ESPN to Broadcast 2012 World Series of Poker

Posted by admin on May 11th, 2012 under Poker
Tags: , , ,  •  Comments Off

This year’s World Series of Poker coverage schedule has been released by ESPN, with dozens of hours of televised programming planned for this summer and fall. This year’s schedule includes the WSOP National Championship, the main event and the $1 million dollar buy-in event (The Big One For One Drop). ESPN’s offerings begin with virtually live coverage of the $1 million event on its final day, on July 3. On ESPN3, coverage will be on a slight delay online before shifting to ESPN at night.

Coverage of the WSOP National Championship will be shown on July 31 after about a month hiatus, before 24 hours of main event coverage is aired from August 14 through October 23. Starting on October 30, on ESPN, the final table of the main event will again be shown virtually live, on a 15-minute delay. On August 14th, the Main Event coverage begins and it will run two hours of coverage each week until October 23rd. The final able will air live with hole cards on ESPN with a fifteen-minute delay on October 30th. For the season, Kara Scott, Norman Chad and Lon McEachern will be back as the broadcasting team.

The final table of One Drop is the only other event that will get the live treatment on ESPN. It will be shown on ESPN3 on July 3rd. This year only the final table will get such treatment and the rest of the action will only be shown in the packaged programs airing on Tuesdays, unlike last year, where there was extensive live Main Event coverage. WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart indicated that there was concern the live coverage was cannibalizing viewers of the packaged show in the WSOP conference call on Tuesday. The live stream will premiere on Memorial Day, May 28th, with the $500 buy-in Casino Employees Event.

Meanwhile, all the final tables from the World Series of Poker will be live streaming from its 60 gold-bracelet events on WSOP.com. Up to three final tables, a day will be streamed with scheduled start times of 1 p.m. PDT and 2 p.m. PDT, from May 28 through July 8, though these times are dependent upon reaching the official final table.

The Amazon Main Stage will have six different cameras will capture the action and David Tuchman will serve as the WSOP’s official announcer for the primary webcasts. A rotating cast of player-commentators will also join him.

Alija Filipovic Wins PokerStars Eureka Poker Tour

Posted by admin on April 16th, 2012 under Poker
Tags: , , ,  •  Comments Off

Today in Zagreb, Croatia, the second season of the PokerStars Eureka Poker Tour gets underway. The action kicks off this evening with a €50+€5 buy in satellite event into the main event, which started with day 1a on Wednesday April 11.

The three-day main event is expected to attract up to 400 players who will receive a 15,000 starting stack and a 60-minute clock and it has a buy in of €1,000 + €100. 3 percent of the tournament prize-pool will be withheld to cover the costs of floor staff and dealers, as usual with PokerStars tournaments.

Last year, Hungarian Richard Bodis won the event. He took home €47,298 for his victory over his 254 opponents. Four days of hard-fought poker, seeing bustouts, epic clashes, bad beats, big pots and thousands of hands have finally been brought to a close with just one standing at the end.

In the PokerStars Eureka Poker Tour, along with our recap of how the final played out. He took down €42,700 after a two-way deal with runner up Mate Mecs from Hungary.

In event at the Golden Sun Casino in Zagreb, Filipovic topped the 171-strong field in the €1,000 + €100 buy in event and he held a 3:1 chip lead over Mecs going into heads up. Mecs was ultimately defeated running A-J into A-K, although he got his chip stack back to even with the Croat.

At the doors of the Golden Sun Casino at Hotel Antunovic, appeared 178 players in total to have their shot at the title. Just 8 remained standing out of the 178 players by the time we had played through three attritional, highly aggressive days of poker.

The final table payouts were as follows:
1: Alija Filipovic (Croatia) — €42,700
2: Mate Mecs (Hungary) — €32,000
3: Dragan Galic (Croatia) — €16,400
4: Nikolay Bibov (Bulgaria) — €13,450
5: Ivan Brkicic (Croatia) — €11,200
6: Verdan Premuzic (Croatia) — €9,050
7: Ruud Van de Goor (Netherlands) — €7,300
8: Karolj Kis (Slovenia) — €5,910

The Golden Sands Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria holds the second stop on season II of the Eureka Poker Tour from June 4 to 10, 2012. This is going to be an exciting poker clash.

