pokerDialog Blog

Next year poker amateur players in the US will be able to watch a new poker-themed TV program on the MyTV network and have a chance to win up to one million dollars in cash. Mike Sexton will host the show named Shuffle Up and Deal.

MyTV network, already available in over 50 million homes across the US, has already taped 13 thirty-minute episodes of the program where five amateur poker players choose their cards from an electronic board that the audience can see. Turning the cards contestants either get closer or further from the goal – to finish with the highest cash winning for the episode. Episode winners get a bonus round and later on compete for a progressive jackpot starting at $250,000 and increasing by $10,000 for each unhit episode.

In addition to that, Shuffle Up and Deal will also feature an interactive Follow The Ace segment in which players will participate for a chance to win $10,000.

Source : Poker Tube

Back in 2006 the US government has proclaimed act banning online companies and the services they provide and nowadays most of the planned events are looking at that legislative stone to regulate their own situations. The same situation with online gambling ban faces Australia with its gambling law from 2001. Online companies cannot offer gambling for real money, though hundreds of online companies continue to provide gambling services for millions of online gamblers.

Australian Productivity Commission has given the law another thought and recommends that online gambling should be legalized with corresponding tax obligation. The 1999 inquiry has been updated and new draft is being analyzed at the moment. The main issue that they face at the moment is that Poker constitutes only 4% of all gambling and there should be a way of controlling al the gambling facilities online.

The draft is expected to be completed and brought for the signature by the end of February 2010. Before handing over the paper with updated Act the Commission will once again gather all the information with feedback and numbers to make sure that there is no mistake and that most part of all the interested people agrees with it.

The situation will most probably be similar to the Italian solution where the government forced all world gambling companies to obtain corresponding domen name to be valid on the territory of the country. A bright example can be Party Poker, which obtained domen name in the “.it” zone. In this case the Poker giant doesn’t have to buy an office in Italy to legalize its services.

It was Tuesday morning when all the players were involved in a small tournament in the Fire Department when three armed men rushed into the premises and ordered everyone to lie on the floor. Police Chief investigates the robbery and supposes that this was an inner job as witnesses saw a person who was nervous most part of the evening and made frequent phone calls. He then left the building and possibly leaving the door open let the robbers in. He is suspected in cooperation with the robbers. When the three criminals were inside they addressed Sara Lazzarro with request to hand them the money. The reply was that she had no money and one of the three men hit the woman in the head several times. She was taken to the hospital once the robbers left. They searched her and took approximately $6k along.

Police chief says that they intentionally asked for Sara it means that they new who had the money. Police is currently looking for the person with the cell phone as the main suspect. The first thing what they plan to do is to find his cell phone and check the history of phone calls.

Gambling will now be banned in the Fire Dept because of the accident as it now considers to be bringing negative consequences.

Connecticut is crowded with gamblers from all over the world willing to get their cut in the 2009 World Poker Finals which began yesterday October 19th in Foxwoods Casino. The series constitute 20 Tournaments and the winner will have to cut his way through all the competitors and enjoy the Final $15.000 no- limit hold’em. The tournaments held will include no-limit hold’em, limit hold’em, seven-card stud, seven-card stud eight-or-better, pot-limit Omaha, Omaha eight-or-better, and H.O.S.E.

Apart from that there will be a ladies night with $400 no-limit hold’em and seniors $500 no-limit. Below you may find the complete list of tournaments with the final approved schedule:

Monday, Oct. 19: Event No. 1 ($300 no-limit hold’em shootout)
Tuesday, Oct. 20: Event No. 2 ($400 seven-card stud)
Wednesday, Oct. 21: Event No. 3 ($400 no-limit hold’em)
Thursday, Oct. 22: Event No. 4 ($400 Omaha eight-or-better)
Friday, Oct. 23: Event No. 5 ($500 seniors no-limit hold’em)
Saturday, Oct. 24: Event No. 6 ($500 H.O.S.E.)
Sunday, Oct. 25: Event No. 7 ($1,500 no-limit hold’em)
Monday, Oct. 26: Event No. 8 ($500 no-limit hold’em)
Tuesday, Oct. 27: Event No. 9 ($400 seven-card stud eight-or-better)
Wednesday, Oct. 28: Event No. 10 ($600 no-limit hold’em)
Thursday, Oct. 29: Event No. 11 ($400 limit hold’em)
Friday, Oct. 30: Event No. 12 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em)
Saturday, Oct. 31: Event No. 13 ($400 ladies no-limit hold’em)
Sunday, Nov. 1: Event No. 14 ($2,500 no-limit hold’em)
Monday, Nov. 2: Event No. 15 ($400 pot-limit Omaha)
Tuesday, Nov. 3: Event No. 16 ($5,000 no-limit hold’em)
Thursday, Nov. 5: Event No. 17 ($15,000 WPT no-limit hold’em championship)
Friday, Nov. 6: Event No. 18 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em survivor)
Saturday, Nov. 7: Event No. 19 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em)
Sunday, Nov. 8: Event No. 20 ($400 no-limit hold’em)

Dark times of economic decay have been said to force municipal executive to reconsider gambling bans on city territories. This is the case with Pennsylvania where gambling has been allowed recently and the budget with impressive numbers has been approved already.

