History books will show the folly of being slaves to the pokie lobby
February 22, 2012
“Like slavery in the time of Wilberforce, there is no politician that likes pokies”. Photo: Louise Kennerley
William Wilberforce’s fight to end slavery was morally unambiguous. There is no serving politician who believes they would have been on the wrong side of that debate. But they are wrong.
Like the end of apartheid, when it was impossible to find a white person who was ever in favour of the policy, slavery now seems a clear-cut issue. Yet there were many political leaders who opposed Wilberforce’s abolition bill from 1787 to 1807, even though all believed slavery to be distasteful. Sane arguments defeated Wilberforce’s nonetheless moral reforms for 20 years.
While there is no moral equivalence between slavery and pokies, the same arguments are being used by the pokies lobby and bought by our politicians today. Like slavery in the time of Wilberforce, there is no politician that likes pokies. Indeed, most politicians on both sides tell me they hate them.
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But in the next breath they say reform is too hard because we are dependent on pokies. They argue state revenues depend (except in WA) on reaping 40 to 60 per cent of the $12 billion lost by problem gamblers. And as there are only 100,000 Australians addicted to pokies, and it is a matter of personal responsibility, it is not that big a problem anyway.
Each addict affects five to 10 others, meaning up to 1 million Australians are affected, the Productivity Commission found. Leaving that aside, why should even 100,000 people be sacrificed on the pokies altar on the grounds of personal responsibility? We have 100,000 homeless, many of whom made irresponsible choices, yet they enjoy bipartisan policies of intervention. We have 72,000 heroin addicts and treat it as a serious health issue.
There are extraordinary parallels between the arguments that stymied the abolition of slavery and those put forward today to quash poker machine reform.
The first is substitution. It was claimed if the British slave trade was abolished, competitors in France and Spain would benefit. The pokies lobby cry substitution, too.
If we slow down machines to maximum $1 bets and losses of $120 an hour rather than $1200 an hour – as the Productivity Commission recommends – addicts will lose money on horses or online. Wrong! Norway pulled out all pokies for two years in 2007 leading to a net reduction in gambling and the lowest problem gambling rate in years, even among former pokie users.
The second argument is the economy. Slavery in the 18th century, like pokies today, was not ”top of mind” for most people in Britain. Wilberforce’s friend and prime minister, William Pitt the Younger – the founder of the modern Tory party – let him down on slavery, though he agreed it was wrong.
He was busy reforming the economy by introducing income tax and consolidating revenues to fund and fight the Napoleonic wars. He could not expend political capital against powerful vested interests on a ”side” issue. Think Gillard and Abbott.
The third argument is incrementalism. Slave traders accepted amendments such as six inches more room for each slave in ships’ hulls. Similarly, the pokie industry reluctantly accepts more natural lighting, less predatory targeting of incentives to problem gamblers and voluntary pre-commitment technology. But voluntary is as sensible as optional brakes in a car.
If a pokie addict is the only one in a room using a voluntary card, it signals to others that they have a problem. That stigma explains why every trial of voluntary pre-commitment has failed.
The final argument was an early version of the ”nanny state”. It was not the role of the British government to interfere in a legal business that was a source of huge profit and was needed to develop the West Indies and the colonies. The role of the state is to protect us whether through a defence force or road rules.
I reminded the Coalition’s gambling committee recently that it was a Liberal premier in Henry Bolte who introduced the first compulsory car seatbelts in the world, a Liberal premier in Rupert Hamer who introduced 0.05 blood alcohol laws and a Liberal premier in Jeff Kennett who invaded the sanctity of the home by legislating fences around swimming pools. Were these nanny state Liberals?
In 2010, the Productivity Commission recommended $1 bets, preferred by 88 per cent of regular players, without the need for a trial. Its secondary recommendation was a mandatory pre-commitment card with a trial for the dangerous high loss machines banned in many parts of the world. That is the real reform that is needed.
In years to come, just like the abolition of slavery or apartheid, I hope we will scratch our heads and wonder why it didn’t happen sooner.
Reverend Tim Costello is chief executive of World Vision Australia and a member of the Stop The Loss Coalition.
Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU
History books will show the folly of being slaves to the pokie lobby
Lake Wales businesses give nod to tradition
February 21, 2012
By MIKE FREEMANNews Chief Correspondent Published: Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 7:53 a.m. Last Modified: Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 7:53 a.m.
