How to play poker on the Internet

An English chef has won almost $1m (£567,419) in an amateur poker tournament in Costa Rica, after qualifying by playing the game online.
About 3,900 gamers had entered the internet poker competition.

BBC News looks at how to play online:

Potential players can enter a growing number of online casinos.

To sign up for an account, they need to provide details such as their e-mail address then choose a playing name and password to receive an activation code.

Recent research has shown many players "switch sex" when selecting their playing name. Women often choose a daring masculine name thinking it makes them appear more experienced and men adopt a "softer" feminine persona thinking it may dupe opponents into believing they will be a pushover on the poker table.


Many sites allow poker enthusiasts to compete in games with "virtual" cash, whether just for fun or to build up their experience of the game.

But once players wish to play with real money they then need to send through payment details. A range of payment options are available including credit cards, money transfers and even posted cheques and bank orders.

Online poker companies make their money through either taking a percentage of the pot - a "rake", or by earning interest on the money deposited with them for playing.


Deal

Once registered, players can select an avatar - an animated character - to represent them and then choose an animated room and table. They are able to see those already seated and the chips those players have.


Once the minimum number of players are seated, the game can commence. If no table is available, players can join a waiting list.

Players can choose whether they want to be able to chat with others at the table. Some sites also allow them to play at more than one "table" at a time.

Software is used to ensure the random distribution of cards. Poker guide Gaminggurus.com says they are audited by independent sources but it is in the interest of online casinos to maintain an honest reputation, so that players return.

A button appears to prompt players when it is their turn to make a move.

'Poker face'

Whilst not being in a position to read players' "poker faces", online gamers can assess their opponents by seeing how long they take to play and how often they check their hand.

They can also see each player's "ping" time - the speed with which their computer and internet equipment can process their move.

Players are able to record notes about other online gamers, so that they can remind themselves of previous encounters with them. They can also view statistics on their own playing.

Disconnection


One of the risks with playing on the internet is that a connection can drop out. Sites can take that as meaning the player has folded or allow players to continue playing if they reconnect within a certain time.

Other sites offer protection for longer disconnections. If chosen, this allows players to be considered still in the game - and financially linked to the pot of money that had been created before they were disconnected.

In other instances, disconnection may cause the player to fold. Sites often limit how many times players can stay in games after disconnection, or do not offer disconnection protection at all.

Gamers also have the option to sit out a hand and still watch the game but may be removed after a certain length of idle time.

If players end up in credit and wish to access their winnings, the online casinos can transfer the money into their bank account or send out a cheque.

POKER FACE!!!

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Bot

By David Kushner

In the booming world of online poker, anyone can win. Especially with an autoplaying robot ace in the hole. Are you in, human?

It's late one Wednesday afternoon, and CptPokr is logged on to PartyPoker.com and ready to play. Onscreen, the captain exudes a certain brash charisma - broad shoulders, immaculate brown hair, restless animatronic eyes. He looks like he should be playing synth in Kraftwerk. Instead, he is seated at a virtual table with nine other avatars, wagering on limit Texas hold 'em.

There's plenty at stake. An estimated 1.8 million gamblers around the world ante up for online poker every month. Last year, poker sites raked in an estimated $1.4 billion, an amount expected to double in 2005.

Ever since the aptly named accountant Chris Moneymaker parlayed a $40 Internet tournament buy-in into a $2.5 million championship at the World Series of Poker in 2003, card shark wannabes have been chasing their fantasies onto the Net. Some even quit their day jobs and try to make a living at online poker. And why not? This shadowy world is driven by no less a force than the great American dream. As the tournament's motto goes, "Anyone can win." There's one problem, though, as CptPokr is about to demonstrate: The rules of the game are different online.

CptPokr is a robot. Unlike the other icons at the table, there is no human placing his bets and playing his cards. He is controlled by WinHoldEm, the first commercially available autoplaying poker software. Seat him at the table and he will apply strategy gleaned from decades of research. While carbon-based players munch Ding Dongs, yawn, guzzle beer, reply to email, take phone calls, and chat on IM, CptPokr (a pseudonym) is running the numbers so it will know, statistically, when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

Smart, skilled players are rewarded in the long run, especially online, where there are plenty of beginners who would never have the nerve to sit down at a real table. But WinHoldEm isn't just smart, it's a machine. Set it to run on autopilot and it wins real money while you sleep. Flick on Team mode and you can collude with other humans running WinHoldEm at the table.

For years, there has been chatter among online players about the coming poker bot infestation. WinHoldEm is turning those rumors into reality, and that is a serious problem for the online gambling business. Players come online seeking a "fair" shot - a contest against other humans, not robots. But an invasion of bots implies a fixed game (even though, like their mortal counterparts, they can and do lose if their hands are bad enough or opponents good enough). So the poker sites loudly proclaim that automated play is no big deal. At the same time, they are fighting back by quietly scanning for and eliminating suspicious accounts. "We're making sure we never have bots on our site," says PartyPoker marketing director Vikrant Bhargava.

That's an impossible promise to keep, says Ray E. Bornert II, WinHoldEm's elusive creator. He's trying to flood the online world with his bot - and make a killing in the process. Bornert offers an elaborate justification for what many view as outright cheating: Online poker is already rife with computer-assisted card sharks and - thanks to him - a growing number of outright bots. Players should get wise and arm themselves with the best bot available, which is, of course, WinHoldEm.

There's a quiet knock at the door of a hotel room in Atlanta. It's Bornert. A stocky, wide-faced 43-year-old with a neat goatee and nervous manner, he's carrying a router in a plastic bag. To demonstrate his software, he insists on meeting here in private, several miles from his office. He doesn't want anyone from the poker business to know where he is. "Our guard is constantly up," he says.

For Bornert, a former evangelical student, outsmarting the poker sites is not just a mission, it's a market. A suite of WinHoldEm programs is available for download at www.winholdem.net. For $25, you get a bare-bones setup: run-of-the-mill poker-hand analysis software. For $200, you can buy the full package: a one-year subscription to the team edition, which includes the autoplaying bot and a card-sharing module that allows multiple players to communicate during a game. Bornert won't say how many customers he has; he'll admit only that he makes a living selling WinHoldEm.

For customers, buying the bot is just a starting point. The program works something like a music equalizer, but instead of adjusting bass and treble, you tweak betting strategies - how to play a pair of fives early in the game, for example, or when to fold cards that might look promising to a beginner. Most users customize the software by inputting a batch of rules, called a formula set. Bot aficionados scour poker manuals and online forums to cull the best strategies. They swap formula sets like gamers swap mods. "This is from Sklansky's Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, pages 122-133," reads a typical note posted to the WinHoldEm forums.

