FLORIDA ONLINE POKER LEGALISATION BILL PROGRESSES (Update)
2011-03-17

Abruzzo bill passes key Senate committee
The Abruzzo bill seeking to legalize intrastate poker in Florid (see previous InfoPowa reports) has made it through an important committee stage in the state Legislature, cruising through the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Wednesday on a 10-2 positive vote.
The same bill is also on the agenda of the House committee.
The committee voted 10-2 to create an intrastate Internet poker network tied to the current 23 horse and dog tracks and jai alai frontons. Proponents say that if the estimated 800,000 people who now play Internet poker play the intrastate games, it could generate as much as $50 million in additional tax revenue and protect consumers from unscrupulous operators.
"What we have here is a bill that is very carefully crafted," said Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a Miami Republican and sponsor of Abruzzo's SB 812. He said the measure protects consumers by awarding contracts to three hub operators who have never offered illegal Internet poker in Florida.
The passage of the bill could result in the state's pari-mutuels making additional gambling profits, enabling them to remit 10 percent of gross revenue to the state coffers.
"We're protecting Florida consumers from having their identity stolen, from having financial information stolen, from being easy prey from entities that operate offshore," Diaz de la Portilla said.
Republicans from Tampa and Jacksonville voted against the bill.
The committee also passed bill SB1594, a racetrack-related proposal that seeks to allow the state's 16 dog racing tracks to complete their conversion to either card rooms or slot machine venues as the popularity of dog racing declines. The bill removes the requirement enacted in 1996 that dog tracks operate live racing, and is likely to attract opposition, with elements in the dog racing industry claiming it will kill the sector.

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ONLINE POKER STILL STRUGGLING
2010-12-21

Independent monitoring site issues year-on-year figures
The respected independent online poker monitoring site pokerscout.com has highlighted the decline in online poker business year-over-year which has already been pointed out in several corporate financial reports.
Commenting on the week beginning 20 December the site noted that, year-over-year, and even with the opening of the French market, the total worldwide online poker market continues to stagnate.
According to PokerScout's ACES indicator, online poker traffic is shrinking at an annual rate of 1 percent.
For the current week the decline was recorded at 0.4 percent with the top 20 movers including the following:
Merge Gaming Network 134 percent
888poker 8 percent

PokerStars 7 percent

The report notes that the Cereus Network overtook the French-dedicated PokerStars site to claim eighth place with the Entraction Network overtaking Winamax.fr to take the twelfth place and Ongame.fr edging out Svenska Spel in the eighteenth spot.
The managements of some sites will be less than pleased with declines in their fortunes over the year; Notable losers over the year are identified by PokerScouts as:
Everest Poker - 64%

Cake Poker Network - 59%

iPoker Network - 31%

Cereus Network - 31%

IPN - 26%

PartyPoker - 24%
Full Tilt Poker -16%
The top spots this week based on the average number of players over a seven day period continued to be dominated by PokerStars.com (30000) and FullTilt Poker.com (15600) bringing up the third place is Party Poker.com (3600).

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RUSH POKER GOES MOBILE
2010-10-13

But only Black Card Full Tilt members get to beta test…and no iPhone action
Rush Poker, a Full Tilt Poker innovation which whisks players away to another table the moment a hand ends (see previous InfoPowa reports) is going mobile, barely nine months from the launch of the concept on the main site.
The online poker company was contacting Black Card members this week, inviting them to participate in a restricted bet test on a new mobile variant of rush poker…but only if they have the right mobile phones.
Players reported receiving an invitation which advised that the tests would be carried out on
mobile devices running Android 2.2, including:
* Acer Liquid Stream S110
* HTC Desire
* HTC Droid Incredible
* HTC Evo 4G
* HTC Google Nexus One
* HTC Desire HD
* Motorola Droid 2
* Motorola Droid Pro / Droid 2 World Edition
* Motorola Droid X
* T-Mobile G2
The invitation triggered speculation on why the ubiquitous iPhone, which uses a different operating system, was not presently being catered for. All the phones listed use Snapdragon or OMAP processors, which have more power, one player surmised, noting that iPhone had experienced weak signal problems.
A Full Tilt spokesman said that if all went well the beta test program may be widened and extended, possibly as soon as December
In related news, Microsoft has indicated an intention to dump its less than successful Mobile Windows product and launch a completely new operating system for cell phones.
Company statements said that the new handsets will go up against the iPhone as well as the expanding number of phones running on the Android operating system.
The first phone with Windows Phone 7 will be available in November on the Samsung Focus, due to sell for $200 with a two-year contract requirement. It will be closely followed by two more phones made by LG Electronics and HTC.
In all, Microsoft has announced nine phones for the U.S. market, including one from Dell, and it has lined up 60 carriers in 30 countries to carry Windows 7 phones.
In the most recent quarter, Windows Mobile, accounted for only 5 percent of the worldwide smart phone market. Reports suggest that from a hardware standpoint, the Windows 7 phones are indistinguishable from high-end Android phones, with big touch screens, and (in a few models) slide-out keyboards.
The Windows Phone 7 software reportedly has an innovative and different appearance, centered around "tiles" on the front screen that provide the user with updated important information, such as e-mail and Facebook status.