LAKE WALES – For one day, Lorraine Hazellief is ready to dish up a taste of classic New Orleans cooking at her restaurant, Lorraine’s Place, in downtown Lake Wales.
“Inside the restaurant, we’re doing a half Cuban sandwich and Jambalaya,” Hazellief said of the meals that are a staple of N’Awlins cuisine.
Outside in the parking lot, within view of pedestrians walking past the restaurant at the corner of Central Avenue and 1st Street, was a table covered with chopped onions, sweet relish, ketchup and mustard, for those who wanted something else: smoked sausage.
It was, Hazellief said, her restaurant’s nod to a decades-long Lake Wales tradition, Mardi Gras, and the crowds that pack into downtown to enjoy the live music, vendors with food and New Orleans-style crafts and gift items, and, of course, that big Mardi Gras parade.
For a business owner in the downtown, Mrdii Gras, Hazellief said, is a gold mine.
“This is my third year doing it, and it’s been pretty good so far today,” she said. “It gets a lot crazier in the evening.”
Morning, afternoon, or night, she added, the Lake Wales Mardi Gras brings out the crowds in big numbers for downtown.
“This is our busiest day,” she said.
That reputation alone brought Mark and Marie Metz to downtown, to set up a booth where they could sell their special product: banana bread, and lots of it. Their business, Banana Bread Heaven, strives to be diverse.
“We’ve got 12 different flavors of banana bread,” Mark Metz said. “We’ve got 120 banana breads here. It took us the better part of a week to bake them.”
A regular at the Lake Wales Farmers Market, Mark Metz said his fellow merchants advised him to get a booth at Mardi Gras, or risk missing out on those big crowds.
“This is our first year,” he said. “We come to the Lake Wales Farmers Market all the time, and everybody told us to go to Mardi Gras.”
Along Market Street, the vendors set up their booths early, offering everything from Mardi Gras T-shirts, feather hair clips and puppets to key chains and custom poker chips. With live performances starting at 11 a.m. and with the parade within hours of kicking off, the crowds were already drawn to downtown by late morning, in anticipation of a day of fun.
“This is a family fun Mardi Gras,” said Pat Hays, one of the organizers of the event. “This is just fun and frivolity.”
It’s not at all intended, she added, to be on the same grand scale as what tourists might expect in New Orleans — or even what they might see up the road at Universal Studios. But that’s fine, Hays said, adding that smaller is perfect for Lake Wales.
What she preferred was people relaxing at a picnic table in front of the downtown stage to watch a performance by Debbie and Jon Corneal, the Nashville performers who were on hand to sing country classics like Buck Owens’ “Together Again” for the crowds.
In the audience, Gordon and Jane McGinnis, snowbirds who live in Cape Cod, Mass.,but spend the winters in Polk County, said they love an opportunity to see the Jon and Debbie Corneal Show — a duo they originally discovered decades ago during a performance at the former Cypress Gardens theme park in Winter Haven, a property that’s now Legoland Florida.
“We’ve been following them for 25 years,” Gordon McGinnis said. “Jon started out years and years ago in Nashville. We must have first heard them 25 years ago in Cypress Gardens. The only time we hear them now is at Mardi Gras here in Lake Wales. We follow them.”
That’s exactly what Hays said the town is looking for — entertainment for families. The Lake Wales Mardi Gras and parade actually started out decades ago as a tribute to the late Vinton B. Davis, the owner of a popular local restaurant, Vinton’s New Orleans Restaurant.
When Davis died, he has a special wish, said Faye Greenfield, one of the organizers of the day-long celebration.
“When he passed away, he wanted a Mardi Gras-style funeral,” she said.
“We decided we would honor him with a small parade that went around the block, and it just took off from there,” Hays said.
Lake Wales businesses give nod to tradition
Jeffrey Zaslow, The Last Lecture author, killed in car crash at age 53
February 20, 2012
SUN-TIMES STAFF February 10, 2012 5:32PM
Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow also was a best-selling author.
storyidforme: 25574941 tmspicid: 9313902 fileheaderid: 4259136 Article Extras
Updated: February 11, 2012 2:06AM
Jeffrey Zaslow — a former Chicago Sun-Times columnist who went on to sell millions of books with themes of compassion, inspiration and empathy — was killed Friday in a car crash in northern Michigan.
Mr. Zaslow teamed up with some of the country’s most inspirational people to help tell their stories, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and Randy Pausch, the subject of Zaslow’s huge hit The Last Lecture, which has been translated into 48 languages and sold more than five million copies in English.
