Spanish Money Grab

I imagine that many of you have spent hours telling various friends why it would be a good idea for the U.S. government to legalize online poker. So fish out that tattered sheet of arguments and remind yourself of example 3.5: tax revenue.

The equation simply goes, if you allow online poker companies to operate in your country, you can generate piles of money and make a lot people happy. A manoeuvre hitherto considered impossible.

Cash-strapped Spain have taken this a step further. In anticipation of granting their first official licenses, Iberian authorities have suddenly decided to demand back taxes from all companies who were operating in the country from January 2009 to May 2011. The legal bedrock for these demands come from repurposing two old laws, created in the 60s and 70s. [Tax News]

Aussies Get Legal

With a glacial pace that befits government, country after country are laying the groundwork for their own regulated online gambling industry. Latest to fall into line are our friendly cousins from downstairs, the Australians. It’s all still rumour at the moment, but important people with fancy job titles are suggesting that regulations for online poker and in-play sports betting could become a reality in 6-12 months. [Daily Telegraph (AU)]

Grippo Grabs SCOOP Title 

The Spring Championship of Online Poker is over, a tradition used to mark the beginning of Summer since the ancient Egyptians invented multitabling. The victor of victors was Nick “GripsDsNutz” Grippo. He took down the $10,000 Main Event – the most expensive selection from three different buy-in tiers. His prize was around $800,000, earned not only by great play, but also a savvy piece of negotiation. Rich Ryan over at PokerNews has a great breakdown of how Grippo managed to walk away from a three-way deal with $100,000 in bonus equity. [Poker News]

40K Sit & Go Challenge

When sites like PokerStars announce that they’ve passed their seventy twentieth billionthty hand, it’s difficult to process just how vast that volume really is. With data collected over such a large spread of time that’s to be expected, but I never thought I’d have trouble comprehending the amount of poker one man plans plays in a single month.

Nevertheless that’s how I felt while hearing about Martin “phasE89” Balaz’s decision to play 40,000 Sit & Go tournaments in 30 days. The Czech pro has form in this seemingly insane arena, have previously completed a 24,000 SnG prop bet. I’m definitely pulling for him, if only thanks to the brilliantly grandiose trailer that he and a friend put together to advertise the challenge. That, and when PokerNews asked why he was doing it, he said, “I like popularity.” I can get behind that kind of honesty. [Poker News]

PokerStars a Fine Place to Work

It’s easy to be (often justifiably) cynical about the behemoths of online poker and their occasionally dubious activities, but hats off to PokerStars. Even amid the tumult of Black Friday, a survey of their employees by Great Place to Work have named them one of the UK’s finest workplaces. [Gaming Intelligence]

After that uncharacteristic burst of positivity, I need a rest. The sun has launched a surprise assault on my beloved London, so I’m going to do my part for the nation and lie down on the grass in an attempt to deflect the fiery orb’s attack rays back into space. If this glorious struggle doesn’t cost me my life, I’ll see you again next week for another Wider World of Poker.

For those of you heading out to the WSOP, here are three other survival tips you might not otherwise think of. (If you have others, chime in): 

Think Layers: Thousands of body heat-generating players come together each day to test their poker skills at the WSOP. To compensate for the pending crowd, the venue is super-cooled before each day’s play. As a result, there can be large temperature swings over the course of an event. A T-shirt, long-sleeved shirt and hoodie should be part of your daily clothing repertoire.

Go Smokeless: During event breaks, smokers have to coin-flip between a bathroom visit and a nicotine fix. Instead of opting for adult diapers, consider smokeless nicotine solutions like the patch or snus. Both offer an even distribution of nicotine over time, making sure you stay focused on your hand and not your nicotine Jones. Check out Dr. Snus for everything you need to know about this smoke-free tobacco alternative.

Find Your Ten-Pin Zen: Poker is a solitary endeavor. Bowling with friends is a near perfect yin to poker’s isolating yang. In close proximity to the Rio, both The Orleans and the Gold Coast have ample and cheaply priced lanes. And if you have a hankering for something on the campier side, consider a trip downtown to the newly opened Drink and Drag. The club has 12 lanes and is staffed by “America’s best drag queens.”

