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The process of choosing a poker player to enter the Poker Hall of Fame is close to completion as we now have the votes of the public. For 2 months the public has voted for their favourite players.

The chosen players will then be analysed by a 16 member committee which will take the final decision as to whom is the most ‘virtuous’ of them. Besides the player nominated for 2010, the committee will also choose a player that will automatically enter in the next year’s selection process.

The criteria for entering the Poker Hall of Fame is:

• The player had to play against acknowledged top competition

• To play for high stakes

• To play consistently well

• To prove his/her abilities for a long period of time

• Or, for non-players, to have contributed to the development of the poker game in the long term

The 2010 nominations are now closed and the 10 players chosen by the public are:

• CHRIS FERGUSON

• BARRY GREENSTEIN

• JENNIFER HARMAN-TRANIELLO

• DAN HARRINGTON

• PHIL IVEY

• LINDA JOHNSON

• TOM McEVOY

• DANIEL NEGREANU

• SCOTTY NGUYEN

• ERIK SEIDEL

PokerStars and Full Tilt are operating “illegally” in the US, declared the Bwin CEO’s, Norbert Teufelberger and Manfred Bodner, in an interview for EGRMagazine.com.

Bwin holds the 3^rd position worldwide as a poker provider after PokerStars and Full Tilt and the CEO’s believe that their site would have been the first if they hadn’t withdrawn from the US market in 2006.

Teufelberger thinks that these two websites are ranked the first two in the world solely due to their monopoly over the American market:

“It’s not because they have premier marketing skills or premier technology, what they have is hundreds of millions of dollars from what we see as an illegal market. We would expect that once the US regulates, these two companies will not have access to the market, and once that happens we’ll then see who the leader will be. They say they’re not operating illegally but I think they are.”

Teufelberger puts forth the hypothesis that once the US online gambling market will be deregulated, PokerStars and Full Tilt will not be offered a license to continue to operate. He wonders if they will be prosecuted, let alone having withdrawn their licenses.

“I used to be personally licensed and operated in the land-based environment in the US so I know how stringent the US authorities are in their licensing process and I cannot imagine that a company which in the view of the DoJ (Department of Justice) and several state licensing authorities in the US, that acts illegally, will be able or qualify to get a licence. In my view this will be absolutely impossible. What does that mean in the end? I don’t know. They may be prosecuted, they may not be prosecuted”.

The Bwin CEOs are aware that PokerStars and Full Tilt could nonetheless be granted a license in the newly deregulated US market. Should this happen, then pulling out of the US market in 2006 will have been their “biggest mistake”.

There is a category of life situations where life just seems inspired from a movie scenario. In this category falls what has happened recently to Samuel McMaster, a 59 year old stockbroker and professional poker player.

As a stockbroker he swindled over 20 of his clients and has stolen from them the beautiful sum of over $400,000. Nothing so special so far. The best part of this situation, the one that seems taken out of a movie, is the fact that the judges have given him a sentence never heard of before. He has to repay the stolen sum by playing poker!

He is now free to leave his home state New Mexico and travel to tournaments and cash games in the attempt to make $7,500 monthly as decided by the court. If the first 2 payments are not done, then he will face immediate sentence of up to 12 years. The reason why judges have agreed to this unusual conclusion is that poker is McMaster’s only chance of raising the money he owes.

According to prosecutor Phylis H. Bowman: “There’s nothing to indicate that he’s a violent threat to society. So based upon those factors, that’s what determines conditions of release. It has nothing to do with profession.”

We will see if he comes back victorious from his tournaments or if he will come back at all. To be continued!

The famous boxer Evander Holyfield has recently become the representative of Realdealpoker.com, a new poker room that is looking to attract its clientele. This room has an innovative and unique approach in that it uses real cards instead of an algorithm. Evander Holyfield is there to make this approach popular to online poker players. This box champion has won against Mike Tyson and George Foreman and its popularity should have an impact on the success of Realdealpoker.com.

Realdealpoker.com is the only website distributing real cards instead of using a random number generating algorithm found on all the other websites. Gene Gioia, initiator and head of Real Deal Poker declared that their revolutionary technology uses real cards and this ensures the fairness of the game. “We have achieved something that everyone deemed as impossible, that is distributing real cards in an online environment”.

Holyfield was present in Las Vegas at the Ante Up For Africa charitable tour. He will also play at ‘Poker in the Park’ in London on September 2^nd and 3^rd . “We are delighted that a superstar such as Evander comes at Poker in the Park. We are used to having guests the most famous poker players but his presence here illustrates the synergy that exists between poker and the major sports, and the exciting development of poker in general” said Michael Caselli, the event organizer.

A study carried out by Nova Southern University has made a shocking discovery: 4 out of 5 poker players (i.e. 80% of them) take drugs in order to improve their performance at the poker table.

According to the study author and specialist in pharmacy Kevin Clauson, drugs help poker players to “stay awake longer, to focus and concentrate better” which is an advantage in face of the competition. Professor Clauson points out that these substance are surely dangerous for human health and they can have negative effects in the long term.

But are they truly drugged? The study shows that besides regular energizers like caffeine from coffee, guarana from energy drinks, professional and amateur players all over the world moved on to more serious substances such as marijuana, amphetamines, cocaine, Valium and other prescription drugs which is supposed to enhance their game.

The study consists of interviews with players at last year WSOP in Las Vegas and an international online questionnaire that collected answers from professional, semi-professional, amateur and recreational players in North America, Europe and Asia. They all admitted having used some sort of drug or substance to improve their concentration or to calm their nerves, stay awake and sharpen their memory.