He was a columnist at the Wall Street Journal at the time of his death. He was 53.
Mr. Zaslow, the father of three daughters, was killed in a crash near the northern Michigan town of Elmira at 9 a.m. Friday, according to FOX 2 Detroit, where his wife, Sherry Margolis, is an TV anchor.
Police said Mr. Zaslow lost control of his car and was hit by a semi-trailer truck on a snow-covered road. He had been in the area previously for a book-signing.
Mr. Zaslow, a native of suburban Philadelphia, initially worked at the Wall Street Journal from 1983 to 1987, when he entered a Sun-Times contest to replace Ann Landers.
Mr. Zaslow, based in Chicago for the Journal at the time, applied with the intention of writing a Journal column about the experience.
Instead, out of 12,000 applicants, he and Diane Crowley, daughter of the original Ann Landers, were chosen to do side-by-side columns.
His column, “All That Zazz,” was wide-ranging. He brought together a group of readers called the Regular Joes who would chime in with advice. He held an annual singles party that drew national attention — and led to many marriages.
Mr. Zaslow launched school supply drives in his column. He also raised untold sums for the Sun-Times charity.
“Jeff was just a bundle of energy,” said Sue Ontiveros, Sun-Times deputy features editor, who spent time as Zaslow’s editor. “He did so well with the column, and his subsequent books, because he was such a compassionate man who was interested in people. He was kind and funny and so humble about his talents. And oh, how he loved Sherry and their girls.”
After leaving the Sun-Times in 2001, he went on to write The Last Lecture, Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope, The Girls From Ames, The Highest Duty and The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for our Daughters.
In 2009, Zaslow spoke to the Sun-Times’ Miriam Di Nunzio about writing his then-new book, The Girls From Ames, a story about 11 women from Iowa who have been friends for 40 years.
Mr. Zaslow matter-of-factly explained how the women let him read their diaries and letters they’d written to each other through the years. And then he offered his take on why men are not like women:
“Those bonds are just not there. . . . Don’t get me wrong. I talk to my wife, and that’s it. I play poker every Thursday night with the guys, and we can go six hours and not one person will say a thing. And 80 percent of the conversation that does occur is about the cards.”
Wall Street Journal Editor Robert Thomson told his staff Friday: “Jeff’s writing, for the Journal and in his books, has been a source of inspiration for many people around the world.”
His Journal column focused on life transitions.
Neal Boudette, chief of the Detroit bureau where Mr. Zaslow worked, described his colleague as a confidant and the “humblest” of people.
“The person who was least impressed with Jeff’s success was Jeff himself,” Boudette said Friday night.
Mr. Zaslow’s work cubicle was plastered with photographs of his wife and three daughters, and filled with “voluminous notes” on story ideas and columns he had written, Boudette said.
In September 2007, Mr. Zaslow, a Carnegie Mellon grad, attended the final lecture of dying Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch. Mr. Zaslow’s column about the lecture went viral, leading to the best-selling book — co-written with Pausch.
Boudette recalled congratulating Mr. Zaslow when the book first hit the best-seller list.
“ ‘I just don’t want it to be an embarrassment,’” Boudette remembered Zaslow saying at the time. “‘What if it’s on the best-seller list for a week or two weeks and then it disappears, and that means it’s a flop?’ ”
The book, about overcoming obstacles and seizing the day, stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for more than two years.
Contributing: Stefano Esposito
Jeffrey Zaslow, The Last Lecture author, killed in car crash at age 53
The Nightly Turbo: Zynga Reports $435 Million Loss in Q4, Somerville Opens Up, and More
February 18, 2012
If you’re looking for the biggest news stories from around the world, you’ve come to the right place. In the Wednesday edition of the Nightly Turbo, we bring you Zynga’s first financial report as a public company, an inspiring blog from poker pro Jason Somerville, and more.
In Case You Missed It
Are you planning a trip to Seoul, South Korea, for the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour? Lynn Gilmartin tells you everything you need to know about the city in the latest PokerNews Jet Set.
Eric Crain’s aggressive play during the 2006 U.S. Poker Championship earned him a lot of television time. PokerNews recently caught up with Crain to find out what he’s been up to since his first exposure to mainstream poker.
Jonathan Duhamel still leads the 2012 Global Poker Index Player of the Year race. Mickey Doft takes a look at how the scoring is formulated, as well as the results for each player in the top 10.
