Tropicana Las Vegas poker room to close
photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Tropicana Las Vegas
The Tropicana poker room will close in a week.
A quick decision that not even the 19 poker employees were aware of, staff was informed late last week about the Nov. 30 closure.
Unlike Excalibur or Paris Las Vegas who had the corporate backings of MGM Mirage and Harrah's respectively, the Tropicana poker employees will be laid off and not transferred elsewhere.
WSOP eBay Auction
With all my hobbies, I have become an avid collector of memorabilia and one of a kind items, poker included. Unique poker items though can be hard to come by, but thanks to Harrah’s, it looks like myself and other poker player across the globe will get the opportunity to grab some great World Series of Poker (WSOP) items.
Over 30 items are being placed into eBay auctions, with the crème a la crème being a very special poker table, complete with LED and blue-glass lighting, which was used to host the final table for both the 2007 and 2008 WSOP Main Events. The table was manufactured by Diamond Tables of Las Vegas. The starting bid for the table is $25,000, and also includes free shipping to anywhere in the continental U.S.
For those with smaller wallets, you can find relatively inexpensive items such as decks of cards used at the final table for as little as $50 (the price the card auctions started at), and even the dealer button used in the televised event. The winner of the dealer button will also receive a special certificate of authenticity signed by WSOP Commissioner Jeffery Pollack.
Whether you’re looking for the exclusive Milwaukee’s Best Light neon poker sign that hung above the WSOP poker set or one of a dozen “main table†felts, there should be an item to grab everyone’s attention.
Better hurry though, as many auctions end within’ a day. Happy hunting!
Casino Cleavage Continues
It seems that Penthouse Inc. is seeking a presence on the Las Vegas Strip.
For several years the Playboy brand has been on the Palms Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. There is the Hugh Hefner suite, the Big Bunny logo on the side of the 1st Palms Tower and several other Hefner/Bunny/Playboy promotions and tie-ins. Now the "other men's magazine" Penthouse is looking to buy a casino/hotel in Vegas.
Penthouse Inc. is seeking an already operating casino on the famed Las Vegas Strip. The Palms is not actually on the Strip but about a mile west of the strip in a group of hotel-casinos with the Rio and the Gold Coast.
"We have no intention to rebrand the name of the hotel. We would like to see a Penthouse casino presence and a Penthouse pool presence."
There clearly is the intention to buy while the market is weak, the real question is what property or properties might be on the block. Statements would suggest that a major remodel of the casino and pool area to bring those pieces of the property into line with a Penthouse theme are part of the package.
One has to wonder if the properties known to be available (Riviera or Tropicana) are simply too old to be the type of situation that would interest Penthouse. In any case, it does appear that the move of Las Vegas back to a more adult theme and away from the "family orientation" of the 90's will continue. Imagine bringing your focused "A" game to the Penthouse Pet Poker Room. Can you hear the pocket rocket jokes already?
Poker Rumors
So what's the buzz floating around the poker world these days?
Clonie Gowen, who is suing Full Tilt poker and others for $40 million, was not just offered a settlement. She took $500,000 and still filed the lawsuit.
Two of the November Nine were booked for national televison appearances. One on the Tonight Show and the other on Ellen DeGeneres and they both turned down the offers.
The European Union Commission will act after the first of the year against one member nation to open its markets to online gaming.
The Tropicana poker room in Las Vegas will close down on November 30th.
The European Poker Tour will add several more venues for next season and will begin a "All Around Champion" points competition.
The WSOP Tournament of Champions will be back next year with an expanded qualification system, including WSOP Circuit Event winners and runners-up, the WSOP and WSOPE final table members and yes there will be "Sponsor's Picks", so Johnny, Doyle and Phil can play.
The black market for Attention Deficit Disorder medication on the poker circuit has come to the attention of at least one major narcotics investigation unit.
Dutch Banks and Government Squabble Over Poker
The Netherlands Bankers Association (NVB) have told Dutch Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin that the current legislative plan to ban online gambling by using Dutch financial institutions as internet police is simply impractical and, in fact, probably illegal.
The Justice Ministry immediately dismissed the sound advice of the NVB.
"Justice bases itself on Dutch law in fighting illegal internet gaming and there is no room for free choice on the side of the banks.â€
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Don't you just love the phrase: "There is no room for free choice." Ain't democracy great!
The governmental spokesperson went even futher, by distancing the Netherlands from the ongoing European Union Commission actions on internet gaming, when he said:
"European law has no influence on this."
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The Ministry did, however, admit that this reaction from the NVB would delay any legislation currently under consideration.
“The comments made in the consultation phase, as well as other events which took place in the first half of 2008, have led me to further re-examine the Dutch system. I refer to the Senate’s rejection of the bill regulating online gambling, the EC’s Reasoned Opinion, and the questions referred for a preliminary ruling by the Administrative Law Division of the Council of State and the Supreme Court. I have come to the conclusion that the policy needs adaptation on a number of issues, not just to increase support therefore, but also to ensure consistency and coherence with European law.â€
Sounds like another social moralist is finding it hard to legislate how a free individual conducts their private life.
Dutch officials might do well to observe the regulatory mess the United States has gotten itself into by trying to enforce social policy through its banking system. The U.S. legislation remains unenforceable a full two years after its passage.
October Bad Beat and Royal Flush Bonuses
photo courtesy BodogLife.com
Getting beat is bad. Getting a bad beat is great.
October saw 119 online poker players win bad beat and royal flush bonuses in the Bodog poker room. Bonuses ranged from $5 to $1,000 for holding royal flushes and suffering bad beats.
