EPT Berlin Poker Robbery Featured on TV Show

We've just learned about the armed robbery at the EPT Berlin Poker tourney. Yikes! It's hard to believe you can pull something like that off, but when the money is in a room - maybe you should lock it up a bit better?

The armed robbery that took place during the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Berlin festivities was featured on the German television program “Aktenzeichen XY Ungelöst,” the equivalent of “America’s Most Wanted.”

The episode aired on Wednesday night and German police are now awaiting tips that could help bring the perpetrators to justice, according to Abendblatt.de. Viewers and anyone else in the poker industry with information are encouraged to pick up a phone and call 089-95 01 95, which will connect you to the program’s studios in Munich. “Aktenzeichen XY Ungelöst” appears on the television station ZDF and its producers work in conjunction with local police.

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Steve Wynn Looking to Bring Live Poker to Philadelphia - We're Excited

Poker is coming to Philadelphia thanks to the recession. Foxwoods is a familiar name to anyone who plays poker in New England. Since 2006 the Mashantucket Pequot tribe that owns the Foxwoods casino complex in Connecticut has also had a license to build another casino bearing the Foxwoods name in Philadelphia, but repeated delays in starting development during that time have them in danger of losing that license. Now it looks like the man who has done more for live poker than any other casino builder and operator, Steve Wynn, is stepping in to try to make the project a reality.

The 67-year-old casino magnate’s company, Wynn Resorts, has signed a letter of intent to take over the development licensed to the Mashantucket Pequots and bring a “straightforward casino” to the Philadelphia waterfront. While there will be no hotel on site, Wynn said during a recent conference call that the new casino would include “all the bells and whistles,” including a poker room. Poker was legalized in Pennsylvania casinos last month.

At Steve Wynn Looking to Bring Live Poker to Philadelphia

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Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Senate President Want Poker - We Want Poker Too

Everyone is getting into the casino or poker game, and elected officials in Maryland have spoken out in favor of adding poker and other table games to their new slot casinos recently as the state’s legislature is considering bills to expand their gaming offerings.

Although there is still a lot of work to bring legalized table games to Maryland, the fact that yet another U.S. state is considering welcoming poker within its borders shows just how hungry state governments are for revenue — and just how accepted poker has become in the mainstream.

Via CardPlayer.com

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Cake Poker Gives Back WSOP Bracelet Sold On Ebay

Cake Poker, one of the top five largest online poker networks, has bought the bracelet at the Buy It Now price of $2,500 of TJ Cloutier. And you know what they're doing with it? They're giving it back to him.

“As much as we would love to have a WSOP bracelet, or even award it to one of our cherished poker players, we can’t, in good conscience, keep it from the man who rightfully won it; which is why we’ve decided to return it to TJ Cloutier… just as soon as we’re done having some fun with it,” stated the Cake Poker blog.

Via Bluff Europe Magazine

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Harvard MBAs Play Poker

This is a pretty interesting idea - want to have a very smart set of people play poker and make it interesting - why not just recruit MBAs from the top business schools. Joe Godfrey is one of the new breed of MBA poker players. At the bottom of Joe Godfrey’s resume, below his Harvard Business School degree, is another of his accomplishments: poker champion.

In 2006, Godfrey was a winner at Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.’s inaugural MBA Poker Championship, beating 470 students and alumni from what Harrah’s says were mostly top-20 U.S. business schools.

The three-day event, which requires entrants to submit resumes, is set for its fifth edition Jan. 15-17 at Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and doubles as a recruiting opportunity for the world’s biggest casino company and tournament sponsors. It was founded on the popularity of poker on business-school campuses.

Via BusinessWeek

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States Legalizing Poker to fill in Economic Void in Recession

Pennsylvania has moved ahead from all the other states by legalizing blackjack, poker, slots and other table games. In a bit to gain some of its gamblers money it legalized these games on Thursdays.The only step that would legalize gambling was the signature of Gov. Ed Rendell. Although he signed on the dotted line passing the law he did mention that he did had a few misgivings about expanding gambling culture. Reasons for his misgivings were that of all the casinos in Pennsylvania 14 of them were authorized by the law that was passed out in 2004 are still running.

More At PokerHeadline.com

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Joe Cada Wins $8.5 million poker jackpot at World Series of Poker

Well I'm bummed. I'm not sure why - but I just don't like this guy that much. Oh well - Joe Cada, the youngest champion in the 40-year history of the game's richest and most prestigious event, won with a pair of nines after about 90 hands head-to-head against second-place finisher Darvin Moon.

Cada squandered a huge lead at the start of play late on Monday against 46-year-old Moon before barreling back in a finale of constant betting. It was played before an audience of more than 1,500 people at the Rio Hotel-Casino at a table stacked with bricks of cash. A diamond-encrusted championship bracelet gleamed on the side of the table.

