Internet Texas Holdem

In somewhat surprising news, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson has given his opinion on online casino gambling, and it’s not a good one. He has publicly stated that he completely opposes online poker. Adelson, the richest casino executive in the world, heads the largest publicly traded company in the casino industry (the Sands). Because of his status in the industry, his opinion has a lot of weight.

This isn’t a formal stance by Adelson, but it is rather interesting considering that he has been a supporter of the Republican Party for quite some time. This includes Arizona Senator Jon Kyl who has been a major opponent of online casinos for USA players for a while. Proof of this is in his support of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006.

A lot of the surprise stems from the fact that Adelson’s personal view is far removed from many others in the casino industry who believe that licensed and regulated online poker should be available in the United States. This is in addition to the fact that earlier in the year, Adelson was said to be in support of online poker at the federal level…

Two of the men that were named in the Black Friday indictments have opted to defend themselves in a very interesting way. Both Chad Elie and John Campos will be using the fact that poker is a skill game to try to have their charges overturned.

The charges against the men are very serious and include money laundering for both. In total, Elie is facing nine charges while Campos is facing six. They are hoping that the opinion that poker is a skill game will help them overturn some of these charges. In order for things to go their way, they will need to convince a federal judge of this view. Elie and Campos were arrested back in April just a few days after Black Friday.

Campos was the Vice Chairman of Utah based SunFirst Bank. His trouble stems from the fact that he was facilitating payment processing for PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. If you live in the United States and used to play online poker, chances are that you used to play on one of both or those rooms as a William Hill Poker download wasn’t an option.

Elie, also based in Utah, was a businessman.…

Black Friday changed the lives of many American online poker players as their access to the biggest online poker rooms was cut off without warning. Many players were forced to decide whether or not they were willing to take drastic actions to continue playing online. Because most of the other sites available in the U.S. have terrible player traffic, the only option for many of these players was to move to another country.

Moving out of your country is not an easy thing to do. Not only do you have to do research on the immigration rules of the country you’re moving to, you also have to find accommodations in said country. If your site of choice is PokerStars, your next task will then be to provide proof that you have an alternate place of residence in a different country. Poker Refugees was made to help you with these things.

Poker Refugees is brought to you by PocketFives.com, which you might know as a tournament ranking site. It costs $1,000 to receive the services of this new endeavor.

Poker Refugees can help you decide which country to move to. They will help you find a place to rent…

Black Friday has been the start of many problems between poker players as the online poker best have been forced to make many changes. Drama has been rampant, and stories of unethical situations have unfortunately surfaced as a result. A good example of all of the above is the story of Jose “Girah” Macedo.

Macedo became famous as someone who went from rags to riches. Nicknamed the Portuguese Poker Prodigy, he apparently turned a €30 deposit into a bankroll that could support games all the way up to $100/$200 No Limit Hold’em. Two respected players, Daniel “jungleman” Cates and Haseeb “DogIsHead” Qureshi, vouched for his skill and knowledge of the game.

Apparently due to lawyer instruction, Macedo wasn’t willing to tell anyone the screen names he used in online poker rooms. People didn’t really question this, though, because numerous pros were willing to put up six figures worth of action with anyone who wanted to challenge the story of Macedo.

Soon Macedo was made a Lock Poker Pro, but this is where things get sketchy. He was the winner of a Lock Poker competition, but then he was disqualified for multi-accounting. His story was that…

It’s fair to say that previous legislative attempts to clear the name of online poker have not met with great success. With Black Friday still impacting the industry, the need for full legalization and regulation of online poker is even more imperative. That may give the latest pro poker bill, crafted by Texas Republican Joe Barton, more chance than most.

The Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2011 is set to assault Capitol Hill in the coming weeks. It seeks to fully exempt poker from the nebulous prohibitions brought about by the 2006 UIGEA and create a market open to US friendly poker sites.

It purports that poker is a game of skill and would give residents of the United States full access to a safe and regulated market. Individual states would be able to opt out of the law at their own discretion, but without specific action, poker would remain legal in their jurisdiction.

Online poker sites will need to apply for a license if they wish to become US poker sites. These permits will last for five years each. There are several conditions which must be maintained by every site. Companies…

Players everywhere were stunned when they heard that Phil Ivey filed a lawsuit against Tiltware, famous for offering some of the online poker best games around. Widely regarded as the best poker player in the world, he is claiming $150 million to cover the money he has lost due to damage to his reputation.