This resembles in large to sports people who take performance enhancers and win easier. While the sports people are expelled from competitions and their prizes withdrawn if discovered drugged, poker players go along with their drugging habits which is not quite fair.

Besides the rules of the game itself, poker implies a few other formalities that every player has to know and comply with.

The first set of rules refers to players’ talk. They are not allowed to make useless, repetitive and excessively negative remarks about the style of their opponents as this kind of behaviour is sanctioned. Any unwanted remark from the public that can effect the course of the game can also lead to sanctions. Therefore, in poker it is good to have a respectful conduct!

Another set of rules applies to the language of the poker tour. Only the language of the language of the country and English are allowed to be used between participants at a professional poker event.

The practice of ‘rabbit hunt’ is forbidden because players usually frown upon it. It is done in a situation where one player wins a pot without a showdown and another player asks the dealer to show cards would have come up in case the hand had been played till the end. Usually, these players who ‘hunt the rabbit” want to see if they would have hit a straight, a flash or some other gaining hand.

Gestures, noises, words, postures, objects that may disturb the other participants are also sanctioned and players are not allowed to use the mobile phone at the poker table.

The last but not least of these rules of conduct is to not underperfom. Underperforming means playing poorly in order to support another player which is penalised and his bets are withdrawn.

     Poker madness has crossed all barriers of entertainment and is invited at the Cannes Festival 2008. The prestigious movie festival invented and organized, for the first time in Cannes Festival’s history , a poker tournament which is held at Palm Beach Hotel, on the 17th of May. The cocktail of player participating at the tournament is beautiful: Salma Hayek, Goldie Hawn, Denis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Edward Norton and Tim Robbbins.These six players will gather around a Texas Holdem Poker table and practice their acting talents in dissembling their hands (two cards given by the croupier en.) and bluffing.
These poker games between the Hollywood stars are strongly promoted in the mass media in order to make profitable the million dollars award that the winner will donate to a charity organization.
     The Partouche group sponsors this major event at the Palm Beach Hotel. The group leader of the french terrestrial casinos will place on the table the million dollars for that certain poker match, which shouldn’t  exceed four hours in order to respect the prearranged evolution of the festival.
     The Cannes casinos have quickly understood that Texas Holdem Poker will be The Game en-vogue.After the Official Journal mentioned the poker game as legal in terrestrial casinos, the Cannes casinos rushed in proposing them to their players. The success was just a matter of time. The players meeting in tournaments organized by a particular person or in small rooms, or even the ones playing on the online poker sites, changed their direction towards terrestrial casinos.
     The Patrouche Poker Tour is the proof of poker’s success in real casinos as the lucky winner of the Main Event will be awarded with 2 million Euro by Eric Cantona, Patrouche’s group mascot. The finals of this poker tournament, lyeing on few months, whose satellite games are held in different casinos belonging to the group, will be organized in Cannes.
The Partouche group won’t delay in showing its name in the mass media, considering the fact that the satellite tournaments will be transmitted on Eurosport and the final game on TF1.
     The Patrouche group  presumed that poker has a great potential starting and since 2007 has opened three poker tables inside its casinos. Today, the Palm Beach casino gathers each Tuesday and Thursday over 30 poker players, confronting each other in the Sit’N'Go tournament. These tournaments begin the moment the number of players is reached. The Casino Croisette of the Barrière group was also concentrated on poker games and has opened two tables last month. A third Poker Texas Holdem table is to be opened
next autumn, as long as the  concern for the  casino youth is over. The casino Les Princess de Cannes of Barrière group will open its own poker table as soon as the usage authorization will be issued.
     The poker game can attract the poker players inside casinos and gives them the possibility to discover casino games like  slot machines, baccarat tables, roulette or even blackjack. The poker players still not adapted to these casino games attend these games and finally play.
In fact, the activity of casino games compared to poker is multiplied by two for game tables and by three for slot machines in the evenings hosting the poker tournament of Palm Beach.
     The poker tournaments in Palm Beach are expensive as long as the players must pay 200 Euro and even 250 Eros for its colleague Casino Croisette.
     Poker has become the most fashionable game and the show biz stars can confirm this. Because poker was invited to the biggest movie festival, there is no doubt that this game takes part of our everyday life and that its image was considerable improved.

 Harrah’s Entertainment has officially announced the dates and places for the second European World Series of Poker event presented by Betfair. The 2008 edition of WSOP Europe will be held again in three Londoner clubs and international casinos, the same places where the maiden event was held last year – St. James (Fifty), Leicester Square (Empire Casino) and Marble Arch (Sportsman).

EWSOP 2008 begins September 19 and is held until October 1st 2008, but the exact days are still processing.

Betfair returns as the main sponsor of this event, and brings the champion on the main event EWSOP 2007, Annette “Annette_15” Oberstad from Norway as their professional poker player. The Internet star has proven that her online success was not a game and that she has managed to defeat the aces, including former winners of EWSOP, poker legends: Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan. Oberstad’s victory was worthed ₤1 million ($2,013,102), the biggest award ever to be won by a woman at poker. Oberstad is still too young to compete at the WSOP events in the United States, where the minimum age is 21, but she will compete at the London events in order to protect her title.

“It was a very long action range for Europeans last year”, said Jeffrey Pollack, World Series of Poker spokesman.”There are many, many talented players in the European Poker Comunity, and I think this fact has taken by surprise some of the world’s best poker players. I believe they have not forgotten what has happened last year and i think young players will carry a stronger battle in 2008.”

“Last year held an exceptional tour that defeated any expectation”, said David Yu, CEO, Betfair, and the qualification stages have already began on this site.