Matt Juttelstad won the 2012 World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open on Tuesday. Get the details from the final table in our WPT recap.
Zynga Posts $435 Million Loss in Q4 2011
Online gaming giant Zynga unveiled its first financial report as a public company on Tuesday. Despite a 59 percent jump in revenue to $311.2 million from a year earlier, the company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $435 million in income, bringing its losses to $404 million for all of 2011.
The Q4 losses were mostly caused by a $510 million tax charge and other costs related to the company’s initial public offering in December 2011. In addition, the company ended the year with 92 percent more employees than at the end of 2010, and it invested in new technology and several new products in 2011.
A Zynga spokesperson said last month that it is in discussions with several partners about a shift into the real-money online gambling market. On Wednesday, Zynga COO John Schappert told eGamingReview that the company is still interested in exploring real-money gambling.
Zynga shares were down about 12 percent in early trades on Wednesday, according to MarketWatch.
Jason Somerville Breaks His Silence
World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jason Somerville opened his heart to the poker community Tuesday by divulging on his blog that he is gay.
Among other things, the 24-year-old discussed the lack of openly gay poker players in the industry, as well as the struggle to balance his private life with his desire to be himself in public and at the poker table.
"I’m no Daniel Negreanu, the royalty of real talk, but I do pride myself on saying what I think and simply being who I am," Somerville wrote. "But I suppose you could say in the past being ‘truly myself’ has come with a bit of an asterisk. Privately, amongst friends, I can say I’ve been doing that for some amount of time — but publicly, and in poker, that hasn’t completely been the case. I haven’t exactly always been where I am now, though, and haven’t really been ready to share my story publicly. Privacy reasons excepted, that won’t be the case anymore."
Somerville, one of the most admired and respected players in poker, has received an outpouring of support on Twitter, TwoPlusTwo and even YouTube. Negreanu, a close friend of Somerville, even posted a video blog discussing Somerville’s decision to "come out" (as well as some harsh words for the board members at Full Tilt):
Read Jason’s full blog at jcarver.badbeatscrew.com
Lock Poker Signs Tim West and Jason Lee
On Wednesday, online poker stars Tim West and Jason Lee were announced as the latest members of Lock Poker’s LockPRO ELITE team. The two players joined Chris Moorman, Matt Stout, Jason Young and Melanie Weisner as representatives of the site, which resides on the Merge Gaming Network.
“Tim and Jason are both great players and great people! I am very happy to welcome them,” said Jennifer Larson, CEO of Lock Poker. “The goal is to create a global family that is diverse in skill, passion, poker and life. The initial vision I had for Lock is becoming a reality. Our partnership with the player gets stronger every day!”
West has more than $3 million in online tournament earnings to go along with another $1.6 million on the live circuit. The 26-year-old’s biggest win came at the Wynn Classic last March when he defeated Annette Obrestad heads-up for the title and $318,738.
Lee has also amassed over $3 million in online tournament winnings and roughly $400,000 in live winnings, including a third-place finish at the European Poker Tour Vilamoura Main Event for $267,165.
Read the full press release at stoutpoker.com.
Bet24 Expands iPhone App
Scandinavian gaming company Bet24 expanded its real-money poker offering on the iPhone into 14 additional countries on Wednesday. The Ongame-powered mobile app is now available to 55 percent of the European Union population, and the company plans to expand to more countries in the near future.
“Mobile has been a true success story for us with thousands of downloads since launch," said Lars Kollind, poker manager for Bet24.com. "I have studied the development carefully since launch and I am proud to say that mobile poker generates growth without cannibalizing on current poker revenues from PC and Mac, we are really glad that the customers like our product and use it on a daily basis.”
Bet24′s iPhone application is now available in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Read the story at PokerNews.com for more.
MGM Partners with Ameristar
MGM Resorts International and Ameristar Casinos Inc. have joined forces to bring more visitors to their casinos across the U.S. Under the agreement, the companies will offer reciprocal rewards to target members in their loyalty programs. The deal will begin next month.
MGM has more than a dozen casinos locates across the country including the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and Aria in Las Vegas, while Ameristar operates eight casinos across the U.S., but none on the Vegas Strip. The purpose of the deal is to allow both companies to strengthen customer loyalty by providing more access and rewards.
