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California May Be Next to Legalize Online Poker

A newly amended legislation is set to legalize online poker in California. It is also poised to only allow licenses to existing card clubs and native American tribes that already offer California gambling. The amendments were presented by state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana and they come just three weeks to the end of the legislative year.

The original gambling bill was introduced by the chairman of the state committee, Sen. Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles. This bill stalled in 2012. Wright has not released any word regarding the latest legislation.

There has not been any word from the sponsors of the Correa bill for months. However, speculators state that the measures taken would be a vehicle for an earlier online poker proposal. The proposals were made by San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near San Bernardino, as well as the Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Banning. It may also be as a result of a merger of proposals by the two tribes.

The bill does not have any mention of the cost of the licenses. It also does not specify the amount of poker revenue that the licenses would be expected to share with the state.

There have been other tribes that have come up with their own online poker proposals too. These include the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in the Coachella Valley, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians near Temecula, and the California Tribal Business Alliance.

Previous online poker legislations have been undercut by differences amongst the politically powerful gambling tribes in the state. At the beginning of the month, the Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg stated that there was little chance for the bill being enacted before the September 13 adjournment.

Gus Hansen Examines His Game

The Gus “The Great Dane” Hansen is down by $3,434,150 and is heading towards surpassing the huge drop he had in 2009 of -$5,575,624. Before sliding to the negatives in the last two years, the Full Tilt pro had made millions in profit, but is now suffering a -$9,845,422 in career losses.

Gus provided insight on his online poker roller-coaster ride in a recent interview expressing his frustration with losses he has incurred, and he feels he must be missing something in his game. According to him, he was the biggest winner of Omaha Hi/Lo high-stakes games, but within the last six months he has become the biggest loser on the same Omaha Hi/Lo tables. This has left him with a lot of doubts as he feels he may be outdated, rusty, and not good enough for the game anymore.

To gain a competitive edge over his opponents, Gus has had to adjust his game play. He says he is working on centering his focus and tightened up his game. For instance, he has stopped dropping million-dollar bets on a 50-50 chance win.

“So, I wonder: what happened in the mean time?” he asks.

Gus knows he’s had a bad run, but it hasn’t been that bad. He said that irrespective of his huge losses online, he is on a balance and doing well – you lose one round and win the other. He further explained how the large swings affect his approach to the game.

The 39-year old poker pro said he sleeps better after a big win than after a big loss. He added that he is used to the big swings, saying “it’s more fun to win than to lose.” He still admitted that winning or losing is part of his job description. Great Dane fans worldwide are hoping for the best for Hansen and awaiting a comeback of mass proportions.

WCOOP 12 to Kick Off Next Month

This September will see PokerStars’ 12th World Championship of Online Poper take place, with online poker players from all over the world assembling to try and win guaranteed prizes that amount to a total of $40 million.

The 2013 WCOOP online poker bonanza will kick off on Sunday, September 8 and will run for the following three weeks, drawing to a close on September 30. It is expected to be the largest WCOOP ever with 66 gold and diamond bracelet events in total. The series will follow custom and end with the $5,200 Main Event that unfolds over two days. This year’s guaranteed prizes are $3 million greater than last year, totaling at $8 million. The winner will bag $1.25 million.

The festival should have massive turnout for the $109 No-Limit Hold’em opener, as well as feature the popular $10,300 High Roller Heads-Up and 8-Game events. Players who find these fees too hefty can qualify to participate without spending a cent by taking part in the online satellites already underway. Each main event has a satellite qualifier and a most memorable story happened last year, whereby small-stakes, recreational Russian player ‘maratik’ finished first place in the Main Event to pocket $1 million after qualifying using only 40 Frequent Player Points through a satellite qualifier.

Top performing players will be awarded with lots of amazing extra prizes, like every other year. The highest overall point scorer will earn tickets for Spring Championship of Online Poker, 2014 Turbo Championship of Online Poker, and World Championship of Online Poker Main Event, as well as a 2014 PCA package. The combined value of these prizes is over $33,000. Depending on the positions they take, the other top ten finishers will get a combination of future Turbo Championship, World Championship Main Event, and Spring Championship tickets.

This year will also see a ‘Woman of the Series’ prize for the first time, awarded to the highest placed female player on the leader board. The prize will include $1,100 tournament entry plus travel and hotel expenses, amounting to a $3,500 PCA package.

Online Poker: The State of Affairs

Many people thought that the 2012 lame duck session of Congress was the best and last chance for the passing of the online poker bill presented by senate majority leader Harry Reid. However, a conflicting opinion has been aired by one member of Congress. This opinion will definitely carry some weight because it is held by Sen. Harry Reid.

There has not been any official word on the matter from Harry Reid’s office. However, reputable industry sources indicate that he is poised to reintroduce his attempt to bring federally regulated online poker into law.

Although speculative, it is said that Reid wishes to place a blanket ban over all forms of online gambling with an exception of poker and grandfathering that is regulated by the state. The federal government will require New Jersey and Nevada to operate a dually-controlled regulatory body for the poker industry.