The problems have been rampant with Full Tilt since April 15th, when they were indicted by the Department of Justice. Their biggest worries come from the fact that they have been unable to repay American players despite reaching a so-called agreement with the Department of Justice. PokerStars players were paid back weeks ago, which makes the situation even worse for this download free poker site.

Ivey is unhappy with the way the site has handled the problems. Moreover, he feels that his “name and reputation have been dragged through the mud” because of “inactivity and indecision”.

To highlight his cause, Ivey will not be playing any WSOP events this year. He brought up the fact that since many Americans have money trapped on Full Tilt, they are unable to afford entry into WSOP tournaments. He feels that it is morally wrong for him…

As part of their movement for US poker sites, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) organized a D.C. fly-in on May 24th. The hope was to bring as many poker advocates as possible to Capitol Hill to show their support for online poker and to stress the need for regulation.

In total around fifty people participated in the rally. The PPA paid for 24 members to fly-in, including a variety of their state directors. They were joined by 12 regular PPA members that were able to pay for their own flights to Washington. In support of the rally, around fifty other PPA members met in district offices closer to home.

The PPA’s executive director made it clear that they did as much as possible to increase participation. “Obviously we would have liked to have more players there, but I’m not sure what the PPA could have done more to promote it,” he stated. He added that the rally was an overall success, especially since organizers only had 3 weeks to put it together.

Clearly casinos for USA players need all the help they can get when it comes to the regulation. Members of Congress have stated that they wouldn’t…

Ever since Black Friday hit, online poker players have clung to the hope that legislation is on its way. Barney Frank and co made attempts to introduce meaningful online poker regulations over the past few years, but with Americans still enjoying top texas holdem sites un-menaced, the impetus was never there.

However, with the United States cracking down hard on player’s few remaining outlets, commentators have suggested that there may be a new drive to see online poker full legalized, taxed, and regulated in the U.S.

The first serious online poker bill since Black Friday comes from a new source. Texas Republican Joe Barton announced he is planning to table a motion that would allow the industry to return to the States in an officially recognized capacity.

Echoing the arguments made by poker advocates for years, Barton announced that “poker is a game of skill,” at a recent press conference. To back up his claim, he challenged anyone to battle former WSOP winner Greg Raymer heads up. Raymer, a member of the Poker Players Alliance and formerly of the PokerStars Download, was positioned behind the Congressman during the announcement.

Barton hopes that the bill will pass through both…

People currently living in the United States no longer have a lot of options when it comes to playing poker. PokerStars, UB, and Full Tilt Poker no longer accept Americans, so you will need to go with a smaller network if you want to play online. For example, perhaps you could try a True Poker download. If the smaller sites don’t appeal to you, you will need to travel to a brick-and-mortar.

There are a lot of Americans that want back on the big sites, and so they are considering a move. Clearly this is not a great choice for players with families or jobs, but it is an opportunity to travel and meet new people for others. This entry will have details about relocating to Australia.

It may sound like a good idea to move to Australia so that you can continue to earn PokerStars rakeback, but it would be wise to do a little research first. The first thing to figure out is what kind of documents are required for entry into the country.

Those with the intention to visit Australia must hold an electronic travel authority, otherwise known as an ETA. You must apply…

When the Department of Justice launched their raid on internet poker, part of their goal was to shut down the site’s provision for American players. To that end, they seized the domain names of PokerStars, Full Tilt, Absolute and UB. PS and FT have both seen their .com addresses returned as part of a deal to ensure that U.S. players are refunded.

Blanca Games, parent company of Absolute and UB, recently announced a similar deal, although that did not include a provision to unlock their domain names. As part of the treaty, Absolute made a very clear statement about ending their service to U.S. players.

Their May 4th press release read: “Absolute Poker agrees that for the duration of the agreement, it will not allow for, facilitate, or provide the ability for players located in the United States to engage in playing poker for “real money” or any other thing of value.” This quote has been widely circulated on news and poker forum sites.

However, a report from traffic monitoring site PokerScout seems to indicate that some Americans are still slipping through the net. Their data shows that players from a number of different states have been playing for…