Bornert isn't claiming he can create millionaires. Bots are subject to the same cold streaks as real players. But, unlike humans, the machines play with relentless cunning and tireless discipline, raking in small pots from low-limit tables where less-experienced opponents hang out. Traditionalists in the poker chat rooms scorn Bornert. "You are a pathetic immoral piece of shit loser," reads a recent post, "completely devoid of morals and ethics."

He hardly cares. Bornert insists that he's bringing to light the hypocrisy of the gambling sites. It's an unlikely role for a guy who grew up in Dallas and Phoenix as a self-described "geek jock" playing football and studying biblical history. "I'd always been taught gambling was evil," he says. He went on to Oral Roberts University, where he became fascinated with cards after seeing a late-night infomercial for a blackjack scheme.

Bornert was pursuing a degree in computer science, and the ad intrigued him. He set up some simulations to test the card-counting technique and found that a player could, in fact, get the edge. That's when a light went on: Blackjack wasn't really gambling after all. With enough smarts, a player could master it and win. "No one could say I was addicted to a losing game," Bornert says. "It was beatable." After seven consecutive profitable trips to Vegas, Bornert got hooked on winning.

As the poker boom hit the Net, Bornert found himself working for the house. He took a job as a senior systems engineer with RealTime Gaming, an Atlanta-based developer of online casino software. While working on blackjack software in 2001, he started tinkering with his own card-analysis software on the side. Such programs - Poker Tracker, Poker Edge, Holdem Winner - have since become an acceptable and indispensable part of the scene. They're used like calculators to keep tabs on shifting stats. It didn't take long for Bornert to make the next logical connection - what he calls the "golden goose" of online poker. Rather than consult card-analysis software while playing, why not hook up the software directly to the game?

Bornert had no ethical qualms about creating a poker bot. The way he saw it, the poker sites were duping people into believing that a game of hold 'em online was as safe and secure as one at any casino in Vegas. "The reality is that the game changed the moment it moved to the Internet," Bornert says. Bots and bot-aided collusion were inevitable. Rather than seduce anyone into thinking such things didn't exist, Bornert had another notion: Put the power in the players' hands. By democratizing computer-assisted firepower, he'd make it part of the competition. "It's like football - if you don't wear a helmet and pads, you're going to get hurt," he says. "A poker bot is your equipment." And if that is considered unethical, then so be it. "I'd rather be unethical than be a victim," he says. "This is intentional civil disobedience."

In 2003, Bornert quit his job at RealTime Gaming and devoted himself to writing WinHoldEm. He quickly had a working prototype, which serves as the template for the bot he sells today. When a user boots up the software and logs on for a game, all the players' cards and chips are represented onscreen. WinHoldEm first scans the screen for information. The data is put into memory and analyzed according to the player's formula set. Each action - calling, raising, going all-in - is controlled by a series of yes-no formulas.

By fall, Bornert was ready to test his software. He logged on to a $5-limit hold 'em tournament on Paradise Poker and watched the program go. A crucial element of the test was to see how long the application could stay online without being detected. Eventually, Bornert went to bed - but the bot didn't. The next morning when he checked his computer, WinHoldEm had won. It wasn't a lot of money, only $30, but it proved a point. "I almost shed tears," he recalls. "I know what Dr. Frankenstein felt like. It was a totally intoxicating experience."

On Super Bowl Sunday 2004, Bornert began offering his program online. It didn't take long for the poker sites to catch on and fight back. Within weeks, they were scanning games to see if anyone was running WinHoldEm, and users were getting booted off poker sites before they could cash out. "Players no longer feel comfortable if they think they're playing a computer," says Scott Wilson, director of operations for Paradise Poker. "You would lose credibility fast if they felt your environment wasn't human-to-human."

Players themselves also took steps against the bots, using a site's chat function to smoke out the software. Moneymaker likes to engage players in small talk between hands. "Poker bots can't make conversation," he says. Meanwhile, bot users started developing their own counter-countermeasures, like limiting their time at any one table to minimize the appearance that a relentless machine is involved. And they can control their bots from a remote computer to evade detection by poker sites that scan for WinHoldEm on a hard drive.

The battle goes beyond Bornert's app. Other bots are appearing on the scene - including some that were never intended for online play. For the past 14 years, computer scientists at the University of Alberta Games Group have been building the poker version of Deep Blue: a program that can beat a top player, just as IBM's bot trumped Garry Kasparov in chess. "I'd love to be there when the computer raises the stakes by $100,000," says UA's Jonathan Schaeffer. "I want to see the bead of perspiration going down the human opponent's forehead. That's my dream."

There's reason to sweat even now. Not because Schaeffer's bot is taking on world champs - that's a few years off - but because bits of the underlying UA code have escaped into the wild. Schaeffer licensed his team's software to the makers of applications like Poker Academy, which trains players in the game's finer points. But hackers have extracted the underlying code and are putting it to use in their poker bots.

Poker site operators say there's nothing to worry about, and for them there isn't. For now, sites continue to earn healthy profits because they make money by taking a percentage - the "rake" - of every pot. "If anyone's losing money because of the bots, it's the players," says Poker Academy CEO Kurt Lange. "It's inevitably going to become a serious problem when they figure out that bots win hundreds of thousands of dollars per year." Indeed, PartyPoker reportedly has 100 employees scanning for the presence of bots.

PartyPoker's Bhargava insists that the game is still fair. "There are people who spend all their waking hours dreaming about how to bring us down," he says. "They can dream about creating fantasy bots that will play for them or make them money while they sleep, but that's not going to happen."

"All right, we're on!" says Bornert, as the two laptops in the hotel room fire up WinHoldEm and join a game of Texas hold 'em on none other than PartyPoker. "Awesome!"

As the bot folds onscreen, Bornert leans back in his chair and soaks it in. Though he's watched this scene countless times, he's still impressed with his own technology. He imagines a day when sites acknowledge the presence of bots and when players embrace them as part of the action. But this won't happen, he says, until players take up the cause. "You've been woken up," he says, as the bot rakes in its chips. "Now what are you going to do?" Bornert hopes they reach the obvious conclusion: Use a bot, too.

David Kushner (david@davidkushner.com) is the author of Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids.

fount

Football: Mount Healthy didn't want to exclude player

By Michael Perry and Josh Pichler
Enquirer staff writers

Mount Healthy High School's head football coach and athletic director said Tuesday they did not support an officiating crew's decision to keep Bobby Martin, a senior at Dayton's Colonel White High School who has no legs, from playing in last Friday night's game.

Colonel White's Bobby Martin

Martin participated in one play on the punting team in the first half before officials decided it was unsafe for him to be on the field. They cited a mandatory equipment rule from the National Federation of State High School Associations' rule book that stipulates players must wear shoes, thigh pads and knee pads, Mount Healthy coach Kurry Commins said.

Commins said he had no problem with Martin playing.

"From our standpoint, he served as an inspiration for our kids, and for us as coaches," Commins said.