Roulette: Strategy And Tips

Posted by admin on June 2nd, 2011 under Roulette
Tags: , , ,  •  Comments Off

Roulette WheelRoulette is a popular casino game. The first form of roulette was invented in 18th century in France and named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In this game, the players can choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even. The object of Roulette is to pick the winning number that will appear on the Roulette wheel however it is not as easy as it seems.

In roulette, there are two different wheels. The European wheel has 37 slots numbered 0-36. The house edge is 2.63. The American wheel has 38 numbers because the added a double zero (00). The addition of the extra number increases the house edge to 5.26 percent.

Layouts in Roulette have two betting areas. On the layout, the inside betting area contains the individual numbers whereas the outside betting area has boxes for the columns, red/black and odd/even and different groups of numbers. By making forming three vertical columns, the numbers on the inside are arranged in 12 rows of three numbers. The 0 and 00 are at the top of the columns.

When you sit down to play you must purchase special roulette chips. Each player receives a different color chip. At the end of play, if you won, you exchange back the colored chips with cash chips. These are special chips with the value amount imprinted on them. There are several denominations in various colors.

Each roulette table has a minimum and maximum bet. To start playing, you place your bet or bets on numbers (any number including the zero) in the table layout or on the outside, and when everybody at the table had a chance to place their bets, the croupier starts the spin and launches the ball. The winners are those bets that are on or around the number that comes up. Also the bets on the outside of the layout win if the winning number is represented.

UltimateBet and Absolute Poker to Declare Bankruptcy

Posted by admin on May 5th, 2011 under Poker
Tags: , , ,  •  Comments Off

PokerShareholders of Blanca Gaming have sent an email to shareholders stating that they will be probably filing for bankruptcy. The actions come as a result of the seizure of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet assets and DOJ’s indictment resulting from the indictments of the three major poker sites.

Since Black Friday, the situation has gradually gone downward for Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. The network froze all cashouts and they were slow to respond to the indictments unlike their competitors PokerStars and Full Tilt, although it continued to allow U.S. Player to play for real money.

The Feds on Black Friday also seized two other poker sites, Pokerstars and Full Tilt, which have already been in agreement with the DOJ for issuing player payments so they can repossess any cash that was left in their player accounts. With the DOJ concerning this matter, Absolute Poker had refused to enter into any accord. The poker sites have announced they “had no cash on hand and no prospects for future cash flow” and now it has become known that there is no money to be returned to players.

At the University of Montana in 2002, Absolute Poker was established by four fraternity brothers. It grew to become one of the top poker sites. Following passage of the UIGEA, it had refused to stop accepting bets from U.S. players. In 2007, a deceitful scandal shook the faith of many players, which lead to dwindle its market share.

2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Preview

Posted by admin on April 16th, 2011 under Poker
Tags: , , ,  •  Comments Off

PokerOn Friday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the World Series of Poker Circuit tour begins. The tournament series will run until the end of April. Before the WSOP Circuit National Championship, this is the first time that the tour will be in Las Vegas.

On April 28 the marquee tournament begins which is the $1,500 no-limit hold’em main event and crowns a champion on April 30 whereas the tournament series is comprised of 10 events.

On Wednesday, April 27, there are multiple satellites for the main event. With five additional seats added there will be a $200 stimulus satellite at noon on the 27th. Later that day at 4 p.m., there will also be a $160 satellite. There will be a $240 mega satellite an hour later and at 7 p.m, final opportunity for players to win their way into the main event will be a $160 super satellite.

During the 2010-11 WSOP Circuit season, Caesars Palace marks the 13th stops. Ranging from $70 buy-in tournaments every morning up to the three-day long $1,600 buy-in Main Event Championship, this year’s Caesars’ schedule includes a wide variety of poker events. Bankroll including $85 and $110 nightly events in addition to multiple satellites costing as little as $70 to play  as most poker tournaments are affordable to just about every player and.

