Now it's Yahoo! poker on the cards

Now it's Yahoo! poker on the cards Search engine giant Yahoo! has started development for a real-money poker site, which it hopes to launch on its UK and Ireland portals before the end of the year. It has already announced plans for a joint venture betting exchange with Betfair, and it is believed the firm is eager to exploit the rapidly expanding egaming market in the UK. Yahoo! has been in discussion with several poker software firms over sub-licensing software, but it is believed to be keen to develop the poker room in-house. The firm currently offers play-for-fun poker as part of its skill gaming channel, but this would be its first move into real-money poker. And with a 40% market share of internet traffic in the UK it could be a powerful competitor to existing poker rooms. Yahoo’s UK office is keen to press ahead with the poker room, but the final decision rests with Yahoo’s board in the US, which is still thought to be reluctant to be to heavily linked to the gambling industry. It is also worried about jeopardising its position as a leader in the skill gaming market, which is legal in most US states. Yahoo is already one of the most popular gaming destinations on the internet, thanks to deals with skill gaming firms Midas Player and Worldwinner.

The game's afoot with high-end poker tables

The game's afoot with high-end poker tables By Paul Whitefield Los Angeles Times In simpler times, everyone had a card table. It had myriad uses: It became a bridge table when Bill and Edna came over on Wednesday nights, the kids' table at festive gatherings, the crafts table at Scout meetings, and, on special occasions, the gift table. People make millions playing poker now, and millions watch them on TV. We envy the sunglasses, those piles of chips -- and that cool poker table. You want one, and furniture makers are listening. What they're hearing, though, is that style is as important as function. Game tables also must be stylish, able to blend with upscale furnishings, or convert from game table to regular table. And, as befits an era of entertainment centers with $10,000 plasma TVs and Surround Sound, many of the offerings are priced to match. Fedde Furniture in Pasadena, Calif., for example, carries large game tables by Maitland-Smith in the $3,000 to $5,000 price range, with matching chairs at about $500 each. Smaller tables are closer to $2,000. As manager Melinda Kinney explained, Maitland-Smith, based in High Point, N.C., makes collector-quality pieces. Customers who have spent thousands on a room for entertaining want furniture of equal quality, and price is not a factor, she said. For people seeking quality and function but who also must weigh price, I.M. David Furniture offers tables for about $1,000, with matching chairs for about $500. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that 65 companies planned to show game tables at a trade show in 2004 in North Carolina, compared with just seven in 2000. Looking for a high-quality reproduction of an 18th-century English game table? San Francisco's Burton-Ching Ltd., founded in 1995, specializes in heirloom-quality furniture built exactly like the originals. Although the company's pieces cost less than the actual antiques, they're not aimed at the casual customer. For example, a George II walnut folding game table, 36 inches by 36 inches, retails for $6,600, and a similar-sized George III octagon-shaped mahogany table runs $7,650. Like to shop online? Stine Game Tables, at www.stine gametables.com, invites you to build your own table, choosing wood, felt color, accents and pedestal style. Its tables are about $3,800. Of course, if you have champagne tastes on a beer budget, there are alternatives. Costco, for example, carries a game table that includes craps, blackjack, roulette and chess, but converts into a desk or end table, for $279.99. It also offers a rosewood pedestal poker table for eight players, at $479.99. And Bombay Co. recently had the Monaco card table and the Newcastle game table marked down to $99.

Poker players place bets in Park City

Poker players place bets in Park City Kim Hynes KWCH 12 Eyewitness News There's no money on the line, at least not yet. But amateur poker players take their game seriously. Over two thousand players placed bets in Park City Saturday. Players have to make it to the top 100 to qualify for the championship. Many were knocked out early, because they took a gamble and "went all in". But that doesn't mean they're totally out. Players have six more chance to make the championship. But one amateur says even if he doesn't make it that far, the tournament isn't a total flop. He says it's a lot of fun and worth participating in. The tournament continues Sunday at the Kansas Coliseum. After this weekend, other qualifying rounds are February 19-20, March 19-20, and April 16th. The top 1100 players will compete April 17th for a seat at the World Poker Tournament in Las Vegas. Players don't pay anything to play but are encouraged to make a donation to Park City Pride. The money raised will go to build a skateboard park in Park City.

