I won 900K in my first poker game

I won 900K in my first poker game Shame it was only imaginary cash By Brian Mciver For Daily Record IT'S more famous for golf, but in the last two days St Andrews has played host to Britain's biggest poker tournament. The UK Student Poker Championships saw 260 players compete for £9000 in one of the country's fastest growing sports. We sent BRIAN McIVER to play a few hands. NEVER having played poker before, I always associated it with smoky back rooms in western saloons. These days, however, it is a very lucrative sport, where the best can make millions just by playing on the internet. I enlisted the help of Christian Harris, the organiser of the Student Championships this weekend, to show me what all the fuss was about. We started on Texas Hold 'Em, with every player getting £180,000 in chips and our first hand of two cards. After we all made our initial bet, the dealer started talking about seeing the 'flop' - the technical term for the first three communal cards he deals, or flops, on the table. You add the value or merits of the three flop cards to your hand. After another round of betting, the dealer puts down a fourth card (the turn), and then a fifth (the river), and you use the best five cards out of the flop and your hand. The best hands are royal flush (ace, king, queen, jack and 10 of the same suit), straight flush (five cards from the same suit in order) and four of a kind - for example four aces. Next is the full house (three of a kind plus a pair), flush (five cards of the same suit), straight (five cards in order but of different suits), three of a kind, two pair and then a pair. The first round gave me a queen and a four and although conventional wisdom would say fold, I started upping the bets. With the others convinced a first-timer wouldn't bluff, I took one of my rivals all the way to the end, when a queen was dealt to give me a winning pair, knocking him out. One opponent down and four to go, I was now £250,000 better off and starting to get a taste for this. In our last round, it was all or nothing. I was sitting on a pot of £400,000, with a queen and a four again. Time to go all in - and bet the lot. I prayed for a good card - the sort of luck that the cowboy gets in the movies - and couldn't stop smiling as I was dealt two fours giving me three of a kind, with a queen 'kicker', as well as £900,000. I retired undefeated and richer, if only in imaginary money. With confidence soaring, I asked for an entry form for the big competition. But my teachers were obviously running scared. They refused my entry to the Student Championships - on the flimsy grounds that I wasn't a student.

Poker Sitcom Casts Janeane Garofalo as Annie Duke

Poker Sitcom Casts Janeane Garofalo as Annie Duke Rumors that Janeane Garofalo has been picked to play poker celebrity Annie Duke on NBC's upcoming sitcom have been confirmed. The new series, "All In," will portray Garofalo as a single mother of three, who also plans to play poker professionally. Before Garofalo was named to play the lead role of Annie Duke, skepticism still surrounded the project, with a number of people believing that NBC would not go through with the poker-themed show. The show will possibly make poker even more palatable to the general public than it has already become. After all, you can't get more mainstream than an NBC sitcom. Whether the show will be a hit among the poker community, however, remains to be seen. It is likely that the world of poker depicted in "All In" will be a far cry from the real poker circuit. Garofalo's film credits include "Reality Bites," "Dogma," and "The Truth About Cats & Dogs." The actress/comedian has also been on the cast of "Saturday Night Live" and "The Larry Sander's Show."

Skill gaming firms gearing up to go mobile

Skill gaming firms gearing up to go mobile Three of the leading skill gaming firms are scheduled to launch mobile products in Q2 2005. Midas Player, Skill Jam and Gameaccount are all reported to be close to releasing games for the mobile market. US skill gaming giant WorldWinner also has a wireless product in development, although the firm said it has no release date scheduled. Skill Jam, the skill gaming subsidiary of software firm Fun Technologies, is expected to launch a mobile skill-gaming product during Q2 for both the European and US markets. And Midas Player, one of the largest skill-gaming sites with 15 million games played in January 2005, will begin its roll out of games in the UK within the next few weeks. It is also believed the firm is aiming to launch a product in its biggest market – Germany – later this year. WorldWinner, probably the largest skill gaming operator in the US market, said it is “currently evaluating partners to determine who the best fit is for WorldWinner and for wireless carriers.” Charles Palmer, co-founder of mobile technology firm mfuse, said he believed skill gaming was a natural fit for the mobile platform. “Mobile skill gaming is the perfect way to reach the recreational market,” Palmer said. “It would undoubtedly also be a winner for the mobile operators who are to-date holding gambling at arms length,” he added.

