How Many Times Do I have to Shuffle a Deck of Cards?

Only seven times my friends - only seven times. See below - but given the math - that's how many times more or less. :-)

Here’s the rule: To assure cards get sufficiently mixed up, shuffle a deck about seven times. Mathematician, magician and card shark Persi Diaconis of Stanford University, along with David Bayer of Columbia University, created shock waves in Las Vegas when he figured that out back in 1992. Most dealers had been shuffling much less.

But now Diaconis and his colleagues are issuing an update. When dealing many gambling games, like blackjack, about four shuffles are enough. The reason for the lower number is that many games require randomness for only a few specific aspects of the cards, not all. In blackjack, for example, suits don’t matter. Diaconis and his collaborators extended the earlier analysis to account for these variations.

Gamblers and casinos aren’t the only ones who will benefit. One the most useful tools for applied mathematicians — the Monte Carlo simulation — was inspired by the games of chance that are main attractions in Monte Carlo, Monaco. The new card-shuffling results apply directly to this method, promising to save mathematicians computer time.

Read at Science News / Shuffling The Cards: Math Does The Trick

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World Series of Poker Final Table - Peter Eastgate Wins

We've been watching the World Series of Poker over the past 3 months and finally sat down last night to watch the final two hours. We didn't have Peter Eastgate picked to win, but in the end he pulled it out. Great stuff and click on through for exclusive news and videos of the final event.

World Series of Poker management billed the heads-up portion of the Main Event final table as a heavyweight fight between two pugilists. But 22-year-old Danish poker pro Peter Eastgate had other ideas; he turned the duel into a somewhat one-sided affair and had his Russian counterpart Ivan Demidov on the ropes for the entire night.

The final hand was typical of the win for Eastgate. A seemingly harmless 4c fell on the turn that gave Demidov two pair, fours and twos, but completed Eastgate’s wheel draw. All the money went in on the river and Eastgate’s final knockout punch made him World Champion.

At World Series of Poker - Official Tournament Coverage and Results

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INAUGURAL "CARNIVAL POKERPRO CHALLENGE" POKER TOURNAMENT A SUCCESS

IPokerTek, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTEK), the industry pioneer and worldwide leader in automated poker tables and related software, is pleased to announce the successful completion of the inaugural Carnival® PokerPro® Challenge tournament.

The tournament began with a series of No Limit Texas Hold'Em satellite tournaments aboard 20 ships in the Carnival fleet, and in select PokerPro land-based casinos, between January and June 2008. Each satellite winner received a cash prize, plus an entry into the Grand Final Event in October to compete for the over $70,000 cash prize pool.

Continue reading: "INAUGURAL "CARNIVAL POKERPRO CHALLENGE" POKER TOURNAMENT A SUCCESS"

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Luck of the Irish

In a story we came across on Market Watch, it appears that Dublin has been awarded the European Poker Capital 2008 by Bluff Europe Magazine. We had no idea that Ireland was such an up and comer in the euro-poker scene. You can bet it has been added to our list of rooms to visit!

Check out more on the story at Market Watch, or at Bluff Europe.

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World Poker Tour Makes a Deal with Fox Sports

You can't always get out to the casino floors to get in some great poker, but for the last several years, you have been able to easily catch great poker on television. The mass market appeal of the various TV shows, arguably led by the World Poker Tour, has created a massive upsurge in the popularity of the game. So Its great to hear that the show goes on, and apparently its going on Fox Sports!

Casino City Times has the story.

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BlackJack Extreme

As we were perusing the news this morning, we discovered an intriguing story about a Hollywood movie mogul trying to spin a new casino card game he invented into the next Texas Hold'em. His game, called BlackJack Extreme sounds like an intriguing mix of poker and blackjack, with plenty of bluffing, and a chance to play the "house".

Here's a bit about the story behind this new game from KansasCity.com:

[David C.]Thomas and Internet marketing guru Mark Koetting have formed BJX Entertainment LLC and are simultaneously pitching BlackJack Extreme as a TV card-game show, an online or live casino poker room game and an electronic game joining slot machines and video poker on casino floors.

“This is very ambitious to move simultaneously into three major industries,” Thomas admitted. But he’s confident that, given a chance, the game will catch on.

“It’s fast. It’s fun,” he said. And, he added, BlackJack Extreme is even more sociable than standard blackjack or Texas Hold ’em.

And for more on the game itself, head over to the BlackJack Extreme website, where you can learn to play, watch a sample game, and see a video that gives a flavor of how a TV show might work.

