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New Poker Show to Air on NBC

Poker After Dark fans and game show lovers alike will love the new poker show to air later this summer on NBC. Screening for the new Face the Ace will start this summer. The show will be hosted by Steve Schirripa and will first air on August 1st, 2009 at 9:00 p.m. and will move to a Saturday afternoon time slot in September. Seven episodes have been promised, but hopefully the show will be a hit and turn into a long-running show like Poker After Dark has. Both shows are produced by Poker Productions.

The host, Schirripa, is a well-known actor, best known for his role as Bobby Baccalieri on HBO’s hit show Sopranos. Prior to his acting career, though, Baccalieri had a career in the Vegas gambling industry, serving as entertainment director at the Riviera Hotel & Casino Las Vegas.

What makes Face the Ace enticing to the game show sector is the aspect of the show that allows the lucky contestant to pick a door. Behind four doors are successful and well-known poker professionals that will sit across from the contestant at a heads-up no-limit Hold’em game. If the challenger wins, he can opt to walk away with the pot or choose another door and face another poker pro. A second win will afford the player the opportunity to win a $1 million pot or walk away with nothing if he loses it all.

Jerry Petry, Executive VP for NBC Universal Incorporated, says “There’s nothing like it on the air right now. This will attract the core poker fans who watch it on our network but will also open it up to a new audience of people who like game shows and aren’t necessarily poker fans going in.”

Following the heels of recent popular game shows of chance like Deal or No Deal, Face the Ace has a very good chance of reeling in a very large audience following, especially since the rounds can go pretty fast, keeping the not-so-much-poker-loving watchers entertained as the show cycles through new players. For your chance to get on the show, you can qualify at Full Tilt Poker, as two FT players will appear on each show. Full Tilt Poker is a partner in the production of the new show, which is good for both parties. Full Tilt will bring in a large portion of the audience, while getting a lot of televised advertisement on NBC at the same time.

Gambler blames casino for $14.7M loss due to liqour

Terrance Watanabe, a high-stakes gambler is currently accusing several casinos in Vegas of pumping him up with booze and even painkillers just to keep him at the tables. His reason for the accusation is that he is defending himself after not paying up a full $14.7 million of gambling debts. All this was reported by the Las Vegas Sun.

Watanabe, originally from Nebraska has been arraigned for stealing and false-check charges originating from his gambling losses of $12 million at Caesars Palace and $2.7 million at the Rio. All these losses where done during a three-month period back in 2007. Watanabe’s rich background comes from his father’s Omaha-based wholesale novelty importing business.

The lawyer of Watanabe had sent the prosecutors a seven-page letter in which he explains how his client was in no coherent state at the time and being completely “incapable of forming the criminal intent”. This was done in an aim to avoid paying his gambling debts and the attorney followed to decline any comments about this letter. The attorney also added to say that in addition to the $14.7 million, Watanabe had lost a further $112 million at Harrah’s casino the same year.

Gary Thompson who is the spokesman for Harrah’s Entertainment also refused to make any comments upon these allegations. He followed to say that the company has a long-standing guiding principle of not commenting on lawful matters.

Gambling addict suing casino for $50 Million

A millionaire gambling addict is currently suing the Crown Casino for a grand $50 million. The Casino is allegedly being sued for designing a scheme to tempt the millionaire gambling addict back to their casino venue.

The millionaire is Gold Coast property developer Harry Kakavas who lost $20 million at the said casino. The case is being heard by the Victorian Supreme Court. Kakavas’ lawyers are arguing that the casino lured him back and even used their private jet to fly him back and forth to Queensland. They offered him new cash incentives of up to $50,000 in “lucky money” deals.

In fact, Kakavas himself was subject to an interstate exclusion order, but the casino management illegally permitted that he returned to their casino where they followed to treat him like an international VIP. Kakavas was making up to $300,000 bets per hand, which is usually never allowed. Crown Casino even extended him more than $3.5 million in credit during the time.

The casino allowed this even though they knew he was a pathological gambler. The trial is not over, but still ongoing and the lawyers of Crown Casino lawyers are denying most of the above allegations.

Poker Pro wins $300K at the World Series of Golf

The World Series of Golf in Las Vegas was won by 33-year-old Jody Garaventa from Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a professional poker player and also an 11-handicap amateur golfer. Last Thursday he won over Kevin Dumont on after 20 holes, including two playoffs. Jody managed to turn his $10,000 buy-in into the amazing $300,000 prize win he took home. Runner-up Dumont is a 53-year-old bar owner from near Pittsburgh the second prize of $100,000.

There were 125 players to start with at the beginning of the tournament on Tuesday and the rules were loosely based on poker patterns in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em poker. In fact, the game rules were quite unique with the players betting on their strokes with poker chips and getting winning chips when they finish holes in fewer strokes or even by forcing opponents to fold.

NBC to Launch Online Poker Room

The terrestrial network of NBC television – America’s National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) has just launched a new addition to its existing network. They are in fact offering a free-to-play online poker room that gives the competitors a chance to win cash and prizes. This will be done through the NBCSports.com portal and will be performed using software from Zen Gaming, the online poker turnkey solutions provider.

This new addition is also giving the players a chance to win authentic NBC Sports gear together with the ultimate prize of a seat to the big event. This seat that costs $20,000 buy-in to the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championships.

