Online Poker in Washington State – still banned
March 27, 2009
Posted by Brian in : General , add a comment
When are US states going to learn that they’re sitting on a cash cow when it comes to online gambling, if they were to simply regulate and tax winnings? A Washington state appellate court judge ruled against Lee Rousso, a Washington lawyer, in his bid to overturn a state law which was passed shortly after the UIGEA in 2006 that bans all forms of online gambling.
From the time this law was passed in 2006 until late 2007, it was actually a *felony* in Washington state to gamble online. In fact, the charge of gambling online had the same penalties as if you were charged with possessing child pornography! The law wasn’t overturned in 2007, but if you are charged now, it’s no longer a felony.
In my opinion, this law is unconstitutional, which was the heart of Rousso’s claim, but apparently Washington politicians and judges don’t see it that way. When are they going to figure out that it’s in their best interest to regulate and tax online gambling? Nobody’s getting hurt from playing poker online in the comfort of their own homes.
Bugsy’s Club poker room closes their doors
March 25, 2009
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I haven’t played at Bugsy’s Club for several years, so this move really doesn’t surprise me all that much. Their software was pretty sub-par; mostly because it hadn’t been updated for quite some time and was also very slow and a resource hog – mostly because it was java-based.
The good news is that Bugsy’s Club has made a deal with PokerStars which allows players to transfer any money they have at Bugsy’s Club over to their PokerStars account. Unfortunately, BPP’s (Bugsy’s Bonus Points) will not be converted to PokerStars FPP’s.
If you have money at Bugsy’s Club, you will be receiving an email from PokerStars with details on how to complete the transfer of funds.
Steve Brecher wins the 2009 WPT/Bay 101 Shooting Star championship
March 21, 2009
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Steve Brecher became the latest WPT poker-made millionaire this morning, at around 4:30am. Steve had a pretty commanding chip lead of over 3:1 going into heads up play against Kathy Liebert once Chris Moore was eliminated in 3rd place, which paid out $291,500.
Pretty much every tournament final table has a key hand, and this one was no different, which in this case was hand #178 when Steve Brecher doubled through Kathy Liebert with only 3 players left. It went down like this:
With blinds and antes at 15k/30k and 5k, Brecher finds himself on the button with AQo and raises to 95k. Liebert re-raises to 600k, and after a little bit of thought, Brecher moves all in, and gets a quick call from Libert who is holding AKs, which brought the pot to 4.161M chips.
Kathy paired her king with the rainbow flop of KJ5, but it also gave Steve a gutshot straight draw…which he hit on the turn with a T. They could still have split the pot with a Q on the river, but a 7 fell, giving Brecher the win. If Kathy’s hand would have held up, she would go heads-up with Chris Moore with a 2.3:1 chip lead.
This was Steve Brecher‘s 2nd WPT final table, and first WPT title. Congrats!
Play resumes today at Bay 101 WPT Shooting Star Championship
March 18, 2009
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Things are heating up at the 13th annual WPT/Shooting Star tournament, located in San Jose, CA, as today marks the start of Day 2. When day 1A finished, there were 50 players left out of the original starting field of 136, and 96 left at the conclusion of day 1B for a total field of 391 for this event.
Combine that with a $10,000 buy-in, and it brings the prize pool up to over $3.5 million up for grabs; with $1,025,000 going to the first place finisher.
The Shooting Star Championship features quite a few top-named pros that have a $5,000 bounty on their heads; a few of which have already been knocked out which have a $5,000 bounty on their heads.
Players started out with 20,000 in chips, but the following players have already accumulated over 5x that amount. The are two “Shooting Stars” that are among the top 5 chipleaders, which are as follows:
- Hoang “Michael” Nguyen – 198,300
- David “The Dragon” Pham – 160,600 *Shooting Star*
- Luis Velador – 129,400
- Conner Stockett – 124,500
- Jonathan Little – 121,300 *Shooting Star*
To view more details and get live updates, be sure to check out the WPT’s Bay101 Shooting Star section on WPT’s website.
Bluff Europe magazine launches Bluff Europe Poker Academy
March 17, 2009
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The European division of Bluff Magazine, Bluff Europe Magazine, today announced the creation of Bluff Europe Poker Academy.
Bluff Europe columnist Alex Rousso will oversee each seminar and will be joined by several big named pros, which will be named next week. The first session of this tour will take place on April 4th at The Casino at the Empire in London, starting at 1pm.
Each player attending these lectures will play in a tournament after the conclusion of each one, and will be afforded the supervision of a top pro during play. Tickets are priced at £150 + VAT, which includes entry into the tournament.
Be sure to check out the Bluff Europe Poker Academy‘s website for upcoming dates, times and locations.