Industry sources indicate that California would probably have a strong enough force to push for the legislation. Nevada casinos have the fear that California’s bill will lead to a traffic dip. If the federal government is able to make the bill legal before California does, the state will have lost its biggest opportunity for gambling expansion.

Other potential losers include Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, who would find themselves partially shut out of online gambling. Illinois, which was one of the states that requested for clarification on online gambling, would also lose out if the legislation was passed by the federal government.

Tropicana Partners with Gamesys for Real Money Gaming

Official confirmation has been made by Tropicana Casino and Resort of a deal with Gamesys that will see it enter the world of online gambling. The confirmation of this alliance was made on Wednesday, effectively ending month-long speculations. UK-based Gamesys specializes in software design and has become renowned because of the real-money gambling site Jackpotjoy.com. This is an online game portal that poker lovers may not have heard of, as it offers only online bingo and casino-style table games. But now thanks to the deal, this is poised to change.

Following the acquisition of Virgin Games, the in-house development team of Gamesys set to work on the development of proprietary poker software. It is currently unclear whether this software can work by the time the operation goes live. However, the New Jersey situation is favorable. There are a reported 37 online companies that have submitted license applications for Internet gaming in New Jersey, and Tropicana is one of the 12 casinos that are considered eligible for housing gambling software.

Founder and CEO Noel Hayden said, “We have always sought ambitious partners and Tropicana Atlantic City is a great partner for Gamesys as Internet gaming comes to New Jersey.” Tropicana and Gamesys reportedly started working on their deal in June and Gamesys was able to complete the application process and beat the July 31st deadline. Other partnerships that have been confirmed are Ultimate Poker with Taj Mahal, bn with Borgata, PokerStars with Resorts, and the Golden Nugget with Amaya.

Ultimate Poker is already live in Nevada and even though it’s still unknown which gambling sites will be going live by the end of the year in New Jersey, it could be one of them. The seemingly most potentially productive partnership is that of Resorts with PokerStars as the online poker site stands to dominate the New Jersey market.

Hold Ups for Legal Online Poker in California

This year has been laden with much promise for online poker in the state of California, but many Californian politicians now believe there is little hope that any online poker regulations will be passed before the end of this year, despite the three pieces of legislation that have been placed on the table for such regulation.

The current session of the California General Assembly is set to dissolve on September 6, which means that any regulation hoping to pass should have already been approved by the committee and on the floor for a vote. At the moment, three bills on the subject of online poker regulation have been proposed or are in the committee, namely, SB 51, Senator Roderick Wright’s “Internet Gambling Consumer Protection and Public-Private Partnership Act of 2013,” SB 678, State Senator Lou Correa’s “Authorization and Regulation of Internet Poker and Consumer Protection Act of 2013,” and a draft bill from the California Indian tribes.

None of the bills are past the committee stage, which is just the beginning of the process. Barring a special session, these bills must then be reintroduced in the General Assembly come 2014.

The usual infighting is the major cause of the hold-up. Online poker legislation has been an ongoing bone of contention in the Golden State, with the California poker rooms, horse racing tracks, and powerful Indian gaming lobby unable to work out a plan that serves the interests of all parties. The highest point of the infighting was reached in May when the Indian tribes put together the previously mentioned bill in an attempt to circumvent the discussion stalemate between the warring parties.

If such a bill were to pass, California would become the crown jewel of US online poker. It has the largest population, of more than 38 million people, and its potential market dwarfs all the other states that have already passed legislation for online gaming (New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware). And if one of these states were to partner with California for an interstate compact, revenues for all involved would skyrocket. However, the Californian poker scene will only move forward when its warring factions strike an agreement.

Japanese Poker Player Caught in Spam Scandal

Masaaki Kagawa, a high-stakes Japanese player, has been arrested after being suspect of running a scam involving malware. Kawaga and eight other players were arrested in Japan by the Chiba Prefectural Police. The group has been accused of distributing spam via emails that included links to download Androis Enesoluty.

This download included a Trojan horse virus that could and did steal data from Android devices, sending it over a remote server. The malware is thought to have collected about 37 million email addresses from the 810,000 contacts lists it detected on infected devices. The whole point of the scam was to reroute users to a fake online dating site, Sakura, at which you could then sign up for a fee.

Kagawa participated in a Super High Roller Reload tournament in 2012 in Monte Carlo, a €98,500 NLH event. The 38 registrants were separated into two divisions, the whales and the pros. Kagawa was put into the whale group because of his wealth, but unfortunately, now it seems he may have come by all that money immorally. Fifty-year-old Kagawa had amassed a total of $1.62+ million in online poker winnings by 2012.

The other eight players are associated with his company Koei Planning. Vikram Thakur, Symanatec Security Response principal research manager, who discovered the scandal commented to the Japan Daily Press, “The mobile malware was just a step towards his real scheme, which was to send out spam about his dating site and get people to sign up over there and not really get any service.”

PokerStars Looks toward New Jersey Market

New Jersey residents have received an email from PokerStars asking specifically about their gaming preference as regulated online poker sites within the state get closer to becoming reality.