Some shows I recently found and/or enjoyed … you may want to give a listen, and perhaps bookmark for recurring download:

Poker Fraud Alert Forum Radio — I try to steer clear of industry love triangles, but sometimes can’t avoid the latest Donkdown breakup story. New and clique-worthy from Druff and Drexel: the pilot episode of their version of the old show, complete with real newschat about a botched pepper-spray robbery for Bellagio cranberries (as per plans hatched on Craigslist), the felony arrest of alleged exposed Vegas scammer Peter Falcone, and informed tangential discussion of female biology on, off, and under the table. http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/radio.php

Vegas Gang Podcast — Pub-style virtual roundtable, featuring gaming industry wonks talking about non-poker casino numbers and constructions stories with a little history and on-air smoking. http://www.vegasgangpodcast.com/2012/05/vegas-gang-78-may-17th-2012/

CEM Audio Edge — Twitter’s @GamingCounsel (and Pokerati’s own non-binding legal correspondent) Stu Hoegner takes the mic at Casino Enterprise Management for a guest hosting gig and Jersey-style cage match with DC lobbyist and iMega chieftain Joe Brennan, Jr. http://www.cemaudioedge.com/episode/gaming-law-news-guest-host-stu-hoegner

UNLV Gaming Podcast — Dr. David Schwartz’s advanced study of degen living, aka UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research, provides statistical data set to audio, and sometimes featuring research fellows presenting their findings on matters like, on the episide I heard, the sociology of gambling expansion. http://gaming.unlv.edu/podcast.html

Shaun Deeb is just showing off now. Gave him props last week and I guess it was a little too early as he went one louder by winning the $2,100 H.O.R.S.E. for another $46,000 and change. With his other three titles this SCOOP series coming in Stud events, I’ll just make the assumption that he sat out during the Hold’em and Omaha portions of the tournament just to keep it fair.

The only other events of note leading to the WPT Championship this weekend were the Cal State Poker Championship and Heartland Poker Tour Main Events. 316 players entered the Matt Savage operated Cal State Main Event and Nathan Bjerno won the Big Bear trophy and $133,075 after a heads up chop. Just missing out on the final table were David “The Dragon” Pham*, Allen Cunningham, and Gavin Griffin.

The latest Heartland Poker Tour stop was at the Majestic Star Casino located in lovely Gary, Indiana (aka East Chicago). HPT has been running hot this season and just missed a record field at this event, although they topped their numbers from 2011. Daniel Acevedo was the last player standing at the televised final table and picked up $133,081.

* – Not a real dragon

Photo: WhoJedi

This Week’s Boxscore

Shaun Deeb $46,325 PokerStars SCOOP $2,100 H.O.R.S.E.
Nathan Bjerno $133,075 Cal State Poker Championship
Daniel Acevedo $133,081 HPT Majestic Star

Link Dump

White House Responds to Online Poker Petition – Thousands of poker players (but not tens of thousands) signed a capitlization-challenged petition calling on the US Government to licence and regulate online poker. Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, responded with a 339 word “thanks but no thanks”. I’m sure Gaming Counsel might have a more articulate read than mine.

New World Series of Poker Bracelet – The WSOP unveiled their newest champion’s bracelet, which apparently diminishes the accomplishements of THE previous Main Event winners.

Wait until you guys see the WSOP Main Event bracelet.Let’s just say this is THE year to win the Main Event. #blingerisbetter

— WSOP(@WSOP) May 17, 2012

I realize it’s just a marketing blurb meant to pump up the excitement, but I imagine the bracelet could be the most hideous piece of jewelry in the world and it wouldn’t stop players from trying to win the Main Event.

WPT Championship Numbers Down – I meant to write a few words on the significant decrease in the WPT Championship field size but ESPN Poker’s Andrew Feldman 1) beat me to it and 2) is a better writer than this hack. He lays out several reasons for the decline including SCOOP, Black Friday, and the Bellagio treating the event like crap. It will be interesting to see the numbers from the WSOP this summer.

The Micros are back! – A kind of back. The brilliant minds behind the popular web series released a comic the other day to which we can all relate. Enjoy.

Click image to embiggen

Be sure to check out our new sponsors at Face Up Gaming. Legal, subscription-based online poker with plenty of great prizes including cash, WSOP seats, and poker trips. Sign up with Bonus Code pokerati.

