Player Profile: Erik Seidel

While he may not be one of the names called when people discuss the best players in the game today, the highly underrated Erik Seidel is a player that, if not considered one of the best today, certainly should be in the running for that as well as the best of all time.

Born in New York City in 1959 and now calling Las Vegas home, Erik began his trek to the poker tables by languishing at the backgammon board and trading stocks on Wall Street.  For eight years he played backgammon professionally and, although he was making a name for himself, the smaller tournaments and prize pools made him yearn for a stronger challenge.  He would discover that on the baize of the poker tables.

Seidel found the legendary Mayfair Club in New York in 1985 and, with his talent for tournament backgammon play and some prior knowledge of poker, followed in the footsteps of other players such as Howard Lederer, Dan Harrington and Steve Zolotow to pursue the game professionally.  Little did he realize that he would have perhaps one of his most recognized moments, if not one of his personal highlights, a scant three years later.

At the 1988 World Series of Poker Championship Event, Seidel maneuvered his way to the final table alongside Jim Bechtel (the 1993 WSOP Champion), T. J. Cloutier and Humberto Brenes.  Battling these difficult players, an inexperienced Seidel found himself the only player remaining against defending champion Johnny Chan.  In a clip immortalized in the feature film Rounders, Erik was beaten by an expertly slow played straight by Chan and denied the world title.  Even Seidel himself admitted, “I was totally out of my element,” in Steve Rosenbloom’s The Best Hand I Ever Played. It would be the last time that Erik would find himself in that position.

Four years later, Erik picked up the first of what has now become an impressive eight WSOP bracelets and also returned to the WSOP $10,000 Championship Event final table in 1999.  The victories haven’t all been in No Limit Hold‘em; Erik also has tournament victories in Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball.  He has been one of only five men to win a bracelet in three consecutive years (along with Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Gary “Bones” Berland and Allen Cunningham) and his eight bracelets put him in rarefied air behind only Phil Hellmuth, Brunson, Chan and tied with Moss on the list of all time bracelet winners.

The World Poker Tour has also been a fertile ground for Seidel.  He has cashed in sixteen events there, made two final tables and captured the Foxwoods Poker Classic in April 2008.  All totaled, Erik has a stunning 125 cashes in major events around the world and sits in ninth place in all time money earnings with over $9 million won.

Source: PokerNewsDaily

Russian Players’ Took Off At World Series of Poker Once Again

Russia’s Ivan Demidov was listed with +425 odds at BetCRIS.com to win the 2008 World Series of Poker. Demidov had the second largest number of chips coming into the delayed final which is scheduled to play out this November.

Demidov served as a precursor to this year’s Russian success at the World Series of Poker Europe where two players from his nation have made the final table.

Oh, but wait a moment, one of those two players is none other than Demidov himself. That’s right, while Demidov awaits play in next month’s World Series of Poker (Las Vegas) Final, he will be taking part in Thursday’s WSOPE final nine. For someone who only began playing poker in 2006 and has won a few thousand dollars on the live tournament circuit (just under $40,000 to date), Demidov could become one of the richest poker players by year’s end should he happen to win both World Series of Poker events. The WSOP pays first place $9.1 million while the World Series of Poker Europe will pay its first place winner just over $2.1 million.

Also sitting at the WSOPE final table is Russian Stanislav Alekhin. The relative unknown had the second largest number of chips at 1,278,000 heading into Friday’s showdown.

According to poker player Daniel Negreanu, The World Series of Poker has always attracted a competitive international field. Interestingly, this year’s World Series of Poker event in the US featured more players from Russia than ever before. Negreanu, who is competing with Demidov at the final table of the WSOPE, believes that Demidov has a good shot of winning the WSOP for his Russian homeland. It can be assumed Daniel feels differently about Demidov’s chances to win this year’s World Series of Poker Europe.

"Poker’s popularity is surging in Russia," Negreanu stated. "You can expect to see more Russian names winning on the European Poker Tour and other major international tournaments in coming years.

"Why are so many talented Russian players suddenly bursting on the poker scene? Maybe it’s because of the game of chess. Many years ago, Russian masters dominated their American counterparts in a different game of skill.

"That game, of course, was chess. The battles between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky were epic. And while poker isn’t quite at that point, we’re definitely headed in that direction."

Aside from Demidov and now Alekhin, Russians making a name for themselves on the international poker circuit include Kirill Gerasimov.