“With our Ameristar alliance, our members can enjoy the high level of experience they have at MGM Resorts’ properties in more destinations across the U.S.,” said Jim Murren, CEO of MGM Resorts International. “This also provides Ameristar’s Star Awards/Plateau Players Club members exclusive experiences and offers at our Las Vegas properties that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise."
Read the press release at the Sacramento Bee.
UKIPT Galway Under Way
On Wednesday, the PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) kicked off its third season in Galway, Ireland. The six-day series includes 10 events and features a €700+€70 Main Event, which gets under way on Thursday, Feb. 16.
Last season’s UKIPT Galway Main Event attracted 266 players from all over Europe. Ireland’s Nick Abou Risk took home the prize of €67,100 and his second UKIPT title. Abou Risk also won the UKIPT Edinburgh Main Event in 2010 for €50,000.
We’ll be recapping each day of the Main Event right here in the Nightly Turbo, so check back for updates from UKIPT Galway.
For the full schedule of events, visit PokerNews UK and Ireland.
Crown Melbourne Wins Award
Fresh off of hosting another successful Aussie Million Poker Championship, Crown Melbourne received a prestigious honor at the 2012 International Gaming Awards in London this week. The casino’s new VIP salons were judged the best in the world, beating out competitors like Bellagio, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, Casino de Monte Carlo, and the Star World Hotel & Casino in Macau.
“Crown is thrilled to have received this prestigious international award,” said Crown Melbourne CEO Greg Hawkins. “The innovative salons have been enthusiastically endorsed by Crown’s international VIP players and have been extremely popular since officially opening last year."
Crown’s new VIP salons occupy the entire top floor of the Crown Towers Hotel and are a showpiece of the AUD$1.5 billion redevelopment of the Crown Melbourne integrated resort, which is scheduled for completion later this year.
For a closer look at Crown’s award-winning VIP Salons, visit crownmelbourne.com.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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The Nightly Turbo: Zynga Reports $435 Million Loss in Q4, Somerville Opens Up, and More
Poker Terms and Poker Slang: Coffeehousing to Cowboys
February 16, 2012
A number of words not typically used in everyday conversations are known as poker terms, poker expressions or poker slang.
King of SpadesWikimedia Commons
This is continued from Poker Terms and Poker Slang: Button to Check
Note: The poker terms defined in this list does not include any swear words or any type of offensive language. If you want to see complete lists of all poker words, poker slang and poker terms, check the websites listed under References. Also, this list does not include any commonly used acronyms, abbreviations or initialisms that I already covered in my series of articles titled: Poker Acronyms, Abbreviations and Initialisms.
Terms are listed in alphabetical order
Coffeehousing: a slang expression used to describe a player who becomes talkative during a poker hand in an attempt to influence or deceive the other players involved.
Cold Call: a slang phrase used when a player, who has not put any money in the pot yet, has to call another player's raise.
Collection: a fee charged that is either taken from every player or from the pot.
Collection Drop (Rake, Vigorish or Vig): a mandatory fee taken from each hand dealt. Rake is a set percentage taken from each pot by poker rooms.
Color Change: a phrase used when a player wants to change their chips in from one value to another.
Color Up: refers to when a player wants to change smaller valued chips for higher valued ones in order to cash out of the game.
Common Card: a card that is dealt face up in Stud poker games that all players can use to complete a poker hand. This occurs in games where there is not enough cards to give each player individual cards.
Community Cards: the face up cards placed in the center of the poker table that all active players can utilize when making a poker hand in Texas or Omaha Hold'em poker games.
Connector: a term used when referring to starting hands in Hold'em, which means any two "connecting" cards, such as 2-3, 10-J or 7-8.
Court (Paint) Card: Jack, Queen or King.
Cowboys: a common Hold'em term used when a player's hole cards are two Kings.
NOTE: Learn more by reading more Poker Terms and Poker Slang From Crack to Downswing
References:
Poker Terms: The Internet's Premier Online Dictionary: Poker Slang
Poker News: Poker Terms – Poker Dictionary
The Poker Forum: Poker Terms
Diane has more than 20 years experience in the casino industry in Nevada. She doesn't just know how to play poker; she also knows how to deal the game.
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Poker Terms and Poker Slang: Coffeehousing to Cowboys
Poker Pro Daniel Negreanu’s PokerStars Account Hacked
February 15, 2012
By Renee | February 9, 2012
The email and the PokerStars accounts of professional poker player Daniel Negreanu, who is a member of Team PokerStars Pro, were hacked by an unknown person recently. The hacker made merry at the high-stakes tables of PokerStars using Negreanu’s poker money, as a result of which the online poker player lost $61,000. Negreanu recently posted on his blog about this hacking incident.