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Who Will Win the WSOP on November 9?

WSOP.com recently caught up with a few of this year’s World Series of Poker Bracelet winners as well as a few well-known personalities in the poker community to ask them for their November Nine predictions. This is what some of them had to say...

At World Series of Poker - Official Tournament Coverage and Results

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Mandalay Media Increases Proposal to Acquire World Poker Tour

We didn't even know this was going on, but have wondered where the WPT has gone in our lives. It seems like it used to be on TV all the time, but now we are either not Tivoing or it's off the air (going to check now). Good luck WPT, but given the brand has withered a bit - this seems like a good offer.

Mandalay Media, Inc. (OTCBB:MNDL) today announced that it has increased its
proposal to the Board of Directors of WPT Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WPTE). The
revised proposal is to acquire WPT for $36.5 million, consisting of $28.5
million in cash, $5 million in Mandalay Media stock and perpetual revenue
participation rights, guaranteed to be at least $3 million. The estimated value
to shareholders per share is $1.77, including the guaranteed portion of the
revenue participation rights, and as adjusted for the actual share count at
closing. The proposal represents a premium of approximately 61% over the closing
price of WPT`s common stock on October 26, 2009 and a premium of approximately
28% over the implied value at closing of WPT`s pending asset sale with Peerless
Media Ltd.

At Mandalay Media Increases Proposal to Acquire World Poker Tour to $36.5 million, $1.77 Per Share

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Mike Sexton Elected to Poker Hall of Fame

A special congrats goes out to Mike Sexton for making it into the Hall of Fame. For me - he was my first VOICE of poker and has recently been doing really well on the tournament circuit. It's always tough to pick who gets into any hall of fame - but in our minds he deserves it for all the contributions he's made to the game.

Long recognized as one of the good guys of poker, World Series of Poker bracelet winner and World Poker Tour announcer Mike Sexton received a big salute from some of his peers today.

Harrah's and the WSOP announced that Sexton has been elected to the Poker Hall of the Fame. He's only player of the nine finalists -- which included Grand Rapids native and 1983 WSOP main event champion Tom McEvoy -- who will be inducted this year.

Via MLive.com

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Poker Playing Priest Gambles for Fun and Money

My hat is off to you sir. It's nice to see the someone in the cloth loosening up a bit to play some cards.

Here's a new-to-me twist -- a card-playing priest, rosary handy, stars in the lead-off of a TV poker competition this weekend.

Father Andrew Trapp, an assistant pastor at St. Michael Catholic Church in Garden City Beach, S,C, has won $25,000 -- so far as the PokerStars publicists will say -- and the right to keep on playing in the show's Million Dollar Challenge, which begins airing on FOX on Sunday.

At Poker-playing priest gambles for fun, funds - Faith & Reason

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Derek Webb: The Man Behind 3-card poker

This is a pretty cool article on Derek Webb - the man behind 3-Card poker. We love the game and find it relaxing compared to the perils of Crazy 4 Poker.

Bettors know and love the three-card poker table game for its fast action and big payouts on monster hands.

But for inventor Derek Webb, the process of bringing the game to market was anything but easy.

Webb, who splits his time these days between Las Vegas and Darby, England, likens the process of getting casinos to license the game to "pulling teeth," and notes that it was one of the toughest challenges of his career.

At Derek Webb: man behind 3-card poker

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Poker Pros Michelle and Ho Confirmed for The Amazing Race - YES!

Being a big fan of the Amazing Race it's a treat to see two poker pros (hot poker pros) in the next show.

After two months of speculation, CBS has finally confirmed what the poker world has suspected all along: poker pros Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho will be competing together as a team on the upcoming season of the competition reality show “The Amazing Race.”

Photos, bios and video of the two women went up on the show’s official website on Wednesday, along with those of the other eleven teams competing in the latest installment of the race. Ho and Michelle will be facing off against a wide array of people including a married couple who work as yoga instructors, members of the Harlem Globetrotters, a singer/songwriter team and a contestant who has Asperger’s Syndrome.

At Poker Pros Michelle and Ho Confirmed for “The Amazing Race”

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Will Poker Be Legalized in Colorado?

These guys hope so. Besides being arrested for a $20 buy in earlier in the year - they are still going strong. Great article - and let's legalize poker nationwide.

Reporting from Denver - Let's say you're playing poker and you need one more diamond for a flush. The dealer turns a card, reveals a diamond and you win the hand. Was it skill or luck?

The answer is affecting the fates of people across the country accused of breaking anti-gambling laws -- people like Kevin Raley of Colorado.

As an engineer, Raley finds that the mathematics of poker come easily, and he's pretty good at keeping a blank face. Reading other people, though, is something he's always working on. "It's something I'm better at today than I was five years ago," said Raley.

At latimes.com

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