Jon Miller from NBC Sports, commented, ‘Poker has been a growth area in our broadcast schedule over the last few years and we have always sought to bring a complimentary online component to our audience,’ ‘We feel we have brought a new level of engagement opportunity to our online audience by providing them an opportunity to enjoy free poker, connect with our on-air programming and interactively engage with our sponsors and advertisers.’

This new poker service offers single and multi-table Texas Hold’em tournaments which will be scheduled every 30 minutes. The ten best players will qualify every consecutive week for an online final. The final will be held in February and will be giving out the ultimate prize of a seat at the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championships as a final prize. This event will be held in March at the world-famous Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino.

HollywoodPoker.com achieves White Label

Hollywood Poker.com has been granted a white label and is now setting its goals to become the most recent addition to the UK online poker market. With their operations set in Gibraltar, this white label status means that they can now advertise legally in the UK and expand their operations there. This exclusive and high end market site, owned by the Vista Global group, attracts thousands of players on a daily basis.

Hollywood Poker.com is boasting huge promotions, pots and tournaments and currently challenging their players to participate in their virtual poker games against real celebrities such as James Woods and Vince Van Patten. These two celebrities are in fact regulars on the site.

“The hugely successful and popular site is localised in over eight languages while its popular games and tournaments can be viewed in over a dozen European languages including Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish” is a statement issued by the company.

The statement followed, “Vista Global’s aggressive efforts in bringing HollywoodPoker.com’s unique brand of poker to new players across globe is coming to fruition as it leverages on strategic alliances that include marketing and affiliate tie-ups in virtually every European market.”

Poker Professional Accused of Making Terrible Deal

A professional poker player received a life-long message after he allegedly messed a company out of a hefty sum of money over the movie “Deal”

News from the Gambling Times, Inc. claim that the movie’s executive producer and poker player, Scott Lazar had promised his company a highly end product placement during the film in exchange for a $50,000 investment. The movie starred Burt Reynolds and Shannon Elizabeth.

But it seems that the lawsuit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court didn’t exist at all.

In the meantime, Lazor is being sued for $1,000,000 in damages even though the actual film DEAL only made $78,000 WORLDWIDE when it was screened during 2008.

PokerTek expands in Nevada

The Mountain View Casino in Pahrump, Nevada has been the venue for the PokerTek Inc. ‘s installation of two PokerPro tables. With already 12 PokerPro set tables at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip, PokerTek already has established their field.

The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed as yet. PokerTek is based in Matthews as a software-development firm that markets Texas Hold ’Em electronic tables for up to 10 players at one go. Casino revenues are hoping to get the necessary financial boost through this system with the increasing hands per hour and also reducing the usual labour costs of poker rooms. PokerTek is also marketing for the tables used in restaurants and bars.

Their PokerPro system deals the cards, displays them to the players on the relevant private screens and further displays general information on the larger screen at the centre of the table. This system also enables customers to set up betting accounts and holds the data and statistical information on the games.

Abramovich loses yacht possession during poker game

Roman Abramovich is a Russian billionaire and the owner of Chelsea Football Club. As reported by the Russian newspapers, last Monday, he lost one of his yachts in a game of poker. This news prompted a bustle and strong denial from the oligarch state governing members.

Following three Russian daily newspapers who published various versions of this story, John Mann who is a spokesman for Roman stated to the AFP, “The story is absolutely, completely, entirely false.” The story is said to have originated in the Italian press.

Moskovsky Komsomelets, a popular daily in Russia commented that Abramovich lost the 500,000- US dollar yacht, part of his considerable personal fleet during a poker game in Barcelona. Abramovich is said to have been in Barcelona to watch Chelsea, his team playing there.

Mann goes one to say that Abramovich was not in Barcelona for the Chelsea match and says that the whole story is a fabrication. He said, “We have instructed our lawyers to examine legal action”. Abramovich’s yacht collection is considered to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars even named “The Roman Navy” in Britian.

The Russian newspapers also stated that Abramovich was already in trouble with his girlfriend Daria Zhukova due to his existing poker habits. They had in fact been a sore point between the couple for a while now. Abramovich now a billionaire, had made his fortune in Russia’s sell-off of state assets in the 1990s but was now turning his attention to online gambling.

The newspapers still haven’t provided the name of the yacht in question nor the source names behind this information. Meanwhile, Izvestia and Trud, another mass-cirulation daily newspapers in Russia also reported the story. They cited La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper La Repubblica as the source of the information.

Full Tilt Poker will be the new Poker Million Sponsor

After a very recent announcement, Full Tilt Poker is confirmed to be replacing Ladbrokes Poker as the official sponsor of the high-status Poker Million Event.

The first six qualifying events to the Full Tilt Poker Million Tournament will be held in London in mid July. October will be the second round of qualifiers that will take place together with the second runner up heat and the two semi final events.After that, the actual tournament will be taking place in December.

The qualifying tables will consist of twelve lucky FullTiltPoker.com players at each table. The top prize for this year’s event is $600,000.

“Full Tilt and Poker Million together, it’s like my best mate marrying my sister. I am excited to see my pals from the States – edog, Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson – the top boys from the best poker-only site in Britain’s finest knockout poker event, and after I’ve knocked them out I’ll take them around the sights of London”, were Roland De Wolfe’s words, professional poker player of the FullTilt Team.

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