The 37-year old Gerasimov worked as an insurance salesman in Moscow, and started entering poker tournaments throughout Europe in 2001.

In May 2003, Gerasimov made his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) final table, finishing 6th in the $1,500 No Limit Hold-Em event and receiving a $24,000 prize.

He would return to the World Series of Poker in April 2004, making an appearance at two final tables: a 5th place finish ($30,060) in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold-Em event featuring Huck Seed and Tony Bloom, and a 2nd place finish ($100,000) in the $1,500 No Limit Hold-Em shootout event featuring John Juanda, Asher Derei and Daniel Negreanu.

He also made the money 4 times in the 2005 World Series of Poker, including a 2nd place finish ($108,775) in the seven-card stud tournament, and he also made the money in the $10,000 Main Event for the first time, with his 444th place finish earning $16,055.

Gerasimov made two final tables during the second season of the European Poker Tour (EPT), finishing 5th in London and 3rd in Deauville.

As of 2008, Gerasimov has made over $2,000,000 in live tournament winnings. Prior to Alex Kravchenko’s 2007 performance at the WSOP, Gerasimov was number one on the Russian all time winning list.

Speaking of which, Kravchenko is another 37-year old professional poker player based in Moscow, Russia. He made a huge impact during the 2007 World Series of Poker, cashing six times, including finishing fourth at the Main Event and the $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event where he won a WSOP bracelet. Kravchenko became the first Russian citizen in history to win a WSOP gold bracelet.

Kravchenko is a phenom on the European poker circuit. He’s also won the Austrian Masters Pot-Limit Championship and the Russian Pot-Limit Championship, both in 2001. He has cashed over 30 times with career winnings totaling $2,611,088.

Then there is the easy-to-pronounce Rafael "Ralph" Perry. Yes, he is from Russia and, yes, he changed his name from Rafael Perivoskin. Perry has won over $2,500,000 on the live poker circuit since 1992, most notably finishing third in the 2002 WSOP Main Event.

Like with the Americans, Russia also has its own celebrity players who were known for something else before they hit it big on the poker circuit. Yevgeny Kafelnikov has had a few impressive finishes at the 2005 World Series of Poker. He is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Russia. He won two Grand Slam singles titles (one French Open and one Australian Open), four Grand Slam doubles titles, and the men’s singles gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games.

Source: gambling911.com

Barack Obama: My Weekly Poker With Lobbyists Is Okay, But McCain’s Isn’t

Politico: "The DNC is buying ads on religious Web sites to highlight the McCain gambling ties reported on Sunday’s New York Times front. BREAKING: “Watch for Obama to use the story about McCain and gambling in the NYT yesterday to drive his change message, especially on the economy and the influence of lobbyists.” Team Obama will argue this reflects on temperament and judgment."

That would be this New York Times story, describing McCain playing the craps table with Rick Davis and Scott Reed. Davis is a longtime McCain friend and associate, currently his campaign manager, who runs a lobbying firm that represented Indian tribes with casino interests. Reed also worked as a lobbyist for Indian tribes, but he was also Bob Dole’s campaign manager in 1996, where McCain is a top surrogate. To define these longtime buddies of McCain as lobbyists, you would also have to define David Axelrod as a lobbyist.

Beyond that, are we supposed to ignore the fact that the criticism is going to come from the guy who used to have a weekly poker game with lobbyists?

USA Today, July 6 of this year: "On Wednesday nights during Illinois General Assembly sessions, a group of lobbyists and lawmakers used to gather at the headquarters of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association for a weekly poker game. Barack Obama, who represented part of Chicago as state senator from 1997-2004, was a regular."

I guess gambling with lobbyists is scandalous, but if a Democrat does it, it’s okay.

Source: acc-tv.com

Daniel Negreanu: Pros don’t overplay coin-flip situations

Fans of televised poker have heard a commentator use the terms "coin flip" and "race situation" to describe a big all-in altercation. These terms are typically used when a player with a pair risks it all against another player with two overcards, such as pocket sixes versus A-K.

While that’s a traditional type of coin flip, a race can occur any time there’s an all-in pot where the odds are even close to 50-50. I’ll explain why it’s usually a better idea to gamble on a coin flip after the flop as opposed to before.

The most important reason why it’s dangerous to risk all your chips pre-flop is that you simply can’t be certain that you are even in a coin-flip situation at that time.

