Video Poker Forum 

Full Tilt To Host Vegas Poker Event

The Full Tilt Poker Global Poker Challenge, held December 15th at the Palms Hotel, will pit one hundred of the best players in the game of poker against one another for money and bragging rights. The Las Vegas hotel will host the $5,000 buy in double shoot out, and ten online entrants will get a shot at a part of the $500,000 prize purse. In a testament to the power of poker TV, FSN is broadcasting the program in January, where it is expected to be seen in about one hundred million homes, which comes out to a million homes per player. Full Tilt is partnering with Matchroom Sports as well as United Kingdome producer Barry Hearn to bring the Global Poker Challenge off successfully.

Gift Tree Poker Prizes Novel For Winners

Paradise Poker, one of many online poker rooms that are capitalizing on the current poker fever sweeping the globe, has found a novel way to offer prizes for their poker champions. Instead of winning a cash prize for coming in first, a poker player can instead select something under the “Gift Tree.” Those who finish from second to tenth place get a one hundred dollar cash prize. The Gift Tree is a list of prizes that include a 2006 World Series of Poker seat for the $10,000 main event, and $2000 for airfare and accommodations. Other prizes are a World Poker Tour Shooting Stars Package that gives $1000 for airfare and accommodations for a $10,000 seat at the 2006 Bay 101 event, a Paradise Masters Prize package that gives a $2000 credit towards any Masters IV Week Big Guarantee tournaments, and a whopping $25,000 in cash.

Father And Sons Hit Poker Jackpot

When a person is said to hit a poker jackpot it usually means they have won a large tournament or other competition at the popular card game. Four Swedish IT entrepreneurs showed there is more than one way to do it, with the impending sale of their poker website set to make them all millionaires. Ongame, the operator of popular gaming site PokerRoom.com, will be sold to BETandWIN.com of Austria for a reported billion-kroner deal. Oskar, Karl and Johan Hornell, along with their father Erik, own just over half of Ongame, and will make around two and half billion kroner if the deal goes through. PokerRoom.com was started in 1999 and is ranked as the third largest online poker site in the world, with 6 million registered users. The site makes millions of dollars a year, with the bulk of the funds coming from Canadian and US markets.

Poker Machines Nabbed By Police

Baltimore, MD is the latest location where poker machines have met the law. A Hartford Road business was recently relived of 20 such gambling machines, and there are charges pending against the owner of the location, according to police. Let’s Play arcade, at 8328 Hartford Road, was raided around 10 am on December 7th, said a police department spokesman. Walter Buschmann, the owner, was not arrested but could face charges. The raid was the culmination of a year long investigation run by Parkville police and vide detectives from police HQ. Commander of the Parkville precinct Captain Ron Schwartz indicated that local residents provided information aiding in the raid. The business owners around Let’s Play were helpful as well, giving information to the local cop whose beat included the establishment.

?Rakebacks? New Poker Promo

The competition among online poker rooms for warm virtual bodies to play on their Internet sites remains fierce, and continues to grow as more and more online sites join the crowding market. In an effort to keep customers as well as steal them from their competitors, sites like GoldenRevieraPoker are offering a new kind of incentive, called a ‘rakeback.’ A rake refers to the amount of money a casino takes out of each poker hand pot, typically a percentage of the pot, regardless of who wins. In this way the casino makes money every time a group of players play a hand of poker. With rackbacks, online casinos are refunding a percentage of the rakes taken from a player, and in addition they may include moneys contributed by other players. It is a form of profit sharing that may serve to entice those hard core poker players to stick around.

Poker Top Twenty Named By Bluff Mag

In an effort to capture the mighty industry that poker has become, as well as to recognize those most influential in making it so, Bluff Magazine has named “The Poker Power 20”, a list of the twenty names in the poker world that have contributed the most in 2005 to the popular game. In order to capture the complete picture, according to Bluff Editor Michael Caselli, the magazine named top money earners, companies, brain trusts and innovators. Most often when comparing who’s who in the poker world the players are the focus, but without the companies and organizations that support them and run the competitions, the players would have no where to go. Among the name on the list are the legendary Doyle Brunson, the Cinderella man Chris Moneymaker, WPT co-founder Lyle Bermenn and poker room stand out PokerStars.

Joe Hachem Wins Again With Tax Break

The World Series of Poker’s 2005 champion, Joe Hachem, has found a stroke of luck that has made his $7.5 million win last July even more valuable. It turns out he gets to keep more of it than he thought. The figure, which comes out to ten million Australian dollars, is considered hobby money, not income money, and as such will not have to pay income tax. The father of four from Melbourne had his lawyers check with the Australian Taxation Office regarding the paying of income tax. They were aware that, in Australia, an individual who makes money while pursuing a hobby can’t be taxed, and it just left it to them to show that Hachem’s WSOP win was the result of a hobby and not a job. The ATO admits that it is often difficult to distinguish between hobby income and employment income, but the country does not penalize someone for pursuing a hobby.

Deadly Game Of Poker Ends With Five Dead

In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, what started out as an innocent night of fun turned deadly for five people, and a night of terror for others. Monday night a game of poker being held in a mechanic’s garage, said to be in a bad side of the town where violence is a frequent occurrence, was tragically interrupted by a gun wielding intruder. The gunman stormed the garage and started firing indiscriminately. Five people were killed as all the occupants scrambled for cover. The police investigating the occurrence have indicated that residents are not talking about what happened. As a result no arrests have been made. The police have a vested interest in catching the gunman, as one of the victims was Mario Alberto Barrera, a former law enforcement officer.

Alamo Poker Tour A Success

Take a few poker pros, some online entry winners, mix in local poker players, a smattering of celebrities and sprinkle with professional athletes, and you have a winning recipe for a night of fun. In the case of the new Alamo Poker Tour, it was two nights of fun, and the participants and winners were not the only ones to benefit; the event raised money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (http://www.CFF.org) as well. The pros included Marcel Luske and Eric Mizrachi from the poker crowd, and Carlos Polk and Dan Henderson from the athlete crowd. Don Felder of the Eagles (the band) was also there at the Palm Springs, CA event. In the end it was Eric Mizrachi who took home the $25,000 prize, a nice sum for a charity event. The two day affair was filmed to be shown on television at a later date.

Silver Slipper Casino Reopening Approved

JACKSON, Mississippi – As reported by the Biloxi Sun Herald: "The Mississippi Gaming Commission gave its blessings Thursday for the Silver Slipper Casino to start building on land and for the Palace Casino to reopen on Dec. 30. "Construction on the $43 million Silver Slipper in Hancock County should begin "almost immediately" and be finished by the last quarter of next year, Scott Andress, the casino company's lawyer, told commissioners. "The Silver Slipper will have 1,000 slot machines, 26 table games and 10 poker tables. It will employ between 400 and 500, he said. "…Although the Silver Slipper will be in Hancock County, it has some hurricane cleanup to do in Harrison County. Silver Slipper Casino Venture LLC had bought the old President Casino barge in Biloxi, which it had intended to tow to Hancock County and put on pilings. The hurricane hurled the barge onto the Biloxi Beachfront Hotel on U.S. 90. "Andress told commissioners that demolition and salvage operations on the barge should begin 'if not this week, then next week.'…"