Zoom Poker Exits Beta

In unrelated news, PokerStars have officially launched Zoom Poker. When you fold a hand during a Zoom game you are instantly transported to another table and dealt a new hand. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure there used to be a company called Full Tilled, or something like that, who had this ‘Rush Poker’ idea that was strikingly similar. They didn’t have an Android app though so I’m sure this is totally different. [WPT Mag]

Blaze Poker Enters Beta

In even more unrelated news, Ladbrokes have launched Blaze Poker, an exciting new format in which players are dealt a new hand every time they fold. They are the first company on the Microgaming network to unveil this new software. Other Microgaming sites are expected to add Blaze Poker to their roster, in a wave of brazen plagiarism. [Card Player]

Overpriced Bulgaria Slashes Fees

Bulgaria may have overestimated their attractiveness to the online poker industry. After following the increasingly common European model of ordering local ISPs to block all external gambling sites, they set about imposing their system of regulations and taxes. Unfortunately, their ambitious attempts to impose a 15% levy on all gambling outfits have been foiled by the major EU nations charging what amounts to half that much. The Bulgarian tax rate is set to drop to either six or eight percent. [Casino Choice]

Belgium Welcomes Online Gambling

Belgium, on the other hand, are having no such problems. Their ‘ban all outsiders and offer our own licenses’ plan is working out very well, with both PokerStars and Partouche setting up camp in the centre of the world’s waffle industry. The particulars of the Belgian system require a company to be partnered with a local bricks-and-mortar casino, but – in a move that sets them apart from the continental trend – does allow players to join networks that include players from around the world. [OnlinePoker.net]

Bwin.Party’s Mixed Results

It’s all business over at bwin.Party, with Q1 financial results revealing a 1% rise in overall revenue, masking a 3% fall in poker figures. They will doubtless be hoping that their upcoming ‘social gaming platform’ adds a little extra boost to their poker numbers. A man in a press release said they would be “leveraging core assets,” so it’s bound to be good. [Tight Poker]

I’ve scrapped my plans for Zournalism, it wasn’t working out. Tune in for next week’s Wider World of Poker where I plan to unveil Bournalism, a new style with hundreds of brand new, never before seen, tried and tested, well worn features. I can feel your excitement bubbling at the mere thought. Try your best not to rip me off in the intervening days.

In Mr. Beckley’s plea agreement, the government and he agreed that his U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range was 12-18 months’ imprisonment for both of the counts to which he pleaded guilty, meaning that it would not be unreasonable to expect that his custodial sentence would fall somewhere in the range of 12-18 months. However, these are only guidelines; the court has the power to take into account circumstances that it believes have not been adequately covered by the sentencing guidelines. In this case, the applicable guideline places a premium on “the reasonably foreseeable pecuniary harm” to the bank under the plea to the bank fraud conspiracy count. From a reading of the order’s text, the government is “not in a position to establish pecuniary harm.” However, Judge Kaplan states that the defendant “conspired to circumvent, and circumvented, governing laws of the United States in order to conduct or facilitate an unlawful business or businesses involving billions of dollars from which those businesses gained many millions of dollars.” The judge is concerned that the guideline’s heavy emphasis on loss might not result in an “appropriate” sentencing range and, therefore, appears to believe that an upward departure may be warranted in Mr. Beckley’s case.

Mr. Beckley’s sentencing has been put off to June 28th. Any submissions by his attorneys on the departure from the guidelines are due by June 8th at the latest and any submissions by the government are due by no later than June 18th. (Mr. Beckley can then file a reply to the government’s submissions.)

It is too soon to say what the end result will be for Mr. Beckley in sentencing terms. Watch to see how he and the government respond to Judge Kaplan’s order.

Quad queens at the Wynn, a few hands after losing with quad jacks. Read below for the best bad beat jackpots in Vegas.

This is not a bad beat story, though it starts with one.

This is a story about bad beat jackpots, and the lack thereof.

Playing a 1-3NL game the other day, I raised to $12 in late position with JhJd.

An older man — here’s him as a younger man, seriously — called on the button, one of the blinds called and the limper directly to my right called.

The flop was a dream: Js5c7c. And it was checked to me, so I bet big, hoping to build it up with one of the suckers stupid enough to call my preflop raise.

