US Elections: The impact for online poker

As the dust settles on the 2008 US elections that sent Barack Obama to the White House and increased the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, many online poker players are wondering what impact these political shifts will have on the state of online gambling in the US.

The immediate impact in the markets was a positive one, suggesting that investors believe the elections will increase the potential for legal, regulated online gaming in the US. Excerpt from an article in the Independent:

Elsewhere, gambling companies were strong after Merrill Lynch said an Obama victory may lead to more open markets in the US. “We think it could ultimately pave the way for online gaming regulation rather than prohibition,” the broker said, highlighting Democratic moves to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which was introduced in October 2006 to prohibit the transfer of funds from financial institutions to any internet gambling site.

Merrill added: “There have been separate acts to legalize internet gambling as well as those that particularly target poker and other games of skill. We think that with a Democrat president and Democrat-dominated Congress, such legislation would likely have a greater chance of being passed through.”

Poker News Daily also took a positive view of the election, focusing more on the specific Congressional races with direct links to online gaming legislation. Here’s their summary of the relevant races and outcomes, with individual grades for each taken from the PPA Congressional guide:

Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) – F-
Defeated Sam Rasoul 61% to 36%

Spencer Bachus (R-Ala) – F-
Ran Unopposed

Linda Sanchez (D-Cali) – A+
Defeated Diane Lenning 70% to 30%

John Conyers (D-Mich) – A+
Defeated two independent candidates 92% to 8%

Melvin Watt (D-NC) – A+
Defeated Ty Cobb 71% to 28%

Steve Cohen (D-Tenn) – A+
Defeated three independent candidates 88% to 12%

Bobby Scott (D-Va) – A+
Ran Unopposed

A lively discussion of the likely impact on 2+2 generated some humorous responses:

Obama will use tax money to bankroll himself to multitable RailHeaven and GusHeaven. FTP will add a new table called ObamaHeaven which is 2k/4k NL, as well as a table called McCainHeaven which is actually a $1+$0.43 Sit and Go tournament.

… and some more serious ones:

People don’t seem to understand that Democrats don’t need to do anything to make the online poker landscape much better. They just have to stop doing some of the things that the Bush Justice Department has been doing. Right now, there are people in high-ranking positions in the Justice Department who want to stop online gambling. Neteller gets indicted, payment processors get shut down, TV stations get fined for running certain advertisements, etc. I’m going to bet a lot of the high-ranking people that have been issuing these marching orders will be out of a job come January 20. Who ever replaces them will have very different priorities and a very different agenda.

We think that last point is right on the money. While Democratic control of Congress and the White House certainly makes it easier to pass pro-online gaming legislation, there’s no clear sign that the party as a whole is motivated to introduce and champion serious legislation. The more significant, immediate impact will likely be a rethinking of UIGEA enforcement and Wire Act interpretation at the DOJ level, depending on whom Obama appoints.

Source: PartTimePoker.com

Reading The Board In Online Poker

Reading the board is the quality of good holdem poker players. These players are fully aware of the hands should be lurked out there at the gambling table for showing themselves and taking down the pot. They are also aware of the impossible poker hands and so they believe that they should not get worried to defend against them. Can you tell the possible poker hand? Here, presented some guidelines for getting you to start.

If the board consists of a pair, a four of a kind might be there with a player. If no pairs are there on the board, no body will get a four of a kind. A Full House is also made possible when a pair is on the board. There is a good strength in both of these hands, so when there is a pair on the board, you should pay more attention. There might be a monster hand with someone.

Three of a suit on the board is what the requirement of a player for a flush is presuming that the two of the identical suit or the hole cards are there in the hand of that player. Sometimes, when there are no impressive suited community cards, i.e. no high cards are there, avoiding registering a potential flush in the hands of your opponents is quite easy. Remember, no matter what is the value of the cards when you make a flush (if the flush is not held with more than 1 person, in certain case what you want is the Ace high flush. If Ac and Kc is with a player is an ace high lush, like in above stated example, this is sufficient enough for winning the hand, unless there is a straight flush or better or a monster Full House with a player.

Sequence cards can also make a possible straight. If there are only two holes in a row of 5 consecutive cards, those cards might be held by someone and just might be having that straight.

Of course, you should be known of the cards in your hand and on the board and this will aid you to start to exercise the cards remaining to come along with what you need to win the hand.

Source: open-online-poker.com

PurePlay CEO Talks About Future of Online Poker

Subscription-based online poker room PurePlay, which was founded in November, 2004 in Silicon Valley, California, recently surpassed the 1.5 million player mark. Its CEO, Jason Kellerman, will be a panelist on a legislative panel at the 7th Annual European i-Gaming Congress and Expo on Wednesday. The site accepts players from the United States with open arms. Poker News Daily sat down with Kellerman to learn about PurePlay and the future of online poker.