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ESTONIAN WINS RUSSIAN POKER SERIES
2010-08-12

183 entries despite Russian bans
The draconian bans on Russian gambling have done little to discourage participation in the Pokerstars Russian Poker Series, although it did force the competition into neighbouring Latvia this week.
The Euro 1 850 + Euro 150 event attracted a total of 183 players, well over a third of them qualifiers in Pokerstars' internet satellite tourneys.
Estonian player Alexander Kuperman faced Murat Ganeev in the heads up and triumphed, taking home the lion's share of a Euro 328 394 prize pool when he collected a winner's check worth Euro 95 469.
Ganeev's second placing check was for Euro 59 100.

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FINAL TABLE QUICKLY REACHED IN WSOP EVENT 47 (Update)
2010-06-30

Scott Montgomery denied a second bracelet
Hopes that Scott Montgomery might achieve a second bracelet at this year’s World Series of Poker are diminishing following his bust out of event 47, one of the popular $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em competitions, which reached a final table Tuesday night after three tough days.
3,128 players registered for the event, but that had been reduced to 35 survivors by the start of Day 3 play Tuesday afternoon with Manuel Davidian leading on 889 000, chased by Adam White,
After less than five levels, Davidian was eliminated in 10th spot to form the final table of nine by the close of play Tuesday night. Here are the finalists who will go into a fourth day:
Adam White 1,685,000
Allan Baekke 1,633,000
Shawn Busse 1,203,000
Owen Crowe 1,192,000
Ilya Andreev 985,000
Chuan Shi 894,000
Jason Mann 893,000
Pekka Ikonen 626,000
Wenlong Jin 292,000
Average Chip Stack is 1 042 667
Mihai Manole on 950 000 was leading the field in event 49 - the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em competition late Tuesday night as Day 2 neared completion.
Tuesday’s action started with only 290 players left from the first day’s 2,543 starters – a remarkable attrition rate of around four eliminations every minute. With the money bubble only twenty eliminations away, the competition was enhanced as players struggled to stay in the field.
Giuseppe Zarbo was leading the charge in pursuit of the main prize of $609,493 as Day 1 ended.
By late night Tuesday Day 2 contestants were still battling away, with the field down to 33 survivors by level 20, and average chip stacks around 346 772.
Event 50, the $5,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha competition was still very lively Tuesday night as Robert Mizrachi on 435 000 fought to retain the chip lead over the 47 players left in the running.
Earlier in the day, 172 survivors from an original field of 460 had gathered at the start of Day 2 action, with Kevin Schaffel in the lead, having eliminated Scotty Nguyen.
Ryan D’Angelo is Mizrachi’s nearest rival on 380 000 at level 17 in the event.
This year’s entry field for event 51, the $3,000 buy-in Triple Chance No-Limit Hold'em contest saw an increase of 111 over last year’s equivalent as 965 players took their seats Tuesday afternoon.
With only six more events left in this year’s 41st World Series of Poker, the chances of players like Tom Dwan winning a bracelet and some big money in side bets are diminishing, as are those for players like Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey who would like to increase their WSOP jewellery collections.
The format for the event involves each player starting with a stack of 3,000 chips and two "rebuy lammers". The rebuy lammers are each worth an additional 3,000 chips and can be taken before the start of any hand at any point through the first four levels. At the end of Level 4, all unredeemed rebuy lammers are automatically swapped for tournament chips.
Seen among the Day 1 entrants were Jeff Shulman, Hevad Khan, Allen Kessler, Theo Tran, Gavin Griffin, Dutch Boyd, Sorel Mizzi, Phil Ivey and James Dempsey.
By the completion of Day 1 play at level 10 Tuesday night only 189 survivors bagged their chips, with the biggest bag held by Tommy Vedes on 237 000 with David Singer in hot pursuit on 204 100.
First day casualties included double-bracelet winner Frank Kassela, David Williams, Gavin Smith, Vanesssa Rousso, David Steicke and Chino Rheem.

