case maybe, the operations of an online gambling website is now being closely monitored in the US and any form of illegal or out of the box operation will be flagged by them. This might lead to actions against the site that might be hard to push away later.

Poker players worldwide had already known that their favorite game is based on skill and strategy, although a generous dose of luck is always welcome; and when a French court recently agreed with them, they could not help but feel triumphant.

The court in Toulouse had heard a number of witnesses for the defense in a case against Jeane-Pierre Gleizes, who was accused of conduct public poker events without license. In a bid to prove that poker is not a game of chance, but a game of skills and strategy, the defense lawyer called to the witness stand a mathematics teacher, a professional poker player, chess and bridge champions, and others and cross-examined them to prove his point. Finally, the court agreed with the defense lawyer and ruled in favor of the defendant, who walked out of the court as a free man.

An unhappy prosecution, however, has decided to challenge the lower court’s ruling in the French Supreme Court. French poker players feel that the Supreme Court will not uphold the rulings of the Toulouse Court simply because the latest poker laws in France are based partly on the understanding that poker is a game of chance.

However, if the Supreme Court also rules that poker is a skill and strategy game, poker clubs in France can escape the heavy taxes and strict licensing laws that apply to games of chance, according to its latest gaming legislation. Simultaneously, those who play poker for a living will have to pay higher taxes because their poker winnings will be considered to be income generated.

The little victory in the French court, however, has delighted millions of poker players worldwide, including the PPA in the US, which can use this case to convince the federal government about the importance of legalizing online poker.

After Black Friday, FBI seizures, getting closed down and facing a lawsuit from Ivey, Full Tilt Poker received yet another blow to its foundation. It was not enough that the US poker site was shut down for US players and they have since then suffered a loss of players as well as finances, because now Full Tilt Poker is being abandoned by its French connections.

The ARJEL, which is a French gambling authority, issued a statement that spoke about the license of FullTiltPoker.fr, and said that they are going to suspend the site as a precautionary measure in order to protect their players. The statement issued said that the decision had been made to “suspend, as a precaution, the approval of the operator of online poker.” And when questioned it was said that ARJEL has done so because several players were unable to access the site on a regular basis, and their access has met with success intermittently. The suspension came in right after the AGCC – Alderney Gambling Control Commission recently suspended the license of Full Tilt Poker, and is probably connected to the same.

The AGCC issued a statement regarding its status with respect to Full Tilt Poker and there were discussions around the site getting some finances but the main objective of this discussion has not yet been touched upon. The idea behind this discussion is to open up Full Tilt Poker to its present and future players but the length of the suspension is uncertain and hence this news is also being dealt with considerable suspicion.

There have been several kinds of stories regarding the same, but the AGCC has not yet made a statement through its legal counsel, and hence the only thing they said was that there was “no knowledge of the comments attributed by the editor of GamblingCity.net to a Mr. Werner Bers, of whom we are otherwise unaware, and disputes the correctness of his statement.”

ARJEL says that it will remain in contact with Full Tilt Poker to make sure that Full Tilt’s possible refinancing is met and the conditions of it are favorable for protecting the interests of players in France.

Last year, Taylor “ambiguosity” Paur gained 11,030 points and $1,099,435 in tournament cashes winning the Card Player Online Player of the Year Award. Hardly three months have gone by and Jason ‘jdpc27? Wheeler is topping the online poker race this year!
This 33 year old ex-management consultant played poker as a hobby and after his lay off, he decided to let poker to be his alternative career and his success gave him all the more reason to choose it as a full time career.
As a tough and intimidating sit-n-go player, Wheeler has made it a point to create a good changeover to multi-table tournaments and has right now gained a whopping $2,234,688 from online competitions from the year 2006.
Jason Wheeler also claimed that making the change from sit-n-gos to multi-table tournaments required a few important amendments to his game strategy and he got a detailed picture into the obstacles he had to bypass through all of it.
“Sit-n-gos deal a lot with push-fold situations and learning calling ranges and although those are important things to know for tournaments, you could say that years of sit-n-gos kind of stunted my growth as a tournament player. Basically, I was kind of a one-trick pony and really had a tough transition into learning things such as post-flop board textures and what to do with different stack sizes. I was definitely behind the curve,” said Wheeler.
His standing now is his personal best, which is valued right now at 4,288 OPOY Points and $376,248 in earnings for the year 2011, which includes seven online competition wins. The latest of these winnings was the $500 FTOPS Event #8, which he took down for $85,613 pay-day.
This poker pro has still a long way to go in terms of competing against other poker experts like Alex “Kadabra” Keating and Aleh “cooltwister” Plauski.