Millions At Stake In ‘friendly, Hometown' Poker Tourney

Millions At Stake In ‘friendly, Hometown' Poker Tourney By KAREN FLORIN Day Staff Writer, Casinos/Gambling - The Day Mashantucket The big names of poker are not expected at the New England Poker Classic, and that's OK with the staff and the players at Foxwoods Resort Casino. This is the otherpoker tournament, a regional event that has grown steadily since it started 10 years ago. Thousands of players will compete for millions of dollars between now and April 11, but the New England Poker Classic is not expected to draw a lot of players from Las Vegas and the West Coast. “This tournament is in conflict with one at the Bellagio,” said Kathy Raymond, Foxwoods' director of poker. “We don't care. It makes the field a little more manageable.” Foxwoods hosts celebrities and pros at its poker tables all the time. It was a founding member of the World Poker Tour, which has become a major television event. The World Poker Finals, taped last November at Foxwoods, airs April 13 and 16 on the Travel Channel. The legends of poker will return to Foxwoods later this year, but in the next few weeks the casino will cater to its regional poker audience. Foxwoods hosted a media charity tournament on Wednesday morning, donating $15,000 to the favorite charities of 10 newspaper, television and radio personalities from throughout New England. The real tournament players eked out hand after hand in the Sunset Ballroom. The prize pool for the final game is expected to be between $2 million and $3 million. The price to play in the “big game,” the No Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament, is $5,000, but players can compete in satellite games, called “acts,” and win a seat for as little as $60. “We want it to be a friendly hometown tournament with a big prize pool,” said Raymond. Foxwoods was running tournaments before they became all the rage, and some of the poker regulars have earned tidy profits. Neal Gersony of Rocky Hill said he has won $200,000 over the past eight years. “It's been great for me,” Gersony said over the clink of poker chips as dealers dealt dozens of live games. “I spent from 1997 to the boom playing a lot of tournaments, and I got better.” The tournament drew an array of young and old players, many of them dressed in baseball hats and sunglasses, windbreakers or polo shirts. The field was mostly male, but that didn't keep Regina Brown of Cromwell from joining the game. Brown has played in every New England Poker Classic since it started and has watched the game grow in popularity. She works full time and plays mostly on weekends. She said she can afford the higher costs of buying into poker tournaments. “I've grown as a player and so has my bankroll,” she said. Foxwoods, she said, has grown with the times and become a leader in the poker world. “They'll try something and you'll see someone else try it,” Brown said. “New England was just starved for something like this.” Brown had already won a seat in the upcoming big game, but 80-year-old Peter J. Gialluca of Norwich was still trying. He plays once a week at Foxwoods and often watches poker on TV. “My wife wishes they never put it on there,” he said. Despite the continuing popularity of poker, Mohegan Sun President and Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Etess said the casino has no plans to reintroduce the game. The Mohegans closed their poker room two years ago and replaced its card tables with more slot machines, which executives said are more profitable. “Poker is very popular on television, but to our standpoint it isn't any more profitable than it was, and we have no regrets about our decision,” Etess said. The casino's non-poker table game business is continuing to grow, however. Etess said 12 new tables would open in the Hall of Lost Tribes by Memorial Day.