Mount Healthy athletic director Tina Tuck said she made it clear to Colonel White athletic director Carolyn Woodley that Mount Healthy did not object to Martin playing in the game, which the Fighting Owls won 41-12.

"We went to their coaches ... At first they definitely were upset with us; I think they thought we had something to do with it," Tuck said. "Finally, the officials went over and cleared it up and said this was their call."

Tuck said a member of the officiating crew told her Colonel White needed a waiver from the Ohio High School Athletic Association in order for Martin to play.

"I didn't know about that, and neither did their AD," Tuck said.

She added that the Mount Healthy team knew about Martin.

"Our coach had prepared our team for him to play, just so they'd understand there was going to be someone out there who looked a little different," Tuck said. "We didn't want that kid not to play. We just think it's courageous that he's trying and we fully supported it."

Colonel White's Bobby Martin played in three games without incident before being removed from Friday's game with Mount Healthy.

Hank Zaborniak, an assistant OHSAA commissioner, said Tuesday night he had talked to two members of the officiating crew, and that they kept Martin out of the game because they were worried about his safety.

"They were concerned they would get into trouble for allowing somebody on the field who might get hurt," Zaborniak said. "They huddled on the field and elected to tell the coach Bobby can't play, that they need a waiver."

He said there would be no disciplinary action taken against the officiating crew.

"(The decision) was not intended to be harmful; it was done for the opposite reason," Zaborniak said. "To be honest with you, they didn't know what to do."

Dennis Daly, the officiating crew chief who lives in Cincinnati, would not comment on Tuesday and referred questions to Zaborniak.

Martin already had played in three games this season before last Friday's.

"It's the first time in my life I ever felt like that," he told the Dayton Daily News. "Everybody was looking at me, talking about what I didn't have. I felt like a clown. I hated it. I just wanted to know why it was different this game than all the rest."

Zaborniak e-mailed a letter on Monday morning to Colonel White that confirms Martin is eligible to play. An official himself for 31 years, Zaborniak said he had never encountered a situation like this one.

"We've had players who are blind, players who are deaf, players who play without an arm, players who play wearing a prosthesis ... in all those cases, the school needs to get ahold of (the OHSAA).

"But there's nothing in the rulebook that accounts for this."

Poker Babe: Jennifer Tilly

Jennifer Tilly poses for photos as she arrives to the "All In Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament," Feb. 22, 2005, in a Los Angeles file photo. Tilly has won her second major poker tournament, and confidence in her playing ability. (AP Photo/Rene Macura, File)

BETonSPORTS launches BOSPoker with the Tribeca Tables Poker Network

London, September 26th: Tribeca Tables Europe, Ltd, one of the market leaders of comprehensive ePoker solutions announced today that BETonSPORTS who have 9 Sports Book Brands has joined the Tribeca Tables Poker Network, the world's foremost e-poker aggregator.

Steve Cook from Tribeca Tables said, “Everyone at Tribeca is extremely pleased to be working with BETonSPORTS. BETonSPORTS are our first significant sports brand to join the network and bring a new dimension of players to the poker world. As you know there is a very close synergy between sport bettors and poker players that will truly add value to our aggregator.”

BoSPoker.com and Millpoker.com are the first of BETonSPORTS Brands to launch – Both are extremely excited to have re-launched this month with a new poker solution which will give their customers constant access to thousands of online poker players through the Tribeca Tables poker network. The team at BoSPoker.com and Millpoker.com are aggressively cross marketing this new poker solution to their huge customer base. BoSPoker.com recently signed Tom Arnold as national endorser who will appear in adverts on TV and radio, and feature in all off and online advertising. Millions of dollars are already committed to proactively acquire new customers and BETonSPORTS are confident that they will quickly build a substantial profit centre. This confirms BETonSPORTS commitment to provide the complete gaming destination for recreational players.

As the technology provider behind over 100 poker rooms including Paddy Power, Blue Square, Victor Chandler, Golden Palace and Doyles Room, BETonSPORTS assesses that Tribeca now has the "critical mass" to make participation desirable.

Chief Executive David Carruthers commented, “Player liquidity is crucial to the customers' online poker experience. Our deal with Tribeca will guarantee consistent liquidity and cement player loyalty to the BoSPoker brand.”

Poker and Casino are now established as standalone profit centres with greatly strengthened management teams and the BoSPoker Tribeca deal parallels the BoSCasino implementation of the RTG platform. Thanks to the experience of last year’s soft launch and with the marketing drive fully engaged as race car sponsorship rolls out alongside an integrated online, radio, press and billboard campaign, BoSPoker now has the cards.

About BETonSPORTS:

Established in 1995, BetonSports is one of the largest licensed and publicly-traded online wagering companies in the world. Operated by BetonSports plc (LSE: BSS.L - News), BetonSports is licensed in Europe and the Caribbean. The Group has offices in the UK, Antigua, Costa Rica, Malaysia, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Mexico employing more than two and a half thousand people. Gaming services include the world's most dynamic sportsbook, a casino and poker room at www.BOSPoker.com, www.BetonSports.com for more information. Millennium Sports, established in 1999, was BetonSports plc’s first major acquisition in 2004 and facilitates recreational sports gaming at www.betmill.com along with a casino and poker room at www.Millpoker.com. More information on the BetonSports group can be found at www.BoSplc.com

Contact: Clive Archer, Operations and Marketing Director. Email: carcher@betonsports.com. Tel: +506 234 4515

About Tribeca Tables Europe, Limited:

Tribeca Tables Europe, Limited, are registered in the Channel Island of Alderney. Tribeca are the world’s first and largest independent network of ePoker brands and committed to providing innovative and reliable software solutions to clients exclusively in the arena of ePoker.

Tribeca’s philosophy empowers brands and their customer relationships, establishing a true poker partnership. Significantly Tribeca offer unparalleled poker expertise and are not owner/operators unlike the majority of other poker networks, which they see as a conflict of interests. Their key strengths are 24/7 liquidity, customer support, fraud management, high profile retention programs, a real community environment and comprehensive poker room features.

Contact: Email: moreinfo@TribecaTables.com Web: www.TribecaTables.com

World Poker Showdown - Christmas in the Caribbean Poker Cruise 2005

Its official the WPS II Poker Cruise is set to sail from Dec 11 through Dec 17, 2005. For those who attended the WPS I poker cruise and had the time of there lives, Well WPS is at it again, and right in time for the Christmas. Imagine Sailing away on a Caribbean Poker Cruise during the month of December and coming home with a Christmas present so big that Santa can’t even match. So sign up now to this spectacular poker cruise and come ride the waves of the Caribbean with us for a chance to win thousands of dollars.

Poker and Russian Roulette

Some guys are just way to desperate and are willing to do anything just to see a girl strip. This is one of the funniest commercials I've seen in a while!