To my delight, the button moved in for $150. The blind folded and the limper contemplated.

“Please call, please call, please call,” I thought.

And he shoved for $200.

Oh boy, dreams do come true.

I tossed a handful of chips over the line, indicating my insta-call confidence. Two all-ins and I had top set. How easy is this game?

The dealer flipped the 4c on the turn — crap, maybe one of them hit a flush, but I could still boat up — and the Jc on the river.

Oh yeah, quads!

“I have quads,” I said proudly, revealing all of the jacks.

The elation lasted only a split second. The guy to my right popped out of his seat and said, “Quads are no good. Straight flush.” And he revealed the 6c8c.

This was at Wynn, where there is no bad beat jackpot.

So I texted comrades about my miserable luck. I tweeted that I had lost with quads.

A Twitter follower replied that if I had been playing at Caesars Palace, I could have been $9,000 or $10,000 richer.

That got me thinking.

Another friend called the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, where I had played regularly for the past 5 years.

Their hold’em jackpot was at $66,000.

The bad beat jackpot might be common in Biloxi casinos and some in California. But it’s not really a Vegas thing. At least in some of the bigger poker rooms where I play the most, such as Aria, Bellagio, MGM, Venetian and Wynn.

I didn’t tilt off the rest of my money — actually made a little that day at Wynn — and won a nice $29 pot when I flopped quads on a QdQsTh board a few hands later.

So as I returned from a Pokerati meeting the next afternoon, I stopped by the Palace Station casino. Station casinos offer a bad beat that is distributed throughout all 8 properties.

Reminders of the bad beat jackpot flashed repeatedly on the wall-mounted TV inside the 9-table room. I jumped in a new limit hold’em table.

“Let’s get the cards in the air, in case the jackpot hits,” one of the grizzled regulars said.

“It’s jackpot time,” another man announced.

Jackpot this … jackpot that … jackpot up his sleeve … jackpot, jackpot, jackpot.

It’s the only word I could hear.

General poker theory goes that players shouldn’t be concerned about a jackpot when on the grind. But it certainly floods your mind after you hit a hand that could have been.

I checked with Vegas poker rooms and found the ones that pay for losing.

Here’s a breakdown:

• The rake at Caesars, with a bad beat jackpot for any quads losing, is 10 percent up to $5 plus $1 for the jackpot. Currently, the jackpot is at about $30,000. If it hits, 40 percent goes to the player who loses the hand, 20 percent goes to the winner and there’s a 40 percent table share.

• At any of the Station casinos, there’s a $4 rake with $1 taken for the jackpot, and the bad beat jackpot is broken down a little differently. The losing hand gets $30,000, the winning hand gets $20,000 and the rest of the jackpot is split up among all poker players at any of the 8 other Station properties. (That means the winner and loser would also get a player share.) Currently, the jackpot is about $100,000.

• Some of the smaller rooms in Vegas offer a variety of payouts for bad beats at different levels. Losing with aces full or better at Excalibur earns 40 percent of a small jackpot, while 20 percent goes to the winner of the hand and 40 percent is divided among the table. Excalibur takes a $4 rake plus $1 for the jackpot.

• Bally’s started a bad beat jackpot promotion April 1. To qualify for a chunk of the $10,000, a player must lose with quads or better. The loser of the hand receives $4,000, the winner receives $3,000 and the table splits up the remaining $3,000. Bally’s takes a $5 rake plus $1 for the jackpot.

• At the Flamingo, there’s a $2,000 bad beat jackpot if 4 of a kind or better is beaten, with $1,000 going to the player with the losing hand, $500 going to the winner and the table splitting $1,000. The Flamingo takes a $5 rake plus $1 for the promotion.

• To qualify for the progressive $50,000 bad beat jackpot at The Orleans a play must lose with 4 of a kind, using both hole cards. The loser of the hand receives 45 percent, the winner receives 27 percent, while the table shares the rest. Orleans takes a $3 max rake, plus $1 for the jackpot.

• Aces full of 10s beat by quads or better qualifies for the $2,000 jackpot at Riviera, where $599 is distributed to the losing hand, $401 is awarded to the winning hand and the table splits the remaining $1,000. The Riv takes a $4 rake, plus $2 for the jackpot, and their promotions can change from week to week.