Number of tables is still being negotiated but approximate calculation of the revenue the city is planning to receive constitutes $200mln. Last week the state senate forwarded table games bill 29-20 which the Legislators hope to have completed within a fortnight. The house should take the bill seriously as in case some amendments are made, the Senate will have to vote again.

However, the House spokesman Todd Eachus assured that he sees no issues and that the bill will be eventually signed.

Regarding the taxes the gambling facilities will have to pay the information is not provided as the initial 34% of the revenue a gambling house gains is way too big and the government promised to review the taxes and get them lower.

To manage the new gambling houses, the house control board requires approximately half a year, so we are planning to have world poker players visiting Pennsylvania this time next year.

Despite the fact that the budget was signed, some politicians declared that still they do not favor gambling in the city.

Good news for Mike Sextons and his fans as he is going to become a resident of the most prestigious fame halls in gambling world. The official announcement is planed to be made in a few weeks but unofficially he may start celebrating already.

Mike proved his talent by hundreds of hands he played lately and attracted the professional likes of Stu Ungar and Doyle Brunson.

The Poker Hall of Fame was founded back in 1979. A worthy candidate is chosen by the alive members of the prestigious wall who vote for a candidate they prefer given in a short list of the best poker players for the present moment. The lucky ones given in the short list are selected by the public and the fans who supported the players and constituted larger part of all other fan clubs. Initially the list comprised of 10 best players but Tom Dwan had to leave the champions list due to the commission’s verdict which stated that Tom was too young. Phil Ivey however simply failed to gain access to the lucky list of nominees. Here is a list of his companions who didn’t succeed in gaining access as well: Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Dan Harrington.

Apart from having multiple tournament rewards Mike is also famous for being voice of the WPT introducing new generation of gamblers whom we see competing nowadays.

The official announcement is planned to be held on November 7th at the final table of the WSOP event.

Congratulations Mike!

According to official sources GSN is planning to start recording High Stakes Poker Season 6 which will be available in early 2010. The new episodes will be having new co-host as A.J Benza left the show.

Since the Pilot of the show was first released back in 2006 the High Stakes Poker Show has proved to be the most popular entertaining show on TV. The mixture of high stakes, piles of cash on the tables and famous gamblers couldn’t but attract audience. Main hosts of the show were Benza and Kaplan who have gathered million fan crowds supporting them in their poker battles. People say, we mean, there are rumors, that on his leaving he suggested that the company should replace him with Vanesa Rousso.

The personal blog of AJ contains post telling how disappointed and angry he is with the company (details can be found in his blog). However he addresses his fans and says that there is still little hope as in case the female gambler fails to play her best, the company might ask him to come back offering him better conditions. But that might be only in High Stakes Poker 7.

Brandon Hall proved to be the best among other 474 gamblers who came to Aruba Poker Championship to try their luck.

With Chase Steely gaining the third place, Hall And Mizrachi agreed to the mutual beneficial deal leaving Mizrachi the Chip leader occupying second place and that they both would add $30.000 from their revenues to the actual winner whoever it would be.

The final hand brought disappointment to Robert as he failed to beat Brandon and had to please himself with the second place of the Poker Championship while Eric Baldwin was left with the forth result of the tournament though he was quite good competing Hall. He won $126.000 and seemed to be fine with the result of his success. Chase contented himself with the $220.000 he won ranking third in the battle for millions.

The overall table of Top 5 players

1. Brandon Hall
2. Robert Mizrachi
3. Chase Steely
4. Eric Baldwin
5. Jose Roberto Santos

Congratulations to Brandon and good luck in forthcoming championships.

Since the London events have ended and the players have nowhere to compete, they rushed into online poker. Gus Hanses tried to crush on Cole South but the last one succeeded to get back most part of what he lost previously.

There was a fine battle at Full Tilt room between Erik “DIN_FRU” Sagstrom and Phil Ivey. Erik was having fun beating everyone and finished the day with a $336k in his pocket, though he could have won much more if it were not for the Phil Ivey who suddenly rushed in to the game as if he knew some kind of secret and was not afraid of getting into trouble with Erik. The day brought him $1.1 million. Here is a short list of the players who were not that lucky to sit at the same table with Ivey: Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Cole South, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Patrick Antonius.