You could actually be a much bigger underdog than that. Say you’re playing pocket sixes against a higher pair, such as 9-9. The outlook is dismal in this situation, as you would have just a 19 percent chance to win the pot. That’s not a coin flip; you’re a 4-to-1 underdog!

You see, even a lowly starting hand like pocket sixes is a favorite against a seemingly strong hand like A-K. But the real problem with playing the sixes is that you’re banking on the best-case outcome to win the pot before the flop. Either you’re in a coin flip as a small favorite or you’re a massive underdog against a bigger pair.

Rookies often make this mistake. They’ll overplay these hands before the flop by calling big all-in bets. Or even worse, they’ll re-raise all-in.

Professionals, on the other hand, dread the idea of shoving all their chips into the pot in coin-flip situations. Once they push their chips in, they understand that skill is no longer a factor. Instead, they’re simply at the mercy of Lady Luck.

That’s why pros wait to take their chances with coin flips until after the flop.

It’s often said that to win a poker tournament, you have to win your fair share of coin flips. That’s true. But it’s not often mentioned that you can choose when to do your gambling. You’ll be much safer to delay moving all-in until after the flop, especially if you hit a two-way draw like a straight and flush draw, a pair and a draw, or a draw and overcards.

OK, say you hold 4h-6h and the flop comes Jh-6d-3h, giving you a pair and a flush draw. It’s impossible to be drawing dead against your opponent in this situation. If he has three of a kind, you still can hit your flush. And if he’s on a better flush draw, well, you’re still in the lead with a pair of sixes.

This is the kind of situation where you can gamble aggressively because you can’t be a massive underdog. Even if your opponent holds As-Ad, you’d still be the favorite with a 51.6 percent chance to win. If he has Ah-Kh for the better flush draw, you’d be favored to win a little over 52 percent of the time. And in the worst possible case, if he has three jacks, you’d still manage to win the pot 30 percent of the time.

Do what the pros do and wait until after the flop to try to win a race. That way you can be fairly certain that you’re in no worse shape than a coin-flip situation. Also, by playing aggressively after the flop, you might actually force your opponent to fold his stronger hand, thus winning the pot without even having to see the next two cards.

● Go to www.cardsharkmedia.com/book.html for information about Daniel Negreanu’s newest book, "More Hold’em Wisdom for All Players."

Source: azstarnet.com

Aussie exposes online poker rip-off

Detective work by an Australian online poker player has uncovered a $US10 million cheating scandal at two major poker websites and triggered a $US75 million legal claim.

In two separate cases, Michael Josem, from Chatswood, analysed detailed hand history data from Absolute Poker and UltimateBet and uncovered that certain player accounts won money at a rate too fast to be legitimate.

His findings led to an internal investigation by the parent company that owns both sites. It found rogue employees had defrauded players over three years via a security hole that allowed the cheats to see other player’s secret (or hole) cards.

Now the owners of the sites have filed a $US75 million claim against the makers of the software that powers them, claiming they were unaware of the security holes when they purchased the sites in 2006, MSNBC reported this month.

Official investigators – brought in following Josem’s revelations – have named one of the world’s most successful poker players, Russ Hamilton, as the main perpetrator of the fraud.

Suspicions of unfair play at Absolute Poker were first raised late last year. Josem plotted the win rate of several thousand players against the suspicious accounts and found the cheats won money at a rate that was 100 times faster than a good player could reasonably win.

The cheating accounts played every hand as if they knew every card that the other players had and folded hands at just the right time.

The findings led to an investigation by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which licenses several hundred online casinos and poker rooms. It found Absolute Poker attempted to cover up the cheating by deleting gaming logs and records and fined it $US500,000.

Absolute Poker repaid those who had lost money but refused to release the cheater’s identity because a private settlement was reached.

A few months later, Josem and players from the Two Plus Two online poker forum used the same methods to uncover almost identical cheating occurring at Absolute Poker’s sister site, UltimateBet. One player account, NioNio, netted a profit of $300,000 in just 3000 hands and won 13 of the 14 sessions recorded on the MyPokerIntel.com website, which tracks high stakes online tournaments.

"The chances of a player winning at those rates is approximately equal to winning a one-in-a-million lottery on six consecutive occasions," said Josem.

"In poker, a contest of limited information, if you know what cards your opponent has, you’ll never lose – and this is precisely what happened."