• If you lose with aces full — again, using both hole cards — Harrah’s you qualify for a small bad beat jackpot. There, $500 goes to the player with the losing hand, $200 goes to the winning hand and everyone at the table receives $50. Harrah’s takes a $5 rake, with $1 for the jackpot.

So maybe I missed out on some extra coin. But if I had been playing elsewhere, I would never have been dealt that hand. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

Nowhere better to start than what happened over the last few days in the poker world. It’s been pretty slow on the live poker scene as players get ready for the move to Vegas for the WPT World Championship and the 2012 WSOP. That didn’t stop us from seeing big things online, especially during the PokerStars SCOOP series.

Shaun Deeb is a sicko. First he crushes the major online games back in the olden days when we could still play in the States then “retires” at the ripe age of 24 then comes back like nothing changed. Now he’s just making a mockery of the latest PokerStars SCOOP Player of the Year race by winning three tournaments for over $120,000. All three titles were in some variant of Stud but I will leave the jokes for the comments below.

This Week’s Boxscore

Shaun Deeb $41,600 PokerStars SCOOP $2,100 STUD
Shaun Deeb $44,200 PokerStars SCOOP $2,100 Triple Stud
Shaun Deeb $40,330 PokerStars SCOOP $2,100 Stud Hi/Lo

Link Dump

Dear Shaun Deeb – Deebs exploits prompted this great post from our friend Brad over on the PokerStarsBlog. Instead of spending time with his family on Mother’s Day, he was “forced” to watch Deeb go for glory. And this was written before he won his third SCOOP title of the year.

World Poker Tour Season XI Schedule Announced – The first part of the new WPT schedule was released including all dates through the end of the year with plenty of National and Regional action. For the first time since the start of the World Poker Tour, Foxwoods World Poker Finals does not appear on the schedule.

Poker World Record Attempt 2012 – I only found out this news thanks to my twitter account catching a random follower. It looks like Barry Denson will be the next player to attempt to break the streak of 155 hours set by Phil Laak in 2010. Denson will be using his powers for good as he will use the event for charitable means, benefiting Hope for Heroes. To date they have raised £30.

Women in Poker Hall of Fame Nominations – Nominations are now open for the 2012 Women in Poker Hall of Fame class to join past inductees who include Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Jennifer Harman, and Kathy Liebert. The Induction Ceremony will take place on August 31st at the Golden Nugget.

That’s it for a pretty slow week but things will pick up during the weekend with WSOP-C and Cal State Poker Championship Main Events along with plenty of online action to finish up the SCOOP action. We’re also just a few weeks away from hearing stories about degenerate poker players dropping water balloons from Panorama Towers, so we’ll keep an eye on the police reports and emergency home owners association meetings.

FWIW, this video confirms my belief that the NYT and other mainstream media probably miscalculated the stakes … you tell me, are these guys sitting on the floor playing for $850k or more like $900. If it’s the former, then damn, they sure do have a Zen approach to money … and where’s Phil Ivey?

(These guys should totally play online.)

Gambling is illegal everywhere in South Korea (even on hotel room floors) except for one casino that happens to be the site of the new APPT-Seoul.

The kickoff will be in Tampa, FL, on May 23rd, followed by a Fort Lauderdale, FL town hall on the 24th. We will be joined by poker coach and mindset expert PPA FL State Director Donna Blevins (PokerMindsetAcademy.com). Aside from great discussion, as an added bonus Donna will offer a one-hour complimentary poker training session! So, I hope everyone in the area will join us for a great evening.

On the advocacy front, as the fight for poker rights continues on Capitol Hill and in statehouses across our great nation, it is imperative that we all keep up the pressure on our lawmakers to ensure that they know we want and expect our rights as poker players to be respected. You received an email yesterday encouraging you to meet with your Congressman over the Memorial Day recess (here). I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to make yourself heard one-on-one with your elected representative. Can I count on you to participate?

Speaking of ensuring we are heard, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee Facebook page recently banned many poker enthusiasts from posting on their page. As we poker enthusiasts have business before that committee and as all posts there were respectful and courteous, I was outraged by this attack on our right to freedom of speech as well as our right to petition government for redress of grievances – rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. I sent the Committee an email requesting an explanation for this action. Many other poker supporters wrote them as well as part of the Poker Daily Action Plan. I am pleased to report that the Committee reinstated all previously banned posters and is again allowing posts advocating for legislation to license online poker. As you can see, we are being heard. For more information, please check out the story here.