Click here to watch 'Poker-and-Russian-Roulette'

Results for Event #12 NO LIMIT HOLDEM Commerce Casino State Poker Tournament

Commerce Casino Tournament
Results for EVENT #  12 NO LIMIT HOLD'EM  
DATE  9-17-05     
Buy-in $291         S/C $9         Entry Fee $30       
ENTRIES  511        REBUYS  750                            

PRIZEPOOL $366,951
1st		PLACE		Felix Bernal-Pacoima, Ca			$124,765		50
2nd		PLACE		Harvey Goldson-LongBeach, Ca			$66,050		50
3rd		PLACE		An Tran-New York, Ny			$33,025		50
4th		PLACE		Ki Nam-Los Angeles, Ca			$22,015		50
5th		PLACE		Robert Firestone-SantaBarbara, Ca			$16,515		44
6th		PLACE		Kevin"TheSnake"Blakey-W. Covina, Ca			$12,845		40
7th		PLACE		Stuart Krasney-Tustin, Ca			$9,175		36
8th		PLACE		Hoang Ta-Westminster, Ca			$7,340		32
9th		PLACE		Norman Cruz-West Hills,Ca			$5,876		28
10th		PLACE		Byung Kim-Anaheim, Ca			$4,405		24
11th		PLACE		Lance Foshe-Torrance,Ca			$4,405		20
12th		PLACE		Fred Lavassani-Burbank,Ca			$4,405		16
13th		PLACE		Robert Jordan-Corona, Ca			$3,670		14
14th		PLACE		Alex Prendes Jr-Florida			$3,670		12
15th		PLACE		Nader Isahac-Sylmar, Ca			$3,670		10
16th		PLACE		Lifan Xu-Los Angeles, Ca			$2,935		8
17th		PLACE		Moshe Manzur-Tarzana, Ca			$2,935
18th		PLACE		Peter De Best-YorbaLinda, Ca			2568 *Tie
18th		PLACE		Eugene Resnick-HiddenHills, Ca			2567 *Tie
20th		PLACE		Lee Hoang-Midway City, Ca			$2,200
21st		PLACE		Stuart Brodlieb-LoosAngeles, Ca			$2,200
22nd		PLACE		Minh Vu- Longwood, Fl			$2,200
23rd		PLACE		John Lombard-Oceanside,Ca			$2,200
24th		PLACE		Sam Hu-Los Angeles, Ca			$2,200
25th		PLACE		Joe Everett-Northridge,Ca			$2108 *Tie
25th		PLACE		Raed Abukartomy-Anaheim,Ca			$2108 *Tie
25th		PLACE		SirousBaghchehsaraie-Long Beach, Ca			$2108 *Tie
25th		PLACE		Tony Hasrouni-Placentia,Ca			$2108 *Tie
29th		PLACE		Vicky Condos-Simi Valley,Ca			$1,835
30th		PLACE		James Ferrel-Phoenix, Az			$1,835
31st		PLACE		Rob Mason-Oak View,Ca			$1,835
32nd		PLACE		Jerry Durghalli-Burbank,Ca			$1,835
33rd		PLACE		Paul Dworkin-Studio City,Ca			$1,835
34th		PLACE		Tu anh Vu-Longwood, Fl			$1,835
35th		PLACE		Steven Chao-Irvine, Ca			$1,835
36th		PLACE		Tro Kechichian-Van Nuys,Ca			$1,835

And The Winner: Felix Bernal-Pacoima, Ca

"Tear down this wall!"

SPORTS BETTING: Guess where big bettors spend their money?

Boom in offshore sports books has made Las Vegas a smaller player in betting game

Every Sunday night, starting late in the summer and stretching into the winter, the opening act in one of Las Vegas' most dramatic plays belongs to Stardust sports book director Bob Scucci, who must know his lines by heart.

For decades, the man in charge at the Stardust has posted the first lines on NFL and college football games, allowing the biggest bettors around to take their best shots. The man adjusted, and the rest of the sports betting world followed his lead.

There was no understating the importance of the role. The man at the Stardust had to be solid, and Scucci has to be solid, too.

"It's a great amount of responsibility and it's not something that we ever take lightly. All the other books in Nevada look to our opening numbers, and there's a lot of money that gets bet on those lines," Scucci said.

The importance of that role has not diminished in Nevada, but a convincing case can be made that the betting world no longer revolves around Las Vegas.

A 10-year boom in offshore sports books has turned Las Vegas into a smaller player in the game, second in line to computers in Antigua, Costa Rica and other remote international outposts. The biggest bettors, looking for a better deal, have been leaving Las Vegas for islands in the Caribbean.

"Offshore betting has gotten so big, so expansive, that it's hard to ignore their existence," Scucci said. "Their popularity has grown so much it's really incredible. I think they were a blip on the radar 15 years ago, and today they are a major, major source of big money."

It was 1996, Scucci said, "when I started getting a lot of feedback from some of our big, sophisticated bettors, that gave me an indication that a lot of play was being driven elsewhere."

The numbers are impossible to ignore. Offshore sports books combined for an estimated handle of $76.6 billion in 2004, compared to a handle of $2.08 billion in Nevada. At least five offshore books alone took in more money in sports wagers last year than the entire state.

Nevada's handle, which was $2.48 billion in 1996, dropped to $1.86 billion in 2003. Almost half of that money is bet on football.

"I think the offshores made a huge impact in the early years, the mid-90s, because when our handle was increasing and making tremendous leaps year to year, you could tell where it leveled off," Las Vegas Hilton sports book director Jay Kornegay said. "It slowed us down for a little bit.

"I'm sure if you were to close down every Caribbean book, our business would go up."

What happens in Las Vegas is always important, but what happens when the Stardust posts the first lines Sunday night is second in significance to the moves made at books in Third World countries such as Costa Rica.

Jimmy Vaccaro, a Las Vegas bookmaker for almost 30 years, got an up-close look at the other side when he left town two years ago to run the Atlantis casino sports book in the Bahamas. He recently returned to be public relations director for Leroy's sports books.

"The offshore books still want to know where the Stardust opens the lines. They still want to know what we're doing, even though we're second," Vaccaro said. "It's not as significant as it once was, because the Stardust was the barometer on Sunday nights going back 20 years. That has changed immensely.

"We pay more attention to them than they do us. They are first, but they still want to know what's going on here."

• • •

When he moved from Canada to San Jose, Costa Rica, in 1995, Calvin Ayre had modest goals for Bodog.com. He settled into a one-room apartment and launched a sports book that was federally licensed by the local government.

"We were small back then. I can remember sitting down here and watching the first bet come in for $15," said Ayre, 44.

"I thought, `This is a good idea. I'll get to live in the tropics and when the dust all settles, I'll have a couple million dollars.' That's not even a good month for me anymore. Bodog has killed my expectations, turning into more than I ever even contemplated."

The projected sports book handle for Bodog this year is $1.2 billion. That figure does not include the casino and poker rooms, which will help push the projected handle to $6 billion.