Click Here For Sites Still Accepting USA Players
Negreanu also posted a tweet on Twitter shortly before he left Melbourne, which stated, “Important: Do NOT send me any emails the account appears to have been hacked. Just landed in LA nice news.”
The hacker gained access to Negreanu’s online poker account at PokerStars and splashed Negreanu’s cash on the high-stakes tables of PokerStars. Speaking about it on his blog, the online poker player said, “I got the news back pretty quickly that the hacker did get into my account for a joyride. Something I’ll never understand. He didn’t dump money to any one specific player, he kind of just sprayed my money around several tables, ultimately losing $61,000 of my money. Not entirely sure why he didn’t empty my account, but I’m thankful that he didn’t.”
Chances are that Negreanu will not get his money back. According to the terms and conditions at PokerStars, the online poker company will not reimburse players if their email account is hacked, even if the player happens to be part of Team PokerStars Pro. Since Negreanu’s email account was hacked and PokerStars was not responsible for it in any way, Negreanu will just have to bear the loss.
According to Negreanu’s tweets and blog post, he was on his way from Melbourne to Los Angeles when he realized that his PokerStars account has been hacked. The professional poker player had been to Australia to participate in the Aussie Millions.
The hacker had found his way to Negreanu’s KidPoker account and found a grand sum of $100,000 in it. He played around 400 hands at the high stakes tables of PokerStars and lost around $46k of the bankroll. Naturally, PokerStars players who knew KidPoker’s style well began smelling a rat and began discussing KidPoker’s recent losses on Two Plus Two Poker. Later, Negreanu responded to these posts, stating that the hacker has indeed wrecked him reputation.
Despite the user agreement, PokerStars is determined to refund Negreanu. Meanwhile, players are advised to either use a RSA token to protect their accounts or just lock them.
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Poker Pro Daniel Negreanu’s PokerStars Account Hacked
Poker: Sometimes it Pays to Be Lucky, and Take a Bad Beat
February 1, 2012
Every online poker player has seen the little banner at the bottom of the page advertising the Bad Beat Jackpot. Very few really pay attention to it. For those of you who do not know where the Bad Beat money comes from, it accumulates from the players. Each hand played on a live cash game will contribute to it. Once a pot reaches five dollars, fifty cents will go to the Bad Beat Jackpot.
This money will accumulate until some unlucky yet very lucky player gets a really premium hand beat. Normally this is something like four of a kind being the hand getting beat. Have that happen and you win the Bad Beat Jackpot. One player does not win it all, every player on the table gets a piece. The website itself also gets a portion. In this case Merge took 10% for its share, and 20% went to the next Bad Beat Jackpot. The players split the remaining $714,179 of the record $1,014,549 pot.
The losing player, Eulson, got the biggest percentage. On Merge it was 50% of the player's portion or $355,092. The player that won the hand, 123maryc, got the next biggest share, 25% of the player's pot $177,546. The other players at the table get the remainder, $25,363 each for being at the table.
The way the hand played out is as follows. After the cards were dealt, 123maryc raised with pocket queens. Eulson re-raised from the small blind with pocket sevens, 123maryc then three bet, Eulson called. The flop came 7-Q-Q, giving Eulson a boat and 123maryc quads. She checked, allowing Eulson to make a bet that she just called. The turn came a seven, giving Eulson quad sevens, he bet and 123maryc reraised, the reraising continued back and forth until 123maryc went all in with Eulson calling. The river came an ace, the cards were shown and quad queens beat quad sevens.
Normally this would be a really bad beat, not this time. Eulson will be telling anyone who will listen about this hand for a long time. Every other player on the table will no doubt share the same story over and over. Sometimes as the old saying goes, "In poker it pays to be lucky, not good."
Source: Ducks Full Poker Forum
J. Brackston is a veteran of three World Series of Poker appearances, three World Series of Poker circuit events in Oklahoma and Louisiana, and an appearance in The River Poker Series in Oklahoma. Has won many local poker tournaments since beginning playing competitively in 2004.