PokerStars’s survey asks questions like “On a scale of 0-10 how likely would you be to recommend PokerStars to a friend or colleague?” and “If online casino games were licensed and regulated in New Jersey, how likely would you be to play these online?”

Residents were also asked how likely they would be to play online poker at PokerStars if the site receives a license and another specific question regarding Full Tilt Poker.

In order to offer New Jersey intrastate online gambling, PokerStars has teamed up with Resorts Casino Hotel with the earliest possible go-date being November.

Full Tilt is reportedly working on casino-style side games that would be available in addition to real money poker, but PokerStars will continue to offer only poker.

This isn’t the first survey PokerStars has sent to customers, but it is the first one to target the New Jersey market directly. A PPA survey from earlier this year did ask New Jersey residents if they preferred the PokerStars brand and found that there was “near unanimous support” for PokerStars.

2013 November Nine Finalized

The ultimate battle for the ultimate poker title in the world is going down on Monday, November 4 and the winner will bag over $8.3 million in prize money alongside the most prestigious trophy in poker, the championship gold bracelet. The $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship in the 44^th annual World Series of Poker, an event more commonly known as the Main Event, is now down to the last nine players who will be converging for the “November Nine” event. The players come from five different countries: the United States, France, Canada, Netherlands, and Israel.

The nine are the top contenders from a massive field of 6,352 entrants hailing from 83 different countries. They will meet for the final battle for the WSOP gold bracelet at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. The winner will walk away with a whopping $8,359,531 while the other eight will share $18,302,535.

The players will resume from level 35 with 42 minutes and 25 seconds remaining. The WSOP television coverage for the Main Event will start from August 6 at 9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. There will be 2 hours of coverage each Tuesday until the Main Event coverage on the 4th of November.

The November Nine finalists with their seat allocation and chip counts follows.

1. Sylvain Loosli – 19,600,000

Sylvain is originally from France but now resides in London. The 26 year old business school graduate has a recorded world earning of $3,198. This is his maiden WSOP Main Event.

1. Michiel Brummelhuis – 11,275,000

Michiel is a 32-year-old poker enthusiast from Netherlands. His career earnings in poker tournaments are more than $670,000. This will be the 4^th time that Michiel will be showing at the WSOP Main Event.

1. Mark Newhouse – 7,350,000

Mark is a 28-year-old poker professional from the United States. He is a veteran, having been in every WSOP Main Event since 2006. His total poker earnings are more than $2,004,277.

1. Ryan Riess – 25,875,000

Ryan is 23 years in age and resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a business graduate from Michigan State University. His career earnings in poker are more than $309,478.

1. Amir Lehavot – 29,700,000

Amir is 38 years old and he comes from Israel. He was the WSOP champion in 2011. His total poker earnings are more than $1.5 million.

1. Marc-Etienne McLaughlin – 26,525,000

Marc-Etienne is a 25-year-old poker player from Canada. This is the fifth consecutive time he will be gracing the WSOP Main Event.

1. JC Tran – 38,000,000

JC train is a 36-year-old poker professional from Canada. He has won 2 WSOP tournaments. His earnings in poker are more than $8.3 million.

1. David Benefield – 6,375,000

David is a 27-year-old poker professional and part-time student from New York. He has featured in the WSOP Main Event for 4 times in the past.

1. Jay Farber – 25,975,000

Jay is a 28-year-old poker professional from the United States. This is the second time he is playing at the WSOP Main Event. His lifetime poker earnings are $2,155.

WSOP Main Event: Day 6

The 6th day of the WSOP is over and 27 players are still in the running for the final table. Here are some of the day’s highlights. The chip leader is Anton Morgenstern. He got the chip lead at 6 p.m. He then pulled away from the rest of the pack, ending up with 21,955,000 chips. Yevgeniy Timoshenko had captured the chip lead earlier in the day but did not last long. Timoshenko is now in the 18th position.

When asked if he was going to be able to sleep tonight, Morgenstern replied, “Yeah, for sure.  Every night when I go to sleep, there are thoughts going through my head, like what it would be like to make the November Nine.  I have a couple of meditation tapes that help me with all those thoughts to try and relax and try and concentrate.  That way I can fall asleep.”

Carlos “The Matador” Mortense is still very conspicuous in the Main Event. He has had a steady rise during the day and is now in the 6^th position. Steve Gee, the 9th finisher in 2012, is kicking hard this year. He is posting a two year run that might be one of the most impressive feats in the history of the WSOP. The dream is now over for 41 more players who started the day but won’t continue on. Jackie Glazier was the only remaining female player on Day 6. The 31-year-old Australian had survived through most of the day but busted out at 10 p.m. in 31^st position.

All players who will proceed to Day 7 have a guarantee of more than $285,408 in prize money each. The average chip count is 7,058,000. Ten countries are still represented in the final event including Germany, France, Netherlands, Israel, United States, Holland, Italy, Czech Republic, Canada, and Brazil.

Day 7 is on Monday. The three tables of survivors will battle it out for one last table, known as the “November Nine.”

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