The cheats passed their fraudulent winnings between multiple user accounts in an attempt to avoid detection.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission today released the initial findings of an audit it is conducting into UltimateBet.

It named World Series of Poker winner Russ Hamilton, previously associated with Ultimate Bet’s affiliate program, as the main perpetrator. Commission spokesman Chuck Barnett said the names of others involved would come out when the final report was released in November.

The commission ordered UltimateBet to begin refunding all players adversely affected by the cheating scheme and remove any staff connected with the scheme by November 3.

The site has also been fined $US1.5 million and will have its licence revoked if it does not comply with any of the sanctions.

An Australian company, Gaming Associates, conducted the official investigations on both UltimateBet and Absolute Poker for the commission. Its principal consultant, Alan Pedley, refused to discuss the specifics of the findings as he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement.

As a result of his detective work Josem has been employed by the leading online poker site, PokerStars, to work on its security team.

He said other sites weren’t vulnerable to the same cheats because they used different software and had more credible operators.

"Just as not all insurance companies behave the same way as HIH, and not all politicians are the same as Brian Burke, not all poker companies are the same as UltimateBet and Absolute Poker," Josem said.

"The employees of the leading online poker operators simply don’t have the feature or ability to view hole cards of players during a hand and they don’t have this ability because of a security decision that was made when their software was first written many years ago."

Josem said people could still be confident about playing on online poker sites because, if something untoward happened, it could easily be caught by statistical analysis, precisely as happened in this situation.

"Every online poker hand is recorded electronically and can be analysed after the fact. Just as the third umpire video replay can be used to enforce the rules in cricket, third-party analysis can be used to enforce the rules of poker."

Source: The Age

Online Gaming Leads to Gambling Addiction for Some

When Derek Norman, a psychology senior, started playing online poker, he couldn’t stop. Soon he found himself playing eight to 10 hours a day, neglecting school work and finally losing over $2,000 in a roller coaster of highs and lows, Norman said.

Despite being a "terrible poker player," Norman was encouraged by big wins and started to look at poker "more as a career than a hobby," he said.

As poker’s popularity among college students continues to rise, so does the number of students who develop bad gambling habits that can lead to a pathological gambling addiction later in life, said Jeff Friedman, a therapist at Cottonwood de Tucson.

An article published in the New York Times magazine stated that in 2005 an estimated 1.6 million out of 17 million U.S. college students gambled online – mostly on poker.

Poker, particularly Texas Hold ‘Em, owes most of its increasing popularity to its presence on cable TV.

The escalating presence of poker in mainstream media has created an atmosphere of acceptability, said Rick Pyper, director of the Arizona Office of Problem Gambling.

"Poker is different from most forms of gambling because the player has the ability to make many more decisions and exert more control over the game. This is why poker attracts action gamblers while compulsive gamblers, who play to escape their problems, prefer to play games of pure chance like roulette or slots," Pyper said.

The element of skill is what initially attracted Norman to the game and, after walking away from poker for several months, he realized this is exactly what he had lacked.

Norman began picking up poker books and reading online forums.

Soon after turning 21, Norman went to Las Vegas and played in person for the first time and won $2,000 in three days.
Now Norman believes he’s a good player but acknowledges that at first he had "no idea how to play the game or manage his finances."

Mike Gelfund, a 22-year-old former UA student, agrees managing money is critical to being a successful poker player and actually has a separate bank account for his poker money.

"You can’t risk money for things you really need like rent or food," Gelfund said. "If you are afraid to lose your money, you won’t be able to put all the chips out there when you need to," he said.

Gelfund is very aware of gambling addictions and has seen many of his friends "go on tilt" and lose large amounts of money.
One of his friends lost $5,000 in 15 minutes while on the way to Las Vegas because they decided to play blackjack.
When he goes on tilt, Gelfund likes to take a break, breathe deeply and "try not to throw over the poker table," he laughed.

A successful poker player is someone who consistently wins, not someone who wins big once or twice, he said.
Gelfund and Norman agree poker is getting much more popular among students at the UA.

A study done by the Annenberg Public Policy Center concluded that the number of college males who reported gambling online once a week or more doubled in 2005.

Friedman has also seen an increase in the number of pathological gamblers that come into Cottonwood de Tucson, but attributes this mostly to the fact that there are more opportunities to gamble.

Most college students that report gambling problems come for treatment of a substance abuse problem and don’t meet the criteria for pathological gambling because they don’t have enough money, Friedman said.