Ayre said the company's marketing budget is $50 million, and he said Bodog has grown from having about 1,000 accounts the first two years to more than 30,000 accounts.

Bodog is not even one of the sports books that caters to major players. It is known as a book that courts squares, or novice bettors, and expects at least a 5 percent hold. The company fact sheet states its average sports book wager is $68.

"Our target market is recreational bettors, but that doesn't mean we expel the wise guys," Ayre said. "A big bet for us is maybe $10,000."

Books such as CRIS, Hollywood, Millennium, Olympic and Pinnacle, which offer higher limits and are estimated to double or triple Bodog's sports handle, are bigger-volume businesses that expect a smaller win percentage of 1 to 2 percent.

"We're doubling in size every year," Ayre said. "On the growth curve we are at right now, we will by ourselves be bigger than the state of Nevada in sports betting."

Nevada sports books are more strictly regulated than the offshore industry, where anything goes and every type of wager is offered. Bodog can post proposition bets on United States presidential races, reality TV shows and celebrity trials, for example.

"I actually think regulation is bad. An unregulated market creates competition at its highest levels, which means innovation, which is a good thing for the players," Ayre said.

"I don't think the Las Vegas books are really significant to us anymore. I know we don't look at them, but I suspect they pay a lot of attention to us."

There was more of a risk betting offshore in the mid-to-late 1990s, as several books disappeared and left people empty handed. Ayre said the "rip-off joints" have been snuffed out by the most powerful companies.

"People know they're going to get paid," he said, "and they don't give that a second thought anymore."

• • •

By most accounts, offshore sports books started surfacing in the early 1990s. The earlier operations in the late 1980s used phone lines, and bettors in the states called 800 numbers to places like the Dominican Republic, where wise guys in the United States who ran underground books set up shop to avoid law enforcement.

There were a number of ways to circumvent the laws three decades ago, and one was for a bettor in California or New York to set up a phone line in Las Vegas and forward calls to casinos.

"The guys who operated here for years and years, they got tired of getting pinched and went over there," Vaccaro said.

The Internet changed everything, and there remains a gray area in the legality of online gambling. It is technically illegal in the United States under the federal Wire Act, a 1961 law regulating gambling over telephone wires.

Still, many do it. An estimated 2 million people gamble over the Internet every day, and at least 70 percent live in the United States.

According to Christiansen Capital Advisors, a U.S.-based gambling industry consulting and research firm, offshore sports book revenue was estimated at $3.44 billion in 2004. Total online gambling revenue, including casino games and poker, pushes that number over $10 billion.

"That's revenue, not handle, and that's what's scary," MGM Mirage sports book director Robert Walker said. "It's hard to believe, when you see those figures, they would let that money go out of the U.S.

"Those numbers are staggering, and I can't believe the U.S. government can see those kind of figures. Why make criminals out of honest people?"

Why not regulate and tax online gambling? That question is being asked, but when could it become reality and what effect would it have on offshore business?

"It would be disastrous for the international online industry. It would be the worst thing that could happen," said Ayre, who predicts he will be retired and relaxing on a beach when that happens. "I think it's 20 years out."

Vaccaro said the "offshore is here to stay" because those books can offer credit, unlike Nevada, and legalized online gambling would only slow down offshore growth.

"I think the Caribbean would be gone tomorrow," Walker said. "I still think people would rather bet with the MGM Mirage than offshore. Would I like to book to everyone in the U.S.? The answer would be a resounding yes."

Scucci said he would like to see politicians use sports betting in a positive way instead of attempting to suffocate its growth.

"I think we have an unfair stigma attached to sports betting among certain lawmakers around the country," Scucci said. "It would be no different than opening up an e-trade account online.

"The fact that online betting is there and is so pervasive is an indication of how popular it is, and I would love to see it legalized and regulated in a way that Nevada does such a great job regulating over-the-counter sports betting. It may be a case of wishful thinking."

• • •

Las Vegas sports book directors are afraid to take a big bet. At least that is the criticism most often heard from the wise guys. In the old days, they say, the best bookmakers would gamble with anyone.

"The days of true oddsmakers are gone. There aren't many guys in town like that anymore," said Glen Walker, a consultant to Intertops.com, a major sports book on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

"Offshore is where the big bets are made now. From the bettors' point of view, offshore books are the best thing that could have ever happened. It's a great alternative to illegal bookmakers."

Walker is a well-known character from Las Vegas' past. He was a member of the Computer Group -- a collection of sports bettors that included Michael Kent, Dr. Ivan Mindlin and Bill Walters, among others -- who beat the books out of several millions of dollars from 1983 to 1985.

Kent was a mathematician who developed a computer program that predicted outcomes of college games and, according to Walker, "was laying golden eggs."

Vaccaro was sports book director at the Barbary Coast when the Computer Group hit Las Vegas.

"I was there for the first crush of the computer wave," Vaccaro said. "We found out that smart people can beat you on a regular basis. I believe it made Vegas smarter quicker, because if you were dumber slower, you were out of business. These people knew exactly what they were doing.

"It changed the face of sports betting, without a doubt. It changed it to make people smarter, but it also encouraged more people to bet. It brought sports betting to a more visible level."

Walters is still one of the biggest and most feared sports bettors in Las Vegas. He declined to speak on the record but offered an unflattering review of how casinos operate sports books today.

He did compliment Vaccaro, who ran The Mirage sports book in the 1990s and said he always welcomed Walters' action.

"Billy was a customer at every casino where I worked. All Billy asked for was to be treated like everybody else. If we give him a limit, he'll bet the limit. He won't try to sneak in on you until you double-cross him. I've always had a good relationship with him and all the big players," Vaccaro said.

"We had sort of like a uniform code -- these are the rules and if you play by the rules, you're welcome to play here. I as a bookmaker wanted him to play with me.

"I would rather have the big players in front of me as opposed to behind me. The unwritten law we had, they would never screw with me and I would never screw with them."

• • •

Before posting his lines, Scucci crunches numbers with two of his assistants and relies on three outside sources, including Las Vegas Sports Consultants oddsmaker Ken White. Sometimes the Stardust lines go up first, and sometimes offshore books are already open for business.

"It's scary when you first put them up because you don't know where you're going to get hit," Scucci said. "You might do a great job and put up solid lines on 98 games, but get pounded on two games."

The Stardust limits are $10,000 for NFL sides and up to $5,000 on college sides. The Mirage offers $50,000 on the NFL.

Betting limits vary at Las Vegas books and, in reality, they are only guidelines. Limits are extended for some bettors, especially casino players at Strip hotels.

Some bettors complain if they can't get free drinks, but the big players are more concerned with betting limits.

"I think that's the most unfair criticism that the books have here," Scucci said. "First of all, if you ask 97 percent of the betting public if they've been able to get down what they want, I guarantee you they would all say, `Yes, no problem.'