The Latest: All in for poker

Students experience big losses and big gains playing the hottest card game in town by Kristi Eaton It's Tuesday night, and the only thing standing between accounting sophomore Ross Meyer and $50 are the five cards in his hands. Meyer and four of his friends are huddled around a table. As each of them listens to his iPod, they stare each other down until one of them succumbs to the pressure and folds. They are playing poker, now the hottest game in Hollywood and dorm rooms across the country. The variety and popularity of poker and gambling shows on television is inarguable. There's the "World Series of Poker" on ESPN, the "Celebrity Poker Showdown" on Bravo and "The World Poker Tour" on the Travel Channel. And that's excluding fiction-based programs such as ESPN's "Tilt" and NBC's "Las Vegas," which is in its second season. Meyer says he began playing in September after watching one of his friends win $250. Now, he can hardly tear himself away. He says he gets together with his friends to play at least once a week. "See that hand?" Meyer asks during Tuesday night's game. "That hand just cost me five bucks." Meyer says he also plays online poker, a practice many students do during work and class. Meyer plays online so much that he has become an affiliate of a Web site for international gambling called The Online Gaming Industry. Meyer says like all poker players, he has had his fair share of wins and losses. "The most I've won in a single day is $300, but I've also lost $100 in one day," he says as he throws his cards down on the table, revealing a pair of kings. But gambling can become a serious addiction, says Renee Siegel, clinical director of ABC Wellness, a treatment center for gambling addiction in Scottsdale. "(It) is more common than most people realize," says Siegel, who has treated more than 1,000 patients for gambling addiction. She says most people don't take the addiction seriously until it gets out of control. Addiction symptoms include taking time off from work or school to gamble, losing a large amount of money in a game or committing crimes to get more money with which to gamble. Siegel says the effects of gambling become apparent far more quickly than other addictions. "What takes alcohol and drug addicts 10 to 20 years to do, it takes one and a half to three years for gambling addicts," she says. Meyer says he realizes the addictive nature of gambling. "I think it can become addicting," he says as he twirls a chip back and forth between his fingers. "But you just have to watch yourself." Accounting sophomore Dan Massey feels a little more strongly about the ease at which gambling can take over someone's life. Massey says he spent countless hours gambling online during winter. At one point he was up $600, but he lost it all within five hours. "Online gambling is very easy to become addicted to," Massey says. He adds that he and others often don't realize they are playing with real money. "It doesn't hit you that you've lost all this money until afterwards," he says. Massey says he eventually won back the $600 and more after he placed first in an eight-hour, 14-person game. The prize was $1,000. Massey says he was attracted to the game after he saw "Rounders," a 1998 film starring Matt Damon as a former gambler who returns to his old ways to help his friend pay off loan sharks. While the film was not a big hit at the box office, it has a loyal legion of followers. "(It) is the best movie," Massey says. "If you ask any gambler, they will tell you that that movie had an affect on them." Business freshman Brandon Brefczynski says his reason for gambling is plain and simple. "I like to make money off my friends," he says.

Poker with World Series winner Chris Moneymaker not your average game

Poker with World Series winner Chris Moneymaker not your average game Jake Coyle Canadian Press NEW YORK (AP) - Playing poker with Chris Moneymaker, the accountant who came out of nowhere to win the 2003 World Series of Poker, is a bit like shooting hoops with Michael Jordan - though lady luck can even the odds slightly. But Moneymaker (yes, that's his real name) is many things not seen on the frequent ESPN replays of his historic Vegas run. For starters, he doesn't even wear those trademark Oakley sunglasses. "I use them only for the big games," he says, pulling up the table. This isn't a big game?! "Well, I'm not going to say that. Big money games, where I might get nervous. I haven't worn glasses in a while. They're more bothersome to me, actually, 'cause you have to take them on and off." Well, our game was admittedly not big money. It was for, ahem, no money. But the stakes were still very real for the eight players (amateurs but competitive, including myself) The Associated Press brought together on a recent weekday evening to compete against one of poker's biggest names. The game of Texas Hold 'Em was played at a Manhattan poker club, an apparently cleanly run (though unadvertised and technically illegal) parlour of about ten green felt poker tables. It packs in a crowd of mostly 20-something guys on a nightly basis, many of whom caught the poker bug from the much televised hold 'em games. But they are far from alone in today's full-fledged poker boom. In 2003, the sport (if you can call it that) became a surprise hit for ESPN, which recently released a DVD of their eight hours of World Series coverage. On it, you can again watch Moneymaker's unlikely rise to the final table, where he ended the tournament (and won $2.5 million US) with a full house, two hands after a dramatic bluff against vet Sammy Farha. That particular hand, where Moneymaker bluffed his way to win over $6 million in chips with just king high, deserves a spot in poker lore. That's a place Moneymaker already resides in, having ascended to the pinnacle of the game in his first tournament. But the average guy in the baseball cap has indeed changed. For nine months following his big win, Moneymaker, 28, remained an accountant, but as the poker boom grew, he realized the financial prospects at his door. Now with an agent, the Tennessee native has a video game due for this spring, an autobiography in the works and is in talks for a made-for-TV movie. And here he was playing a no-money game looking like a grownup frat boy. In Texas Hold 'Em poker, everyone is dealt two cards face down. After a round of betting, the dealer lays down three community cards called "the flop." Another round of betting is followed by one more community card called "the turn" or "fourth street." More betting, then the final card, "the river," is shown. The player who can make the best hand out of their two cards and those on the table wins. But aggressive raises, safe folds and daring bluffs make having the cards to win only half of the battle.