Speaking of taking action, I hope everyone will continue to do just that. Please visit theppa.org/takeaction today!

Lol to think I was wearing this T-shirt a couple months ago when someone noticed that a full year since the first ever Zynga Pokercon had come and gone with nary a mention, let alone much talk of a second such tournament event.

Gaming Social: Perhaps surprisingly, this photo was not taken with Instagram.

Kinda surprising considering that Zynga’s top executives had been chattering incessantly all Q1 about the company’s future in online gambling … almost as if their stock price depended on it!

But then, players learned this weekend …

Technically no purchase is necessary … but Zynga seems particularly interested in people motivated to spend real money online simply at the mention of the phrase “Las Vegas”:

It must be a sign:

Seriously, even though I’ve never played for real money on Zynga (I got drunk and tried to once –almost bought chips, but struggled with my paypal password and failed to get 10 million for $5 or whatever the going rate of exchange was at the time) … this weekend, Zynga really tried to excite convert me with the idea of something closer to real money play.

Ahh, a raffle. Now I get it. Unless this whole time we’re just talking about a virtual trip to virtual Vegas in a game where people spend money on virtual beer.

The New York Times says it was for $875,000. (And the New Zealand Herald puts the stakes at NZ $1.1 million.) Holy craps, that’s a big roll. However, we know the mainstream press has a habit of making errors when talking poker. If they are talking 875k South Korean Won, however, the currency converts to more monk-like stakes … about $900.

Exciting nonetheless, especially for holy men who have taken a vow of celibacy.

Check out her latest in Poker Player Newspaper — Full Tilt Creates Drama at PokerStars. Wendeen doesn’t seem as willing as I am to flat-out scoff and pshaw at any suggestion that PokerStars could swoop in and “save” Full Tilt (while saving itself for less than a billion) … but she does provide more facts to put any emerging hubbub in context — including some rather interesting narrative about PokerStars’ designs on going public and American banking giant Morgan Stanley’s interest in online poker sites prior to Black Friday.

A good companion piece of reading is DiamondFlush’s GBT post-mortem, which includes the email Laurent Tapie sent to his extended inside circle, giving not only his presumably honest perception of the deal as it went afoul, but also insights into some of the hard, painful numbers in play.

Throughout the course of the weekend, PPA Executive Director John Pappas, PPA lobbyists, and the Fossilman interacted with lawmakers and explained the merits of online poker licensing and regulation. We were pleased that Congressional champions of poker rights Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) and Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) were on hand to help make the case to their House colleagues for a regulatory framework that would provide strong consumer protections, bring in revenue without raising taxes, and restore personal freedoms.

Greg was a huge hit with all the attendees. He gave a poker tutorial to a crowded table of novices who were excited to learn from one of the world’s best players. The weekend event was an excellent and unique opportunity for us to bring your issues to the forefront. We succeeded in educating these lawmakers on the policy, and they had a lot of fun learning more about the great game of poker.

John Pappas, Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH), and Greg Raymer

Greg instructs a table of poker beginners on the finer points of Texas Hold’em

Last Thursday, I attended the Derby Poker Championship tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. As the PPA Kentucky State Director, I enjoy getting out to meet with the poker community as often as possible to hear everyone’s concerns and to share all that PPA is doing.

It was a great time and a great event that benefited a great charity – Blessings in a Backpack.

G. Douglas Dreisbach, General Manager of Southern Gaming Magazine, and me at the event

John Taylor of the Louisville Poker Tour and me

Lots of Tournaments

Be aware, some big international poker tournaments are on the horizon. In July, the World Poker Tour beings its 11th season in the island nation of Cyprus. I went to Cyprus once. I spend most of my time playing tennis on an army base. It was very hot, so if you’re looking to take part in the $4,000 + $400 main event take some sunscreen with you and maybe a tennis racquet. [Poker News Report]

It will probably be just as hot at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, where the Partouche Poker Tour Season 5 finale is scheduled to occur. You can read about all the events in French here. An English version of the schedule doesn’t appear to exist just yet.