"If they want to come in and bet $50,000, they're going to have a hard time doing it, and we end up getting the bad rap because of that. But that's more of the exception than the norm. If you look at Caesars or Mirage, a lot of big places, six-figure bets are no problem at all."

Nevada sports books reported total revenues of $112.5 million in 2004, which was just 1.1 percent of the state's total casino win, according to the Gaming Control Board.

Sports books are minor but necessary amenities in the hotels, and that's part of the reason casino executives don't blink if the big-money sports bettors are going offshore.

"The sports books in Las Vegas are part of the entire resort destination. It's a small part of the overall operation and we want people to come to town and enjoy the entire gambling experience," Scucci said. "We're not targeting just that sophisticated bettor who's trying to make a living betting sports.

"These guys are the sharpest in the world and typically they're going to hit over the 54 percent required to have a winning year. So if they're shifting all that money somewhere else, that's not going to really hurt us.

"It's self-serving for them because they're looking to make their living at it. Anything that hinders them from doing that, they're going to be very critical, and they've been an outspoken minority in the industry."

Vaccaro said more Las Vegas books should welcome big players and use strategies such as minus-105 vigorish -- the standard is minus-110 -- to encourage more business.

"The closest thing to an offshore book right now in Nevada is Coast resorts," Vaccaro said. "They get the volume ... and it works."

According to Sportsbook Review, there are more than 400 online books, and the dynamic growth offshore, Kornegay said, forced Las Vegas to "not rest on our laurels and think that we're invincible."

But he said Las Vegas must compete in ways other than setting sky-high betting limits for wise guys.

"We've been around for many, many years and we've learned to limit our plays and not say, `Hey, welcome everybody.' When we had to scale down limits in Nevada, the offshores were basically taking everything.

"I said this five years ago, they will learn that you can't take everybody, because there are some really smart, organized players out there who in the long run will beat you," Kornegay said.

"They are going to soon become more corporate just like we have been over the last two decades. We all know the offshores took some business away, but we're on the rise again."

source

The Star City Celebpoker.com Grand Prix

The Star City Celebpoker.com Grand Prix

190 players, £100,000 guaranteed first prize results

They came from across the globe, all chasing the big pot. Online qualifiers a-plenty, from as far as the US, Sweden and France. Some had bought in for as little as $4.00. Others had played the network of satellites across the network of Stanley casinos in England and Scotland.

Showgirls paraded their feathers in the Vegas-style atmosphere. The red carpet was rolled out to receive the galaxy of stars. The poker-loving public joined the celebrities, everyone wanted to be a winner but dreams are made and broken in star city.

There was also a host of top pro players including:

• Simon “Aces” Trumper


• Surrinder Surinam


• Willie Tann


• Bambos Charambolous


• Julian Thew

 

In addition there was a host of top celebrity players from Hollywood to the green baize of snooker!

Lou “Diamond” Phillips, star of La Bamba and Young Guns

• Ryder Cup winning captain, Sam Torrance


• 7 time world snooker champion Stephen Hendry


• Peoples champion, Jimmy White


• Former Eastender Michael Greco, fresh from his second place finish in Portugal


• World snooker champion Mark Williams


• Former England cricketer Ed Giddins


• Scott Robinson, part of the biggest boyband in the World 5IVE, currently starring in Boogie Nights2

190 players sat down. Play was fierce and combative. Aggression showed, nerves were fraught.

Bad beats rippled around the casino, did that really just happen to me! Pocket kings being taken out by a royal flush.

Jimmy White, Simon Trumper and Surrinder were among the early fallers.

Next out was Scott Robinson- why did he slow play the pocket rockets?

No big place finish for Bambos. Michael Greco “I just didn’t get the cards” followed soon after. The numbers were crashing the tension was growing. Next out was “The Real Deal” Mark Williams. Then in a flash his great friend Stephen Hendry was gone. Were any of the celebrities going to make day 2?

By 1am we were down to 60 players. 3 celebrities remained. Tournament Director, Thomas Kremzer called final hand of day 1 at 1.55am, Lou “Diamond” Phillips has pocket 8’s and calls all-in, trying to double up for day 2. He gets called with pocket 10’s and bang – he’s gone, back across the Pond.

Day 2

Only 2 celebrities remained, Ed Giddins and Sam Torrance, part of the 45 players remaining for day 2.

 

Play re-commenced at 4pm, by 4.30 we are down to 33 players and Sam Torrance has double-bogeyed and missed the cut!

Ed Giddins is the only Celebpoker.com celebrity player left, very much short stacked but playing a tight game with patience his only friend.

Miraculously it’s 9.30pm and we’re down to the final 9.

• Dan Brown 475,000


• Martin Green 422,000


• Julian Thew 267,000


• George Geary 187,000


• Alastair Findlay 158,000


• Aaron Routt 126,000


• Sean Sharam 82,000


• Ed Giddins 67,500


• Barry Neville 40,000

Who would make the final 6, the main televised event and win the guaranteed £100,000 first prize? Would it be satellite qualifier Dan Brown, online qualifier Martin Green from Brighton or former cricketer Ed Giddins from Eastbourne?

• The final 6


• Martin Green 753400


• Daniel Brown 453800


• Julian Thew 266000


• George Geary 161810


• Alistair Findlay 159800


• Ed Giddins 34700

Not unsurprisingly Ed Giddins was the first to leave the televised table. Ed had A8 offsuit and called all-in. Martin Green called, then Alistair Findlay came over the top with an all-in raise. Martin folded. Alistair had pocket cowboys, which held up, Ed was gone.

Next out and 5 th place finisher was Daniel Brown who lost to Martin Green.

Next big action was between Julian Thew who pushed all-in with Queen 5. Martin Green called with Ace King again this held up.

Julian Thew finished in 4 th and collected £7,200.

The action was now coming thick and fast. Alistair Findlay pushing all-in with Ace 6. Martin Green called with Ace 9. Nothing came on the board and Alistair was 3 rd place finisher and collected £14,400.

Heads up action and Martin Green is massive chip leader with 1,700,000 chips against George Geary’s 161,000.

There followed prolonged sparring and chips moved across the board at a fantastic pace. George doubled up twice with 2 fantastic river cards. Martin scratched his head, what did he have to do to beat this guy?

An hour of heads-up and the chips are level – it really is wide open. The tension is electric.

Two hours later, heads-up action has never been so tense, and Martin loses out with his straight to George’s flush draw on the river. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Martin is now down to 60,000 chips and George is holding the huge stack.

Martin is forced to go all-in time after time. Eventually George wins with 2 pairs to Martin’s pair. What a win. If ever there was an example of how to play heads up, George has shown the way.

Martin wins £28,800 and George the massive first prize of £100,000.