Poker News Daily: In your words, what is PurePlay and what makes it unique?

Kellerman: PurePlay is the first and largest legal site offering play-for-cash online poker, leveraging a subscription-based model. Our subscribers can play in as many tournaments as they want and win cash, but they never put their own money at risk. Unlike other real money poker sites, there are no buy-ins or deposits for individual games, and players never bet their own money, so we can provide all the thrills of cash poker without any of the risk. Our business model is so unique that we applied for, and were awarded, a patent for it. We’re continually looking for ways to offer our players an experience as thrilling as any high-stakes game would be. We achieve this by paying out over $150,000 each month in cash prizes.

PND: Describe the challenges of operating a legal online poker room in the United States.

Kellerman: The Department of Justice has taken a tough stance with regards to online gambling, but PurePlay’s model is not considered gambling, so we do not face the legal issues that other sites do. Our greatest challenge is creating awareness among consumers, and we’re off to a very strong start with over 1.5 million players.

PND: Talk about some of your other competitors like ClubWPT. What have you learned by watching them grow and market?

Kellerman: PurePlay was the pioneer in this space, so it was inevitable that competitors would spring up and copy our model. On the positive side, it’s helpful to us because these players help grow the overall market. However, most of these sites appear to be struggling. We’ve learned that poker players want to play at the site with the largest number of players and the largest prizes, so we are focused on maintaining our lead.

PND: What do you foresee as the future of online poker in the United States in 2008? What about 2009?

Kellerman: Given the millions of online poker players who are currently playing for free without the ability to win prizes of value, I expect to see a continued increase in the number of players gravitating towards our model of playing for cash without having to risk their own money. In terms of the legalization and regulation of online rake poker, it is difficult to predict what will happen and on what timeline. We could see some movement in this area over the coming years.

PND: Would you change your business strategy if online poker were legalized and regulated in the United States?

Kellerman: No. There are around 50 million players online and close to 90% of those players are playing for fun. This is the market we are going after.

Our site was launched in November 2005, almost a year before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed. The huge demand for risk-free online poker that existed when we launched will still be there no matter what happens with regulation. This was and continues to be our real point of difference versus rake poker.

Having said that, we would certainly consider adding a real money offering if our members were interested in it and the opportunity were to arise. With our large and growing base of avid poker players, we would have a large head start in penetrating the U.S. market. It would certainly be a lucrative proposition and we would look at this very carefully.

PND: Talk about reaching the 1.5 million member milestone. What’s your next milestone and date for achieving it?

Kellerman: Our growth in the past year has been fantastic. We have learned a tremendous amount about how to acquire players over the years and it is certainly paying off. We have also spent a considerable amount of time on creating the necessary infrastructure to support this level of growth. Fortunately, we’ve been able to invest in infrastructure, having raised capital from leading Silicon Valley investors who funded companies such as Google, Facebook, and PayPal.

Going forward, we expect our growth to continue as the network effect increases and we yield the benefits of being the leading site.

PND: How was PurePlay formed and how did you become involved?

Back in November 2004, my co-founder, Marc Marin, and I saw a gap in the online poker market. There were only two options for online poker players: either they could play free poker, which is basically uncompetitive, or they could gamble and risk losing their own money. We realized that players needed a third option, an online destination where they could win real cash in competitive games without risking losing money. This is how we came to develop PurePlay’s subscription-based model, where players can compete in tournaments for large cash prizes.

PND: What was your background prior to PurePlay?

Kellerman: Most recently I was the CEO of LookSmart (NASD: LOOK), an internet search engine that provided web search for companies like Microsoft, AskJeeves, and many others. Prior to LookSmart, I was a partner at Mercer Management Consulting, working with many Fortune 500 clients. In that capacity, I led engagements in the retail, banking, telecommunications, and oil and gas industries, with a special focus on retail consumer growth strategies.

PND: What feedback do you expect to receive from your talk at the conference?

Kellerman: I’ll be part of a panel that will discuss the legalization and regulation around i-gaming in the U.S. My role on the panel will be to talk about our legal U.S.-based model. I expect a lively discussion; this is a topic that people are very interested in learning more about it.

PND: What new promotions can customers expect in the future?

Kellerman: Our tournaments that award a seat in the World Series of Poker have been very popular this year and we plan to continue those. We also regularly host large cash tournaments with prize pools of $10,000 or more. Going forward, we plan to increase the number of cash tournaments as well as the cash payouts we offer. We have plans in the near future to offer new and exciting prizes in addition to the $150,000 in cash we now award monthly.