The Isle of Man Gets Gaming 

There aren’t any live tournaments taking place on the Isle of Man – a tiny island off the coast of Britain – but there might be soon. A bill which would permit non-casino venues access to temporary gambling licenses is making its way through the island’s legislative bodies. This might not seem like the most newsworthy piece of information, until you accept two facts. Firstly, the Isle of Man is the home of PokerStars, who know a thing or two about running poker tournaments. Secondly, the island is well known for housing exceptionally rich people who would rather not pay as much tax as everyone else. I’ll let you do the math on those two pieces of information. [Card Player]

Betfair in Germany

British bookmakers Betfair have become the first overseas gambling company to acquire a shiny new German gambling license. The German state of Schleswig Holstein dissented from the other 15 principalities by enacting liberalised gaming laws. Licenses may now be granted to any company which is already established within the European Union. Betfair will be required to pay 20% tax to the local government on all profits made in Schleswig Holstein. [Reuters]

Mizzi’s Health Kick

It should hopefully not come as a shock to learn that the sedentary lifestyle of a poker player is not conducive physical fitness. After Black Friday bumped him from his computer, Canadian pro Sorel Mizzi committed himself to a regimen of healthy living. He is now extending the same challenge to every gelatinous lump with a fondness for rivered straights. Players who undergo the most successful fitness regimes will receive in depth personal tutoring from Sorel. Check out his lengthy blog post for the full judging criteria and all sorts of other nonsense. [Sorel Mizzi]

Lock Poker Loves Cake

I like the idea of a cake revolution. It sounds delicious! Sadly, this story is only about the Cake Poker Network relaunching itself as Revolution Gaming. All under the aegis of Lock Poker, who announced this week that they are buying Cake and leaving their former home on the Merge Network. The new Lock-Cake combo is set to launch on June 1st. [Poker News]

All I can think about now are delicious baked goods, so the news will have to end here while go off in search of a revolutionary Battenberg. Keep your eyes peeled for any other dissident bakery produce and I’ll be back next week with another Wider World of Poker.

It certainly won’t be a quiet one.

“The poker room is not church,” Effel, the tournament director for the past 6 years, told poker media today. “You can talk in the poker room. We just feel that we need to set the tone to put the fun back into poker.”

A trimmed down WSOP TD Jack Effel promises to go easy on players who want to chat it up at the tables this year.

Table talk and celebration are allowed once again — and even encouraged, Effel and WSOP executive director Ty Stewart said.

“We’re going to relearn what it’s like to be at a poker table, understanding the verbal strategy,” Effel said.

Just don’t expose your cards, or talk when someone else has yet to act. Essentially, you can yap all you want if you’re closing the action.

This is something of a level, as one reporter pointed out: WSOP knows the ESPN cameras are on all the players who know the cameras are on them.

“We’ve rewritten the rules to say we want you to celebrate, just don’t get crazy,” Effel added, putting the kibosh on the 4-year-old “Hevad Khan rule.”

Players at a feature table are even required to announce their action.

At any given point between May 27 and July, there will be as many as 500 poker tables at the Rio. That’s the largest ever for a single event, Effel said.

This year’s WSOP offers 61 bracelets for events including a $1,500 “ante only” event, a $2,500 4-max event, a $3,000 heads-up NL/PLO event, and a $5,000 mix-max event. They’ve also added a couple quirky non-bracelet events, such as the $560 bracelet bounty, where players receive $500 for knocking out a bracelet winner, and a $560 (per player) doubles tournament, where players share a chip stack and alternate at each level.

They also announced the return of daily deep stack tournaments.

Stewart feels good about the prospect of a “second boom for poker,” even with Full Tilt player funds in limbo a year after Black Friday.

“This game is stronger than we all even hoped,” he said. “It has become truly global, and it is here to stay. It appears poker’s darkest days are behind us.”

A few other highlights from the conference call:

• With a series of satellite events and a $25,000 mega satellite, the directors expect to fill the 48-player $1 million One Drop charity tournament to reach capacity.
• Instead of the standard food comp, players this year will receive Caesars Total Reward credits for bracelet events based on the size of the buy-in.
• The main event final table has been pushed up to Oct. 28, instead of the following month, when it would have interfered with the presidential election.