Watch www.celebpoker.com for further details of when this fantastic play will be aired.

www.celebpoker.com where you too can win through and play the stars.

source

The Rooster and Charity Wednesday

New York City is a pedestrian city. While walking around you most likely will encounter a "bump into." That's just local slang for, "Guess who I bumped into today?"

The more random the person, the more weirder or uncomfortable the situation. Like that one night stand you had with that woman from accoutning after too many happy hour Margaritas. Or some guy you went to high school with, whose name you forgot. Sometimes it's a welcomed bump into and you happen to randomly see someone you haven't seen or talked to in a while. The longer you lived in New York, the more likely you will see casually someone from your past. Sometimes you can bump into a celebrity. Or an old classmate. Or a former co-worker. Or an old teacher. Or some old guy that smelled like radishes that used to live in your apartment building. Thes bump ins can happen any time or any place. In the bathroom of a Knicks game. Crossing the street in the Village. On an uptown subway. Sitting on a bench in Central Park. In line at the Angelika movie theatre. At a hipster bar in SoHo. It's like having an acid flashback without the acid.

The more time you wander around outside, the better the chance you will bump into someone you know. In the mid 1990s, when we went out bar hopping looking for drunk Jewish chicks to dry hump, my buddy Senor and I used to make prop bets on which one of us will bump into someone we knew. I usually won since I lived in the city most of my life. One night we bumped into one of his friends Igor. Yes, Senor knew a guy named Igor who was drunk and eating falafel at 3am near Washington Square Park.

One of my most embarrassing bump into involved me and my buddy Gitty. This was back when he was in law school and I was just starting out as a writer, which meant I was perpetually unemployed living in Brooklyn with all the other tortured souls. We were getting drunk all afternoon at a bar when we decided to check out one of the local porn shops near Penn Station. On our way out of one of the XXX video stores, we bumped into a some girl we went to college with. Her name was Laura and she was working for a financial start up company. She was getting off of work and heading to the subway. And there we were... drunk as a skunk and holding a bag with freshly purchased porn. Gitty liked German bondage films. I preferred the Girl Next Door Cherry Poppers stuff. We all know Laura went home and emailed all her friends and sorority sisters from school, "Pauly and Gitty were buying porn and I busted them."

One of the most satisfying acts of revenge happened to be bumping into an old girlfriend (let's call her Sabine) with someone I just started dating (let's call her Betty), who incidentally was a hundred times cooler, better looking, and had a much higher tolerance for my vices such as gambling and the occasional foray into alco-narco substances. The current flame embodied everything the old flame detested. And the old flame dumped my ass hard and fast without any semblance of remorse. You should have seen the blood flush out of her face when I introduced the two.

"Pauly's told me so much about you," Betty said as she smiled and graciously shook the old flame's limp hand.

Women understand each other better than guys. That was code for, "Yeah, the good old doctor told me how you were an ultra-psycho cunt and were awful in bed. It's gonna take me at least one more year to get his head unscrewed from the damage both you and his mother inflicted upon him."

The old flame, Sabine, mustered up some courage and said, "Good luck."

That was code for, "Just wait until that asshole cheats on you, steals all your prescription pills, and sells your pubic hair on the internet for $35. Then who's gonna be smiling? You blonde bitch!"

So wait, where is this all going?

Today I decided to walk from Times Square to Grand Central Station. It takes about ten minutes and I sauntered past the crowd filled with office workers on their lunch hour and tourists. Along the way, I purchased some Euros from my bank and refused to accept the 50 Eruo bills he had counted out for me. Fifty dollar bills are bad luck and I'm not taking my chances with Euros. He grabbed me twenties and tens and I had a nice Eruo roll that could choke an ostrich.

So I'm reaching Grand Central Station, on my way to meet my lovely assistant Jessica for lunch, when all of a sudden I heard, "Hey Pauly!"

I looked over and there's the Rooster! Yeah, Joaquin himself was standing there. He was rushing to the West Side to meet a friend for lunch, while I was truckin' over to the East Side to do the same.

He wanted to know if I was going to play in one of the card rooms in Chinatown. Supposedly the owners think I'm sort of celebrity and offered me a free roll into one of their tournaments. I respectfully declined. I'm supposed to play in a freeroll for the WCOOP on Poker Stars Thursday afternoon and with the new season of The OC on at night, I was all booked up.

So after I said good-bye to Joaquin, I called my brother and said, "Guess who I just bumped into?"

more info

He's Gone... Snail Trax Fades Away

The bad beat jackpot on Party Poker was hit during my Lamont Jordan Fantasy Football League draft. Bastards! I play in a pretty competitive fantasy league with 14 teams. $2200 goes to first place. The guys who play are mostly from Long Island. They all grew up with Jay Fielder and went to high school with him. Anyway, I had the second pick and went with Shaun Alexander. I feel lukewarm about my draft. I felt that I could have done a much better job. But picking players is like picking stocks. Somedays things go so awry, that you're better off betting on whether a monkey could fuck a football.

I've been in the writing zone. It usually takes me at least a day sometimes two to write a freelance article. On Monday, I wrote two back to back. I was on fire and today I cranked out more stuff. I kinda wish I didn't have to go travel because these writing rushes don't come along too frequently. It's like poker. You never know when they are going to come, but as soon as you think you're about to go on a rush, you have to do everything possible to maximize your potential during those rushes. Hence, right now. I'm gonna throw up a half assed post so I get get back to writing.

Since I got back home to NYC after living at the Redneck Riviera for almost three months, I've taken a hit in my online bankroll. I've been doing extremely well in live cash games and tournaments, but online has been a disaster. I cannot recall ever suffering from so many brutal beats. It's happening on different sites. Party Poker. Full Tilt. Noble Poker. Inside of five days, I lost a buy-in at a limit table three times. That's never happened to me before. It's one thing to lose a lot of hands when you are a clear favorite. I didn't receive an extraordinary amount of bad beats. It's just that the four or five most brutal beats were in some of the biggest pots. I didn't flip out or anything. I only went on moderate tilt once. The rest of the times, I lost my buy in, so I couldn't go on tilt. That's part of my stop-loss strategy. If I lose a buy-in, I leave. Pretty simple. In my hit and run days, I try to win half my buy in and then leave the table.

The bad beats are something that will always happen. So I sucked it up and kept playing. I won a little bit of that money back, but we'll see how much I can recover before I hit the road.

Moving on...

Daddy said he was going to pull the plug on his blog Snailtrax, or Snailshit as his old man refers to it. I had just one word for Daddy... Pussy!

It's a shame. He has one of the most unique voices I've come across. The blogging community lost a powerful personality. Whale pussy burritos. Deep fat fried bacon-wrapped butter sticks. Donkey fuckers. Molestation by old men over tree stumps. Damn, I'm gonna miss Daddy.