Welcome to the sickest game in town. We took the best of poker, added the best of blackjack, and came up with a brand new game. If you have the heart to bluff, the courage to make big plays and the brains to stay two jumps ahead of your opponents we’ve got the game for you. It’s blackjack so the rules are familiar - you can surrender, hit, stay, double and naturals pay 3 to 2. It’s BlackJack eXtreme because everyone takes turns being the dealer. When you’re the dealer, you can bluff, fold and hit any soft hand. When you’re the player you can go all-in but take as many cards as needed to make the best hand. And card counting is allowed. Learn to Play – Play to Win.

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Venetian Poker Room Review

This morning, we came across a very nice review of the Poker Room at the Venetian written up by Pokernews.com. We have not had the chance to visit the venetian's poker room, but it sure sounds like a lovely place.

The Venetian's poker room is one of three high-end, luxury poker rooms in Las Vegas, the other two being the Wynn and the Bellagio. The Venetian was designed with appearance in mind, having 21 large-screen plasma televisions, beautiful tables, extremely comfortable, adjustable chairs, richly appointed décor, and a very tasteful, muted, coordinated color scheme to the room – giving it an air of luxury that's unmatched in Las Vegas rooms.

Read the full review over at the Poker News.

Visit the Venetian Main Site

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World Series of Poker Extravaganza!

The 2007 World Series of Poker is well under way, and you can keep track of all the action through the magic and wonder of the Internet.

We begin our tour with a stop at the PokerNews WSOP Live Reporting Page. This page is fantastic. You can get event standings, and even chip counts in up-to-date time. Its not exactly "real time" but its pretty darn fast. Each event is essentially treated as a blog, and the reporters just regularly update the info on the event! Brilliant! There is even a video gallery of all the action!

Another great feature of the site, is the "Feature Hands" section. This section replays great hands in a "sports graphic" sort of way, so that you can see just how the action unfolded. A simply AWESOME feature.

That not enough for you? Fine, no worries, you can head over to the Official WSOP site, and get plenty of live coverage there too!

To begin with, there is a ton of video coverage, including daily recaps for every day of the tourney. Of course, there is a tournament standing update page, which gives the standings for each event. On the main page, you can get to all of the various blogs covering the tournament. And finally, there is the video coverage of all of the final tables.

If you really need your know whats happening live, you can, for a premium of $50 a year, get the Live Video.

With all the tools at your disposal, its pretty hard to miss all the action going on at this year's WSOP. Maybe next year, they will add a remote-play feature, so you can even PLAY the tournament via the Internet.

WSOP Live Reporting at Poker News
WSOP Official Site

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Phil Hellmuth Achieves 11 World Series of Poker Bracelets

Well, the bad boy of poker has done it. He has won his 11th bracelet on the World Series of Poker events, and thus solidified his position as one of the greatest poker players of all time. And somehow, we think he wont be stopping at 11. Congratulations Mr. Hellmuth.

The Casino City Times has the story:

The self-dubbed WSOP "Record Man" now stands alone atop the poker world.

Phil Hellmuth Jr., who before the series vowed to play well enough to break all of the major WSOP records, humbly accepted number bracelet No. 11 from Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan Monday night after winning Event #15, a $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event. The victory came just one year after he tied Brunson and Chan with ten WSOP titles.

The 1989 WSOP Main Event title was Hellmuth's largest victory in terms or prestige and money, but this last win was the personal mission of a player who wants to be remembered as one of the greatest of all time.

"This is the one I really wanted," Hellmuth said afterward in a post-tournament press conference. "I have so much respect for Doyle and Johnny. To now be at the top of the all-time (WSOP wins) list is really about as good a feeling as I have ever had."

Phil's Website
World Series of Poker Website

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Atlantic City Hosts a successful WPT Winter Poker Open

The Casino City Times had this to say about the event:

It was electric inside the Event Center at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa on Thursday. The forty remaining players from Event 1 ($500 buy-in event) returned to battle. The field that began with 1,370 players had been whittled down to three. Tae Baik of Leonia, NJ, knocked out the remaining two players to capture the first title of the 2007 Winter Poker Open and the $152,960 in first place prize money.

David Zhu of Scarbourough, Canada, was the second place finisher taking home $95,900. The third place finisher, Emad Alabsi of Wickliffe, Ohio takes home $58,225. Alabsi, who called himself the "The Beast" at the table, had a dominating table personality often singing for the table or laughing it up with the growing crowd. "I always have fun when I'm playing poker here; Borgata offers a great atmosphere to play in."

More on the Winter Poker Open

Also see the upcoming WPT Borgata Poker Classic Info Final Table scheduled for Jan 30th.

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