Poker News Review for March, 2009

Pre-registration is open for the 2009 World Series of Poker, to be held once again at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Players who are in Las Vegas can simply go to the Rio with cash or casino chips in hand and register in person. Those who are unable to make it to the casino until the WSOP starts can register from home, either by fax or mail. To do so, visit the WSOP's registration website and complete the appropriate form. Be sure to have your driver's license number and Harrah's Total Rewards number available, as they will be necessary to complete registration. Remote payment can be made with a cashier's check or wire transfer. Pre-registration closes two weeks prior to an event's start and keep in mind that the tournaments actually have maximum capacities, so if you are certain that you will play in a particular event, register early to make sure you get a seat.

Tel Aviv, Israel based CogniSafe announced the release of its new online gambling cheating protection software, PitBoss, last week. Using mathematical processes based on a massive gambling knowledge base, the software can supposedly root out cheaters automatically. It can detect bots, collusion, hackers, prohibited software tools, "superusers" who have information about the cards to be dealt, and disconnect protect abuse. The software can also be updated in order to detect new forms of cheating. If a cheater is detected, not only does the software provide the poker room operator with the appropriate information, but it can also prevent the suspected cheater from doing further damage, such as transferring money to a cohort. According to CogniSafe, while PitBoss obviously gathers information on the games being played, no personal information is collected. The only information sent to the online poker room operator is the username of the suspected cheater and what type of cheat is being perpetrated.

According to a New York Times article, the French government will open up its country to online gambling companies in 2010. In an effort to bring in more tax revenue and establish some control over online gambling, those companies wishing to do business in France will be able to submit applications for licenses starting next year. This would also likely alleviate some of the pressure put on France by the European Union, which has not liked France's attempts at establishing a government monopoly on online gambling. Sports and horse bets would be taxed 7.5 percent under the proposed licensing plan, while poker wagers would be taxed 2 percent.

Poker "News"

In the past few weeks, there is a big buzz about 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps associated with online poker room. And it's a pleasure to join the hysteria by picking up some analysis and shed a piece of light on the fact.


The story began when the poker legend Doyle Brunson and his son Todd paid a visit to the poker-loving swimming phenomenon at the Palms Hotel and Casino. "Phelps and some of his friends wanted books so I took Super System 1 and 2 to them and they asked all kinds of poker questions. Michael said all he wanted to do in life, was to eat, swim and play poker." Bla-Bla … Doyle wrote in his blog.

The old man should have added that Phelps dreams about being the finalist of World Series of Poker. Anyway, all kinds of speculations are immediately printed in black-and-white by some poker news sites (they seldom promote official poker rules without "throw-ins", I believe). According to them, the winner of eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps' next venture may be to become one of the celebrity players for Doyles Room.

Here is a common-sense thought. The fish boy is no doubt the hottest commercial commodity on the planet. Giant companies are queuing to be connected with him. There is little possibility that one of these online poker casinos can afford that kind of money—I have to say poker business is on the downswing, with such an economical recession we are living through as backdrop. Sure he might make take a lowball deal to be associated with Doyle, but I think his financial advisers are way too smart for that. Besides, Phelps knows clearly himself the merits of being away from the poker table in the spotlight.

To be summarized, poker odds knowledge helps me conclude that all of this is just truly hypothetical.

Against My Will

You know the game called Omaha? Have no idea? It's OK. I can explain it in just a few easy steps (I am assuming you all know its big brother Texas Hold'em).
What you do is get four cards. Doesn't matter much what they are because nobody really looks at them anyway. Next, they put three cards on the board. It doesn't matter what they are because nobody really pays any attention to the flop either. Then one more card for the turn and another one for the river. Same betting scenario as before. Doesn't really matter much what they are, except, for a few of the poker players that may have "cheated" and looked at their hole cards. These players may now fold if they have absolutely no outs. (Mostly bad sports.) Now, at the showdown, everybody turns over their cards and helps the dealer figure out who has the best poker hand. You MUST play two cards out of your hand so this usually takes a while and the winning hand is usually found out after a little bit of searching by all of the players and a partially confused dealer. The dealer now pushes the pot to the wrong player and everybody yells at him and he smiles glibly and says, "Oh yeah, sorry" and then sends it in the right direction. Then, after all of that excitement dies down, everybody lets out a collective sigh of relief and gets ready to wind up and do it all over again.

That's it. Hell of a simple poker game, right? For me, I won't blame if you label it as lame due to my lame introduction.

P.S.
I was bluffed at an online poker room last night. Refused to go in there anymore, at least a week I swear. If there are some unpleasant words mentioned in my article about the poker rules, forgive me. I don't mean it.