In homage to Daddy, you must read Three State Bender Part I: Donkey Fuckers and Hill Jack Boys. It's about hanging out with Daddy in Indiana this past May and my quest to learn more about the subtle art of donkey fucking. That might have been one of my favorite trip reports. Ever.

You know what, I pretty fuckin' sad today. I've only felt this atrocious feeling in my stomach a few times.... on 9.11, when Patrick Ewing got traded, when Jerry Garcia died, and when my ex-girlfriend died in a car accident.

Daddy not blogging is like watching Seinfeld without Kramer.

Daddy not blogging is like eating fat-free ice cream.

Daddy not blogging is like drinking O'Douls.

Daddy not blogging is like having sex with a dead cat that's not really dead.

I might have to start calling Daddy the Trey of Poker Bloggers. If you don't know a lot of Phish conspiracy theorists think that the lead singer and guitar player, Trey, sabotaged Phish and is the reason why my favorite band broke up. Now half of these people have been spun out on ecstasy since the Bush Junta took control, and the other half of those neo-hippies adored Phish in a fanatical and cultish way. When you take away something that's sounds so fuckin' good and is truly one of the few cool things out there... well people are going to be pissed and freak out. Now, I know why Phish broke up. It's hard to do something for twenty years and not being able to evolve as artists. Their lives were changing. Their needs were changing. Their art was stagnant. Something had to give.

Life is about cycles. And those cycles represent change. So if Daddy needs to change so be it. But I'm going to miss that donkey fucker. I don't know about you, but this is one of the saddest days in bloggerdom in a very long time.

He's gone, gone, nothin's gonna bring him back.

source

New Orleans Memories and Katrina Relief Tournaments

New Orleans Memories and Katrina Relief Tournaments


Sometimes you feel so fuckin' helpless and ashamed. To combat those dreadful feelings that have been lingering around inside my head the last few days as I soak in every desperate bit of footage from New Orleans, I decided to donate 10% of my September bankroll earnings to some organizations that will best help one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. Since I'm not that good of a poker player and I'm already down this month, I'm also donating 90% of my September affiliate revenues to Hurricane Katrina relief as well. In the past, I have donated all of May affiliate revenues towards the blogger get together in Las Vegas. I bought everyone drinks and party favors all weekend long. That was worth every penny I spent, however the money I donate this time will go towards a just cause that will help boost my soiled karma out of the gutter.

There are at least 5 ways you can help out and give aid to Hurricane Katrina victims. Full Tilt is having one special tournament tonight and Poker Stars is having four in the upcoming weeks thanks to Wil. Here are the details:

Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Friday Sept. 2nd at 9:15pm ET
How Much: $20 + $10

Note: Full Tilt will match your $10 entry fee and that will be donated to the Red Cross' Hurricane Relief Fund. (Editor's Note: As of Noon on Friday, Howard Lederer will be playing in tonight's event. More pros are expected to appear.)

Where: Poker Stars
When: Monday Sept. 12 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $5

Where: Poker Stars
When: Wednesday Sept. 14 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $20

Where: Poker Stars
When: Thursday Sept. 15 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $50

Where: Poker Stars
When: Friday Sept. 16 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $100

Note: Poker Stars is only adding one cent per player to the prize pool and the remainder of the money collected will go to the American Red Cross. For more information visit Poker Stars blog.

So you have five chances to doing something good. I signed up for the Full Tilt event tonight and I signed up for the first two Poker Stars ones. I will not be able to play in either of the Poker Stars events since I'll be on holiday in Amsterdam. I will be posting and folding, soo feel free to raise my blinds if you are at my table. I'm hoping that I'll be able to play in the one of Sept. 15th or on Sept. 16th. I'll be in Spain by then and if I can get internet access, I'll play.

Moving on...

A lot of my favorite bloggers have been posting New Orleans memories. Unfortunately, my three best New Orleans stories are too incriminating for me to blog. You'll have to sit down and by me a beer to hear one of my many psychedelic Big Easy tales. Seriously, it's better I don't talk about some of the things that went down there. My attorney advised me to issue only this comment which is the same thing I said to the police interrogator: "She told me she was 19 years old."

However...

I spent a lot of time in New Orleans when I was in college. Too much time. Atlanta was Jan compared to New Orleans and Marcia. I attended Mardi Gras every year during college. I also went again in 2000 and it was as wild as ever. I've soaked up Jazz Fest four times too. Some of the best music and some of the biggest episodes of my own personal debauchery occurred on the streets of New Orleans. I'm devastated to think that there might never be another Mardi Gras or Jazzfest, at least not any time soon.

I saw one of my favorite bands, Galactic (a local New Orleans groove/funk band), play one of the best live shows I've ever seen in my life at Tipitina's in December of 2000. It definitely makes my top 10 list of greatest concerts that I've ever attended. Daddy can attest to how powerful a band like Galactic can be on any given night. I've seen them play all over the country and you know what? They bring New Orleans right to you, whether it was in New York City or Vail, Colorado, their shows are like a N'arlins party. Plus Tipitina's is a historical place for music. It's like Yankee Stadium or Lambeau Field.

I've seen almost every one of my favorite bands (with the exception of the Grateful Dead) in New Orleans. I've seen The Allman Brothers Band, Phish, Galactic, Widespread Panic, Garage-a-Trois, Oysterhead, Medeski Martin & Wood, String Cheese, Karl Denson, Charlie Hunter, Soulive, Rebirth, Ani DiFranco, Phil Lesh and Friends, the Funky Meters, the Radiators, and Santana. I even saw James Taylor put on a horrible show at Jazzfest one year.

Here's what some New Orleans musicians had to say about the hurricane, including a few words from the bass player from Galactic.

Flashback time.

The first time I was in New Orleans, I was an 18 year old frat boy. I showed up with $98, a Hawaiian shirt, and three condoms. I also wore my oldest pair of jeans that were ripped to shreds and an old pair of sneakers. Doolan, who was a Senior in my fraternity and veteran Mardi Gras attendee suggested that I bring clothes that I'm going to leave behind. He was right. I left three days later with just three dollars in loose change, no socks, with a ring of beads around my sore neck that a Haitian lady gave me for sucking on her left nipple while her boyfriend watched and took pictures, and most sadly, I only used up one of the condoms during an unimpressive two and a half minute romp in an alley off of Chartes Street with a really, really, really intoxicated sorority girl from my college.

Man that was fourteen years ago. Right now there's a soccer mom living in Georgia thinking, "I can't believe that fucker Dr. Pauly blogged about that! And it was more like thirty seconds, y'all. That was the worst sympathy fuck of my life."

At least I got off.

I have so many stories about New Orleans that I don't know where to begin. I guess I'll save those for another time. But for now all joking aside, there are a lot of people suffering in New Orleans and in the surrounding areas. Here's an opportunity for you to do some decent with your bankroll.

I encourage everyone to do something to helpout.

****** ******

Here's a link to the Wall Street Journal's live NOLA blog.

source