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CALIFORNIA ONLINE POKER BILL LAUNCHED
2010-05-31

Wright bill seeks a legalised and regulated intra-state dispensation
Senator Rod Wright's recent promises to introduce a Californian bill legalising and regulating online poker (see previous InfoPowa report) were met this week when he launched an amended version of bill SB 1485 late on Friday.
Wright leads a California Senate Committee responsible for gambling matters, and the bill seeks to introduce an intrastate solution to the problems of what to do about online poker...and how to generate tax revenues in the process.
SB 1485 proposes that the California Department of Justice award up to three five-year contracts to California-based operators to run online poker websites for state residents. Observers note that the bill has marked differences from earlier proposals put together by commercial card rooms and the Morongo tribal band which sought to secure exclusivity through a single California poker site run by a partnership of tribes and card rooms.
Senator Wright has flagged the bill as urgent, enabling its immediate implementation if successful in the legislature and on the Governor's imprimatur.
Observers note that with a budget deficit now nearing $19 billion, there is a powerful incentive for legislators to vote the bill in.
The Wright bill is the latest of several unsuccessful attempts in California to legalise online poker, and joins similar initiatives in the states of Florida and New Jersey, which are also debating legalised intrastate internet gambling.
The UIGEA, which comes into effect Tuesday this week, recognises the authority of individual states to decide on how intrastate gambling is to be handled, and what is and is not illegal. The implementation of the UIGEA federal legislation should therefore not complicate the passage of the bill, although it will probably make the work of the banking system, which is required to enforce the federal act, more difficult in regards to blocking 'illegal' transactions should SB 1485 succeed.
By a quirk of coincidence, SB 1485 will appear before California legislators on Tuesday 1 June 2010 - the same day on which the UIGEA regulations take effect.

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WSOP FOR iPHONE
2009-12-23

World Series of Poker Hold'em Legend App debuts

Glu Mobile Inc., has announced the availability of its World Series of Poker Hold'em Legend App for iPhone on the App Store. The product is one of three games based on a multi-year, worldwide partnership between Glu and Harrah's Interactive Entertainment, Inc., owners of the World Series of Poker brand.

"We are thrilled to take the WSOP to the iPhone with Glu Mobile," said WSOP vice president Craig Abrahams. "This app is a game changer in the category and is consistent with our core strategy of taking the WSOP to all digital platforms with top production values."

Alex Galvagni, Glu's chief technical officer, said: "World Series of Poker is the number one brand in poker, and we are thrilled to bring iPhone and iPod touch users the most exciting, prestigious poker app available.

"By creating a fast-paced and unique World Series of Poker gaming experience and adding new functionality with peer-to-peer multiplayer capability, the World Series of Poker Hold'em Legend App will keep players entertained for hours."

The depth of career mode in the WSOP Poker App lets fans play over 25 events across seven casino venues; five of these venues being actual Harrah's properties that include introductory videos for each location. This is the only app for iPhone and iPod touch where players can play for a virtual WSOP bracelet, and the peer-to-peer functionality, innovative Multi Touch user interface and leaderboard integration with WSOP.com up the ante for any player.

The new product, which sells for $3, features:

* Peer-to-Peer Multiplayer, enabling users to play heads-up poker against a friend via Bluetooth.
* Hand Replays.
* Multiplayer, empoweriguers to play in up to nine player games against players from around the world.
* Authentic Venues that takes the player virtually through 25 events across seven casino venues; five of which are actual Harrah's properties including Caesars Palace, the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino and the Casino of the Empire.
* Cut-scenes hrough which players can watch high-quality videos of featured opponents.
* iPod integration.

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