Cops Target Illegal Poker Operations

Cops Target Illegal Poker Operations by Brian McNeill for The Connection Newspapers The first rule of the Reston Card Club was that the "cards speak." The seventh rule warned players not to "splash the pot." The 10th rule was simply "have fun!" Until last month, the list of rules hung on the wall of a Reston apartment that Northern Virginia card sharks frequently visited for illegal games of high stakes poker, according to police. Fairfax County detectives raided the Reston game on Thursday, Feb. 10, arresting 13 suspects and seizing roughly $6,000. The game's alleged operators, Paul T. Cha, 42, and Ginger L. Everett, 42, were both charged with conducting an illegal gambling operation and possession of gambling paraphernalia. The game's 11 players were all charged with illegal gambling, a crime that carries a maximum $500 fine. Last August, Fairfax County detectives arrested 24 individuals and confiscated around $20,000 when they busted another major poker game in Centreville. Bradley L. McLaughlin, 28, Jeanna Anderson, 26, and Dexter L. McLaughlin, 52, were all charged with felonies for allegedly running the game. The two incidents represent a significant increase in the number of illegal Texas Hold 'Em games being held in Fairfax County, police said. "We feel that there are many, many operators in this county where individuals are making more than $150,000 a year," said Capt. David Vice, commander of the Fairfax County Police Department's organized crime and narcotics division. "Unfortunately, when someone is making that much money, someone is losing that much money at the same time." Vice and his detectives displayed last Wednesday some of the evidence found at the two busts, including professional card tables, cases of poker chips, decks of cards and more. Vice said his department is hearing an increasing number of complaints about Fairfax County residents gambling away their family savings at illegal poker games. "We have received numerous calls and e-mails from family members who have lost their savings, their child's college tuition money, you name it," he said. "They may start out thinking they're just having fun with some recreational gambling, but they can get in over their head pretty quickly." THE CURRENT POKER craze is tied to the popularity of televised poker tournaments on ESPN, Bravo and the Travel Channel. Amateur games have been set up over the last year among friends and at restaurants like T T Reynolds in Fairfax. But the game's popularity has fueled the rise of the underground illegal games as well. "They've jumped in on the popularity of Texas Hold 'Em," Vice said. "Like everything else, there's always someone waiting to take advantage of something good and turn it into something illegal." Poker games become illegal when the game's operator takes a cut — usually 10 percent — of the game's pot. Typical illegal poker operations generate $10,000 in profit each month, Vice said. Jim Cox, a Fairfax County detective who investigates illegal gambling, said they are finding a wide array of people participating in the underground poker games. The players are young and old, rich and poor, men and women, he said. "It's everybody," Cox said. Gambling addicts seek out illegal high-stakes games because of the drama and the feeling that they can win or lose everything in a deal of the cards, said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling in Washington, D.C. "The excitement of having a bet on the table is really what they crave," Whyte said. "It becomes not as much about the money, but just about staying in the action. It's living on the edge and taking risks." LIKE ALCOHOLISM, only a small percentage of people become addicted to gambling. Whyte estimates 2 million individuals — around 1 percent of the U.S. population — are problem gamblers. Approximately 80 percent of adults have gambled at least once in their lifetime. Dick, a Lorton resident who declined to give his last name, is a recovering gambling addict who has refrained from gambling for the past 22 years. He said gambling addicts often get hooked early on and keep playing because they believe they will always win back their losses. In retrospect, Dick said he realizes he was driven by the excitement far more than the money. "Sitting at a slot machine or at a card table is a better high than drugs or alcohol," he said. "It's the most exciting, challenging experience out there." One member of Dick's Gamblers Anonymous group in Springfield has lost more than $330,000 from his habit. Like many other gambling addicts, Dick resorted to white collar crime to stay in the game. He was caught attempting to embezzle an undisclosed amount of cash. An estimated 70 percent of gambling addicts in treatment have committed either fraud or embezzlement, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. "When you lose, you go back. When you win, you go back," Dick said. "Money is the drug of the gambling addiction." MOST POKER aficionados stay away from illegal games and know when to quit. Mark Rosenberg, a 22-year-old McLean resident, learned to play Texas Hold 'Em and Five Card Stud while he was stationed in Iraq with the U.S. Army. He plays often with his friends and traveled two weeks ago to play in Atlantic City. "It's just something different to bring you and your friends together," he said. "You learn how to read people. And the chance of making a little extra money doesn't hurt." Herndon resident Ben Sterling, 22, plays in several low-stakes weekly games with his friends. He said he has been playing for years, but became serious about the game when he was "suckered in" by the televised poker tournaments. "I'm mostly attracted to the game for the thought process and the analysis of how people act or want you to think how they act," he said. Del. Chap Petersen (D-37) introduced a bill during the General Assembly session that would have allowed private clubs to hold regular poker tournaments. Six months ago, a game held by the Fraternal Order of Police in Virginia Beach was ruled illegal. Petersen's bill aimed to allow similar private organizations to hold card games, just like private residents can. "Look, I don't gamble. But I don't think it's a proper allocation of state resources to be banging down doors to arrest these people," he said. "On the other hand, we don't want to have organized crime coming into Virginia."