If you have a problem with gambling or know someone who does, Friedman recommends you call Gambler’s Anonymous at (520) 570-7879 or go to their website, www.gamblersanonymous.org/mtgdirAZ.html to see their meeting times.

Source: media.wildcat.arizona.edu

Boss Media accelerating IPN poker network growth with tournaments, jackpots and games!

Boss Media today announced that it is aggressively growing the International Poker Network (IPN) by upgrading its online poker platform with a greater variety of multi-table tournaments, progressive jackpots and authentic new side games. In addition Boss will also be capitalizing on the recent national gaming legislation changes in Italy and creating a new poker network in one of the world’s largest gaming markets.

Brought together by their recent acquisition by GTECH, Boss Media and St Minver are now exporting their Poker expertise to Italy in conjunction with their GTECH sister company Lottomatica Scomesse. "The network will initially be for Italian poker players exclusively, but we hope that eventually, legislation will allow us to pool liquidity from the Italian network with our other European poker networks, possibly even with the IPN hosted outside Italy," says Per Karlsson, Head of Poker at Boss Media. The company continues to be the dominant solution provider in the national operator segment of the e-gaming market. The new Italian poker network represents the third online poker network Boss Media has launched in Europe for nationally-licensed operators. Boss Media has also supplied poker network solutions to Sweden and Austria.

The launch of the Italian project is an example of how Boss Media plans to take advantage of the combined skills and resources of the GTECH family of companies to further develop its poker platform. "With additional resources to invest in development of the poker platform and bring the player’s user experience to a new level, we aim to grow and acquire even more market share" says Karlsson. Karlsson continues "Albeit industry poker growth has slowed down IPN is still growing strong in terms of market share thanks to a reliable poker system and attractive tournaments and promotions. Our September Sizzler campaign increased rake in the IPN by almost 11% compared to August."

Boss Media has already invested significant resources in the development of its jackpot system and multi-table tournament technology. Early this December, the new Bad Beat Jackpot will be introduced at the IPN. With an initial value of no less than €100,000, this progressive jackpot will keep growing and drawing interest until one lucky player hits it.

With the release of Boss Media’s upgraded poker system software this November, the IPN will be capable of arranging multi-table tournaments in all its games. Poker fans in the IPN can expect even more tempting tournaments such as the 10-week promotional schedule of €5,000 free rolls. The You Only Live Twice tournament takes off this month, and in December, the IPN will hold a €1 Million Guaranteed tournament with satellites starting in October.

In addition, Boss Media will offer all IPN partners a full suite of instant-play games that can be offered to players as side games within the poker room. "Fast games like slots, video poker, scratch tickets and others heighten the entertainment value of a poker room," says Eric Matsgård, Head of Casino & Games at Boss Media. He says the company intends to expand its selection of exciting instant-play games through cooperation with innovative game creators like the recently-acquired Dynamite Idea as well as games from Spielo, Atronic and other sister companies within the GTECH Group. "We’re now bigger, better and even more motivated to do great things in gaming."

Source: igamingbusiness.com

Online Poker Plan Uses Real Cards to Prove Honesty

A Denver entrepreneur has devised a system for online poker that answers all questions of authenticity, accountability, and transparency. Gene Gioia wondered about the implausible hands he saw online, and wanted to find a way to verify that software flaws were not causing hands that would not occur at live tables.

Gioia came from a professional background as a consultant in charge of auditing software installations for nationwide companies. He decided the way to assure players the game and system were legitimate was to deal actual cards.

Gioia and his brother created a machine, which they call the "Real Deal", to continuously shuffle and deal cards at very high speed. The results can be transmitted to computers running hundreds of simultaneous games. This should give true results, unlike the random number generators currently used, Gioia believes.

All hands dealt are recorded and available for future auditing.Gioia will open the site realdealpoker.com to give free demonstrations of his product.

After the AbsolutePoker and UltimateBet cheating scandals, players are more suspicious than ever of online poker rooms. One poll showed over two-thirds of online players do not trust the deal, and many players aviod Internet play for reasons of trust.

Gioia doesn’t accuse sites of cheating, but he notes they can’t prove they don’t, and his method can. He hopes that the demo website will bring him the financing necessary to get his own online poker room running, and then the natural draw of an auditable site will bring customers flocking.

Source: onlinepokerwebsite.net