Among the October winners was ndrudy46 who was playing $5/$10 NL on October 28th when he woke up to Ah-Ad and flopped a set of Aces on the board of 3c-Ac-Jc. His opponent, StonecoldMS, was holding Qc-Kc and turned the Royal Flush when the 10c hit. Both players checked the turn and then the fourth Ace fell on the river and of course all of the money went in. ndrudy46's quad aces were cracked and although he lost the post he won the $1,000.
HoldTheNutz proved to be extremely lucky as he was the one player to win both a royal flush and a bad beat bonus during October. Although he wasn't able to get much action from the hand when he made his royal flush in the $1/$2 Fixed Limit game he was playing, the $50 bonus he got definitely made the moment that much sweeter.
His Bad Beat hit while on a $0.50/$1 Fixed Limit table, when he had his pocket Kh-Ks improve to a Full house, Aces over Kings, only to be beat by 4 of a kind Aces.
Head over to the Bodog online poker room for complete details on how to qualify for a Bad Beat or Royal Flush bonus.
WSOP at the G2E
photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Jack Effel and Jean-Robert Bellande in the WSOP area of the G2E Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas
Gaming Expo (G2E) is in town and packing them in at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Industry movers and shakers from around the world are in Las Vegas to decide what casinos and gambling games will look like in the upcoming years. This is the big one that displays the gaming industry manufacturers' wares for the buyers to see and play.
The WSOP has set up a poker room and holds two poker tournaments a day with a select professional play and WSOP TD, Jack Effel, running the show. Our visit to the G2E on Wednesday found a lot of interested attendees watching the WSOP action. The PokerPro booth with the dealerless tables had also drawn a large crowd.
photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Jack Effel calls the action as Jean-Robert Bellande puts three players all-in
photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Over view of the WSOP area at the G2E
photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
A crowded PokerPro booth at the G2E
Party Poker Premiere League III
The third edition of the PartyPoker.com Premier League will begin early round play today in London. This year's line-up of competitors will feature a bit of the old and a brand new bit of the new. The just announced final player is 11 time WSOP bracelet winner: Phil Hellmuth. The most interesting new face to the Premier League is brand new WSOP Champion: Peter Eastgate. The former "youngest ever" World Series of Poker Champ will face off against the new youthful titleholder and an impressive array of other runners, including:
Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan
JC Tran
Nenad Medic
David 'Devilfish' Ulliott
Tony G
Vicky Coren
Annette Obrestad
Roland de Wolfe
Andy Black
Juha Helppi
Early action at Party Bets has the newly crowned WSOP winner at the favorite to take down the event.
Action begins with a live draw for seats and flights at 10 AM local time, followed by seven days of exciting play. The format remains as in previous two league mathces: All 12 players will play six times in the preliminary stages. The leading four players will then progress to the final table with the next four battling it out in heads-up matches for the final two seats.
Poker Blogger Tournament Puts Bounty on Waffles
photo courtesy BodogLife.com
It's time to take your poker frustrations out on Waffles
Last week's Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament saw the T$109 bounty on the lovely head of poker pro Evelyn Ng. Ng was ousted after calling a preflop all-in push from TonySoprano. The cards were flipped and Ng had a dominant lead with A-K suited against TonySoprano's A-2 suited. Ng never recovered after a two fell on the flop and TonySoprano scooped the bounty.
This week, the T$ 109 bounty has been placed on the head of poker blogger Sir Waffles. The bounty is enough to buy into Bodog's $100,000 Guaranteed tournament that happens each Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.
Learn more about the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament or just head straight to the sign up page.
U.S. & E.U. Legislative Actions Against Poker
There was a lot of noise last week when the present United States Administration appeared to finally put some actual regulations behind the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. On further examination though it appears that nothing may have changed. For one thing, the "new" regulations still say nothing about what is and what is not "unlawful internet gaming". Those definitions seem to be left to either local jurisdictions or to the banks and financial institutions who must bear the brunt of the UIGEA.
Second, the new regulations are now in a comment period and will not be a compliance burden on financial institution until December 1, 2009. This leaves plenty of time for the new administration and a friendly Congress to kill the law, even on grounds of it being "overly vague" or a "regulatory burden on the financial institutions" involved. There is actually no need for any agency to actually address the issue of unlawful internet gaming.
It was and remains a poorly written piece of legislation, which in all likelihood is unenforceable on its face. It was a good scare tactic but it also mobilized the poker industry, which should have positive consequences for poker players in the long term.
The European Union, on the other hand, seems drawing ever closer to actually making some kind of decision on internet gaming policy. Unfortunately, in this case, it would seem that the individual nations involved in the EU dispute seem to be gaining support for local rather than EU control. While the public arguments are centered on moral and social customs about gambling within varying cultures; the truth is more like that some countries are making a huge amount of money via their private gambling fiefdoms and they don't want to share. Remember we are not talking about taxation or regulatory fees, like we are in the U.S. No, the European Union members are after the rake from gaming sites. In the EU, some countries want to be your book maker. Maybe we can replace volunteer armies with just those citizens who are behind on their gambling debts.
The EU position is that gaming is an industry just like wine and cheese and automobiles. The countries who have staked out a private gaming website do not want to relinquish their income stream, so they argue that gambling is a moral question. Right now in the EU, it appears that the decision making scale may be tipping to the side of moral greed and away from an open markets policy.
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WSOP Info is your source to online poker news and information regarding the WSOP 2008. The World Series Of Poker is the largest Poker event in the world.
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