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Poker: Sometimes it Pays to Be Lucky, and Take a Bad Beat
A Sympathetic Ear for Two Slot Players – RGT Online
January 31, 2012
A Sympathetic Ear for Two Slot Players 24 January 2012 By John Grochowski
When readers share stories about their casino exploits, it’s usually about big wins. Let’s face it, the wins are more memorable and more fun to talk about than the more common losing sessions. Still, every now and then a reader looking for a sympathetic ear will e-mail me with a tale of a day when nothing went right.
Take Marcia. She loves the low-denomination video slots, especially ones with pick’em style bonus rounds.
“I don’t need to win big,” she wrote. “But when I go to the bonus, I like to win SOMETHING. If I get five free spins and they’re all losers, that’s not really a bonus, is it?”
She started with a Jackpot Party machine, but lost $20 on a penny machine without getting to the bonus event. On to Goldfish. Another $20, no bonus.
“I thought I’d change my luck and play The Hangover. Every time I looked, one of my neighbors was playing a bonus. Not me.”
With losses at $60, she was reaching her tolerance point. “Then I saw a slot called Kilauea. I figured it was fate. My husband and I got married in Kauai, cruised around the islands and saw Kilauea’s lava flow twice. Once on land, once at night from onboard ship. This had to be it.
“This time I did get to go to the bonus. But it was free spins, and I didn’t win anything. After that, I just walked around until my husband was ready to go. He broke even on video poker and had a good time. I didn’t break even, but that doesn’t bother me so much. It was just a little downer that I didn’t get to play the bonuses on the games I like.
“When the bonuses come, I have a good time.”
So it goes on video slots. The entertainment comes from the extras, the animation, the sights and sounds, and the bonus events. Even a losing session is fun if you get a good run at a bonus or two.
Marcia limited her losses on penny machines. Nick emailed to say he learned an expensive lesson on a three-reel, $5 game.
“I’d always heard that the $5 slots paid more than the dollars or quarters,” he wrote. “So I decided to take one big shot at the $5 games. Instead of going every week and taking a couple hundred to play the dollar slots, I decided to make one trip at the end of the month, and bring a thousand.
“I have to admit I was a little nervous, but I put five $100 bills in. It took that much to get the 100 credits that I like to start with. I bet two coins at a time. Betting $10 on a slot machine sure seemed like a lot, but I figured that if I hit the 7s, or even the triple bars, even once, I could win a few hundred dollars. I mean, the jackpot would have been nice. But a middle-sized win or two was really all I was looking for.
“Well, the win never came. It can’t have taken more than 15 minutes. I never got anything bigger than three mixed bars, and by the time I got that, I only had half my money left. When that first $500 ran out, I put in another $300, figuring again that one middle-sized hit would get my money back, and if I lost it, at least I had $200 left to go play dollars or quarters. If anything, my money went down the drain even faster. I hadn’t been there half an hour, and already most of my money was gone.
“I decided to get out of there with what I had left, and take it as a lesson that I’m not cut out to be a $5 slot player. At least I got a breakfast comp out of the deal.”
A couple of points. An $800 loss is a high price for a “free” breakfast. As for $5 slot machines paying more, they do tend to have higher payback percentages than lower-denomination machines do. But those percentages are compiled over hundreds of thousands of pulls, and short-term cold streaks are a normal part of play. If losing $800 in a session makes you queasy — and it would do just that to most of us — you’re better off sticking to lower denominations.
I wrote back to Nick and asked if that was the end of his $5 slot career.
“Probably. Maybe if I was way ahead sometime. But I’m sticking to the three-reel slots. Those are the games I have fun at, as long as they’re giving a little back.”
“Oh, of course I’ll be back. I lost more this time than I like, but it was only $80. It’s the price of the day’s entertainment. I just want to have some fun. That means actually getting to play the bonuses. Most of the time, it’s fun.”
This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network, John Robison managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network.
A Sympathetic Ear for Two Slot Players – RGT Online
Online Poker: Legalize It and Tax It
January 30, 2012
If poker players are willing to pay a fee and pay taxes on their winnings, you will be hard pressed to find an elected official who will say no. In a time where education budget cuts and city services budget cuts are the focus of so many press conferences, finding willing tax payers is a jackpot for state and local governments.
The legalization of online poker will be a boost for every state and local economy. It will create jobs, through the operation of the sites, advertising, sponsorships, and branded items. All of these branded items could be tied to state licensing. Want to run a site in Texas for example, provide jobs in Texas, sell branded items made in Texas. Companies will line up to do whatever they have to in order to be a part of the online poker profits. The support system for these sites would further create local jobs.