Caesars Palace has hosted a WSOP Circuit stop for sixth consecutive year. Of highly competitive major poker events, the luxurious $7 million poker room is hardly a newcomer to the world. Including the NBC National Heads-Up Championship every spring, one of poker’s most prestigious titles, Caesars Palace hosts several big attractions. Inside the special tournament area the Caesars Poker Classic is also played annually. The WSOP is considered a very special time of year for players and poker staff alike though.

888 Holdings Profits Dips Over 56%

Posted by admin on April 1st, 2011 under Bingo
Tags: , , ,  •  Comments Off

888 Holdings recently reported that their profits dipped over 56% in their last financial year. It has been quite a below par year for 888 Holdings. Some analysts believe that the murky figures signify the end of the online bingo boom, although 888 Holdings operations include casino, poker. For the first quarter of current financial year, most analysts believe not as most others in the online bingo sector are reporting strong growth. With an augment of revenue of up to 7%, even 888 Holdings have stated that they also have had a strong start to 2011.

Since December 2010, 888 have been discussing a potential takeover by British bookmaker Ladbrokes. It was said that an additional announcement would be made when suitable decision will be taken, since talks between the pair were continuing.

According to Aviad Kobrine, chief financial officer at 888, principally due to poor poker performance in the first half of last year and high marketing costs, profits before tax were downhill 56% from $34.6m to $15.1m. As per him, soaring marketing costs rose 35% in a year from $67.3m to $91.5m. From $201m in 2009 to $233 in 2010, a rise in operating expenses, research and development costs, marketing, and administrative expenses was seen. From $45.6m to $28.6, EBITDA was down 59%.

The company said that with average daily revenues escalating by around seven per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010, trade in the first quarter of 2011 had begun robustly.

Analyst with Peel Hunt, Nick Batram said that this month’s regulatory approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission for its commercial association with Caesars is some positives for 888.

South Point Casino Owner Favors Legalizing Online Poker

Posted by admin on March 24th, 2011 under Poker
Tags: , , ,  •  Comments Off

Michael Gaughan, the owner of the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has come out in support of awaiting legislation in the Nevada Assembly. The legislation would open the first licensed and regulated online poker market in the United States. To support the legislation in question, Gaughan became the first major casino owner, by making this announcement.

The legislation was suggested by William Horne (D-34th District) and to those in support of Assembly Bill 258; the move by Gaughan comes as a shocker. On March 10th, the legislation was suggested by Horne and at 8:00am tomorrow, the legislation is scheduled for its first hearing in front of the Committee on Judiciary. Provisions governing the licensing and operation of internet poker will be endorsed by the bill within Nevada’s borders and support the state limiting a budget deficit. It is expected to achieve $1 billion.

At least two major casino companies have come out in opposition to the bill introduced this month in the Nevada Legislature and their point of view totally diverges from Gaughan’s support. On Thursday, an initial committee hearing for the bill is scheduled.

Gaughan does not think his casino on Las Vegas Boulevard seven miles south of the Las Vegas Strip will get any momentous help from the Nevada bill and he deprived of any partnership with any of the online casino companies.

PokerStars is supporting the legislation and it is functioning to get the bill passed with a pair of heavy hitters behind the scenes. Caesars Entertainment and MGM Grand are among the adversaries of the bill, choosing to support federal legislation on online gambling. Both of them are in support of the bills similar to Nevada Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s suggested bill in late 2010.

Revenue Up by 18% for Pennsylvania Casino

Posted by admin on March 5th, 2011 under Casino
Tags: , , ,  •  No Comments

Over the past couple of years, Pennsylvania casinos have been enjoying stable growth. For the first time since the casino gambling was permitted back in 2006, the casinos saw a revenue decline and that growth was put on hold in January.

Pennsylvania casinos bounced back in February, enjoying an 18 percent increase. This boost in the revenue has made analyst believe that Pennsylvania may become the fresh gaming capital of the East Coast.

Gaming Analyst Brad Dawkins said that if no alterations are made to New Jersey laws, Pennsylvania casinos’ revenue will persist to rise and it will make Pennsylvania the top gaming industry in the region. Therefore, he suggests that at this point there is no doubt that Pennsylvania casinos will start going backwards with their revenue.