We will also be adding new and different types of tournaments to meet a wide range of demands and to provide variety and excitement. For example, we will expand our skill-based tournaments, where players can compete with others at their own skill level. We will be offering more high-stakes tournaments for our more advanced players and will be offering starter tournaments for those who are less experienced in online poker. As I mentioned before, we are committed to making PurePlay the most thrilling place to play no-risk poker online, so we’re always looking for new ways to excite our customers.

Source: Poker News Daily

Want To Score By Reading Your Opponents in Online Poker Games?

As there exist some differences between online poker and live poker games, so players need to change their ways of reading opponents comparing with that used in live poker. In live poker games, you play face to face with your opponents and can read them by means of body-language, and could become familiar with their habits or styles of playing, thus helping you to make decisions when your turn comes. However, when playing online poker, players couldn’t see each other when they take their actions. So, what they should do to read their opponents?

Online poker provides players with a ‘mask’ where they can hide behind, thus making the concealment of your bad poker face a child’s play. Unfortunately this whole deal works in both directions: it’ll be a lot tougher for you to get reads on opponents as well. Anyway, although your visual information about your opponents will be reduced, but there are still other ways of reading them.

First, the time a player takes to respond to other players’ actions reveals something about that player. If the player immediately takes actions to bet or raise after others, he or she may has a strong hand. If the player takes a longer time to respond, he is USUALLY hesitating and keeps a weak hand. So when you get a strong hand, you could wait a bit longer before taking actions, thus preventing others predicting your hands.

Then, you could watch others’ playing styles and take a note to be familiar with your opponents. Some players always play aggressively whenever they got strong hands and always fold when they got no nuts. So what you need to do is just to observe and record them in mind.

Besides, the online chat is also another clue for you to read your opponents. The player who constantly chats, will most probably not be a dangerous one. If someone complains online, being rude and trying to insult others out of sheer frustration, you’ll know that he’s not only a fish, but also a socially challenged specimen. Do not get drawn into the senseless yapping. Take note, and focus on your game.

Reading your opponents online thus is possible as there are still resources for you to make full use of, though it is more difficult than in live poker. Just sharpen your eyes and catch the tinny clues revealed by your opponents, then you will stand more powerful than them.

CAP Euro gets Gold keynote speaker

Former World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Jamie Gold will be crossing the Atlantic later this month to visit Barcelona for the CAP Euro.

Jamie Gold will be at the CAP Euro: Barcelona to serve as the keynote speaker for the four-day online gambling industry conference. He’ll also be providing an exclusive poker coaching session for the Affiliate Series of Poker qualifiers.

«There’s no doubt that the explosion of poker around the world is directly connected to the emergence and phenomenal success of online poker,» Gold said.

«As well as making the game far more accessible, it has taken poker to entirely new levels, has fueled worldwide exposure through mainstream TV sponsorship and along the way provided tutorage of game play and strategy.»

Gold said that online poker has helped turn a backroom game into front-room entertainment and has generated a seemingly recession-proof industry.

Gold is no stranger to the entertainment industry either. He is a television producer and talent agent who turned a stint as a celebrity member of Bodog Poker’s 2006 World Series of Poker team into the biggest first-place win in the history of the WSOP.

He may have entered the WSOP Main Event as more of a recreational player, but Gold left with a $12 million win and a new side career as a poker ambassador.

«And as the one lucky enough to receive the biggest payout in history, it would be remiss of me not to mention the dramatic effect online poker has had on building the number of major tournaments, players and, of course, prize money!» Gold said.

Gold continues to play in major tournaments around the world and represent the poker world in charity events. Because of his big win, he has secured himself a place in poker history, which makes it somewhat fitting that he follows in the footsteps of poker legend Doyle Brunson as keynote speaker at a CAP event.

«It’s indeed an honor to follow the legend, Doyle Brunson, in being the key note speaker at this year’s CAP Euro convention,» Gold said. «I look forward to participating in discussions on how to maintain online poker’s momentum – and to personally thank all of you for helping make poker the global success it is today.»

The CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com officials also expressed their appreciation for Gold’s agreeing to speak at the convention.

«We’re extremely honored and excited for to bring Jamie Gold, an absolute legend in the world of poker, to all our associates at this year’s CAP Euro Barcelona,» said Lou Fabiano, CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com founder and president.

«There’s no doubt that his presence will only add to CAP Euro’s status as the premier affiliate marketing conference for the online gaming industry.»

For more information about the CAP Euro: Barcelona, visit www.CAPEuro.com.

Source: PokerListings.com, By Sarah Polson