Looking at this from every angle, I think the answer to simplifying the process is quite easy. MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or American Express could simply issue Online Player Cards. An Internet Poker license if you will. The issuing company would charge a fee for the card, of which 100% would go directly to the state. The companies already have inplace the means to make this happen. These cards would then be linked to a bank account, taking cash completely out of the system.
The players then could choose the site he or she would want to play on. After registering at the site of their choice, the only option to load funds would be the state issued card. As money was taken out or transferred to other players the card company could charge a fee, pass on some to the state, and keep some for being the engine to run the whole thing. Instant taxation with a minimal amount of paper work.
All to often in our country we make things way too hard. This is simple math. We need money to operate our governments at our desired levels. Poker players are willing to pay reasonable taxes, there is a system in place that could do the job. Very simply, we should move forward, create the jobs, collect the taxes, regulate for fairness, and get on to something more important.
J. Brackston is a veteran of three World Series of Poker appearances, two World Series of Poker circuit events in Oklahoma and Louisiana, and an appearance in The River Poker Series in Oklahoma. Has won many local poker tournaments since beginning playing competitively in 2004.
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Online Poker: Legalize It and Tax It
Analyst questions IGT’s purchase of Double Down Interactive
January 27, 2012
A gaming analyst said Tuesday he has “grave concerns” about International Game Technology’s $500 million acquisition of an online social gaming company, taking a contrarian position from other Wall Street research firms.
In a report to his clients, Union Gaming Group principal Bill Lerner said IGT could hurt its core slot machine business and may be spending too much to acquire Double Down Interactive, which is the developer of Facebook’s Double Down Casino.
Many analysts believe the deal could help IGT launch an online gaming website for U.S. consumers. However, Lerner also said three major casino operators are “irritated” that IGT has chosen to compete with companies that buy IGT slot machines and are also exploring entering the Internet gaming market if the activity is legalized.
He didn’t name the casino companies, but said “they represent about 13 percent of North American gaming devices.”
Lerner added that the opinions might provide some insight into how other casino operators view the deal.
“They suggest that they will react negatively especially if IGT pushes around content that they cannot have access to,” Lerner wrote in the research note. “They also are concerned about how IGT will treat poker once they launch it and when it is legalized.”
Lerner advised investors to sell their shares of IGT, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, in favor of other gaming equipment manufacturers, including Bally Technologies and Shuffle Master.
“We believe upwards of $500 million for a singular-platform dependent start-up could easy turn into a problematic, dilutive transaction in relatively short-order,” Lerner said.
IGT officials, however, said the deal to acquire Double Down, which has 4.7 million active users, was done to put the Nevada-based slot machine maker’s products in front of the booming social media market.
“IGT has no plans to operate an online casino in Nevada and compete with our customers,” said Staci Alonso, IGT’s vice president of marketing.
IGT announced last week it was buying Double Down for $250 million in cash, $85 million in retention payments over the next two years and as much as $165 million in cash payable over the next three years, subject to certain financial targets.
The company believes its game titles can help increase traffic on the Facebook website. At the same time Facebook players will become familiar with IGT’s slot machines and will look for the games when they visit a casino.
An IGT official said the company won’t compete with casinos as a result of the Double Down acquisition.
Lerner, however, suggested IGT is paying 28 times cash flow for Double Down, which he believes is too high even without incentive payments.
“This collectively strikes us as extremely generous for a start-up that is approximately two years old, with virtually no barriers to entry,” Lerner said. “To be fair, Double Down is growing rapidly.”
Janney Montgomery Scott gaming analyst Brian McGill had a different opinion. He told investors Tuesday the deal was a surprise, but could be a catalyst for the company’s game titles.
“The one major positive would be if online poker is legalized, it now has a partner in Facebook and it could benefit from this relationship,” McGill said. “In the meantime, it is expected that virtual gambling will continue to grow and IGT will benefit from now putting its titles on the site that can be available for virtual gaming.”
IGT is already operating online casinos in Europe. Last year, the company spent $115 million on Entraction Holding, a Swedish technology company that operates online poker networks and supplies online gaming products.
Even if IGT wants to operate its own online poker website, it would face a major barrier to entry. Nevada’s recently adopted Internet poker regulations only allow companies with land-based casinos to open an online gaming website.
Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli said discussions surrounding potential federal online gaming regulations also contain language calling for operators to have a bricks and mortar casino presence.
Contact reporter Howard Stutz at or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
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