This year when lawmakers permitted a bill regulating online casinos, a key change to New Jersey law almost occurred. Atlantic City would have got back their edge over other casino areas in the Northeast, had that bill been signed by Governor Chris Christie. He prohibited the bill on Thursday.

In February 2011, the play of slot machines at the ten operating casinos produced $197,925,541 in gross revenue compared to $168,279,514 in February 2010. $108,191,840 was the tax collected by the Commonwealth on the gross revenue. Additionally, since the first casino opened in November 2006, during the last week of February 2011 tax revenue generated from the play of slot machines surpassed $4 billion. For just the nine casinos operating in February 2011, there was a raise of 9.67% in revenue.

In January, the ruthless weather was culpable for driving down slot revenue for the first monthly decline since casino gambling began in Pennsylvania in late 2006.

SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, which opened last September, generated $13.4 million in revenue from its slot machines. There was a revenue increase of nearly 10 percent for this February, which was generated from the nine casinos, operating in February 2010.

Gambling Legislation – Texas Lawmakers Still on a Split

Posted by admin on February 15th, 2011 under Gambling
Tags: , , ,  •  No Comments

State Senator Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) has filed Senate Bill 595 to allow liquor to be sold and the laws that regulate when liquor can be sold is something that has made Texas state lawmakers to think. Under the proposed bill, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days week, liquor would be able to be sold. The bill comes at a time that has created a debate and at a time when the Lone Star State faces a $15 billion dollar budget gap.

With Republicans saying Obama doesn’t cut enough spending and Democrats defending most (though not all) of the White House’s proposals, reactions to President Obama’s proposed $3.7 trillion budget blueprint from Texas lawmakers largely divided along party lines. The budget was called “a non-starter” by the Republican Pete Olson of Sugar Land. President Barack Obama will help rebuild the economy and cut wasteful spending. The federal government proposes to change how Washington does business and reorganize how the government spends money.

For increasing funding for Houston Metro “in these difficult economic times”, Houston Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee praised Obama. However, the budget provisions were criticized by the fellow Houston Democrat Gene Green. The provisions would increase taxes and fees paid by local energy businesses. States had traditionally turned their back on casinos as the economy had become so bad and they started to look at the millions in tax revenues from casinos with wide eyes.

This session looks as though it will have to wait at least one more session; many believed that gambling had its best chance to pass. For a successful gaming industry, other states such as Pennsylvania have provided the blueprint. In the past couple of years, the only problem Pennsylvania casinos had is keeping underage gamblers off their casino floors. For allowing underage gambling, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has fined several casinos.

Among Texas lawmakers, the 2012 federal fiscal budget is a hot topic and after looking over copies of the proposal, some believe there is still too much unnecessary spending.

Sky City Casino’s Staff To go On Strike

Posted by admin on February 2nd, 2011 under Casino
Tags: , , , ,  •  Comments Off

On Chinese New Year, Staff at the Sky City casino in Auckland will be striking to protest discrimination against Chinese workers. From 8pm this evening, a full 12-hour shift strike has been organized for the casino.

Chinese staffs are targets for discrimination, a workers union claimed. The reason is the company has prevented them from using their legal rights to access holiday leave for 17 days from today, as per the introduction of a policy. A third of the casino’s employees who are Chinese will be affected by the policy.

Unite national director Mike Treen says that it is a time when Chinese families to spend time together and he says that the policy is discriminatory as Chinese New Year is hugely important. Mr. Treen added that the way the company treats its staff; they will be striking and picketing to express our anger and disgust. He said that denying Chinese staff access to any time off over a period of several weeks to be with their families is discriminatory and Chinese New Year is not a public holiday.

For the Christmas-New Year period, there is a blackout but this is quite different from Chinese New Year. In NZ, it includes 4 public holidays and combines two celebrations. On Chinese workers who may wish to spend Chinese New Year with their families, the Unite Union contest a rule imposed that does not allow staff to access their 17 days vacation from Feb. 2nd has “an unfair impact”.

On being able to fully celebrate Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit will begin with some hopping mad Auckland Sky City workers protesting a ban.