With a buy-in of $250,000 and a prizepool of $12,000,000, poker lovers will be lured into this money paradise. It is a High Roller meant to satisfy the poker players with a taste for fierce competition and for ultrahigh stakes. The prize-pool ‘mountain’ will be disputed among 48 players and the winner will go home with his own little money ‘mountain’ of $5 millions. The thrill of this event will be shared with the general public as the event will be televised.

To make this tour more approachable, progressive live satellites are available in Monte Carlo casinos or at Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles starting from $120. The second tour of these satellites has a buy-in of $1,000. Players have the opportunity to play at selected venues and to win the $5 million first-place prize by beating only 12 players.

13 of the 48 players are already on the list for the event: Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius, brothers Mizrachi Michael and Robert, Phil Ivey, world champions Huck Seed and Johnny Chan, WPT winners Gus Hansen (3 WPT) in search for liquidity after a hard month, Freddie Deeb, Tony G, Allen Cunningham (4 WSOP bracelets), John Hennigan and Bruno Fitoussi.

]]> http://www.casino7gambling.com/?feed=rss2&p=76 http://www.casino7gambling.com/?p=60 http://www.casino7gambling.com/?p=60#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:19:03 +0000 corinne http://www.casino7gambling.com/?p=60 It has been a common practice among poker players to use a blank expression on their face during the game, professionally called the ‘poker face’, in order to not betray themselves on the hands they have or on the bluffs they make. A recent study, however, shows that if you want your opponent to fold or to make him/her more prone to mistakes, the best thing to do is to act friendly. Erik Schlicht, a cognitive scientist, carried out the study and found that the neutral ‘poker face’ may not be the best strategy.

The people involved in the study had to play Texas Hold’em against a computer that displayed facial expressions. Each time the computer raised it would also ‘put on’ a facial expression and what Schlicht found out from this experiment is that players folded more easily when a friendlier face was displayed instead of a numb one. He said: “What we found was that they thought longer when the computer screen showed a trustworthy face, and that they were more likely to fold”.

“Surprisingly, we find that threatening face information has little influence on wagering behavior, but faces relaying positive emotional characteristics impact peoples’ decisions. People took significantly longer and made more mistakes against emotionally positive opponents,” declared the study’s author. “According to these results, the best ‘poker face’ for bluffing may not be a neutral face, but rather a face that contains emotional correlates of trustworthiness.”

The purpose of his study is not to set up a new poker playing style but rather to see how people analyse risks or use opponent information in order to make decisions, especially in a competitive wagering situation. His results are quite surprising.

]]> http://www.casino7gambling.com/?feed=rss2&p=60 http://www.casino7gambling.com/?p=56 http://www.casino7gambling.com/?p=56#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:53:12 +0000 Sarah http://www.casino7gambling.com/?p=56

Loto-Quebec has chosen the date of the national holiday to open the doors of its newest casino Mont-Tremblant. The big opening took place on 24th of June, 13 years after the inauguration of the Lac-Leamy casino. The opening of this fourth casino in the province was welcomed by some, but there are also people claiming that there was no need for a new casino in Quebec.

If we look on the positive side, the new casino of Loto-Quebec could contribute to the economic development of the region. It can accommodate up to 1600 guests and create over 200 new jobs. 400 slot machines and 25 gaming tables are available on three floors.

The architectural design and the materials used meet the standards of sustainable development. From the outside, the building looks like a cottage and harmonizes with the wonderful background of Mont-Tremblant. The State company rejects the accusation that it increases the supply of gambling in Quebec. It indicates that the slot machines in Mont Tremblant are not added to those already installed in other casinos. These come from the gambling establishments in Montreal and Lac-Leamy where they were withdrawn from.

Moreover, the CEO of Mont-Tremblant Casino, Alain Bissonnette, said his institution would comply with responsible gaming policies.

On the other hand, the gambling expert Alain Dubois is concerned about gambling addiction and considers that the casino is a danger for the gamblers. According to the latest annual report of Loto-Quebec, the turnover of Loto Quebec increased by 2.3% over the last year.

Alain Dubois stresses that the target for the slot machines of the establishment is not represented by wealthy clients. Or, Loto-Quebec draws 90% of its revenues from slots.

In response, the company says that customers of the new casino will be different: 65% of visitors comes from outside Quebec. Moreover, the casino has an area dedicated entirely to high rollers, a room situated upstairs.

Loto-Quebec invested $ 66 million in the construction of the casino and hopes it would recover the investment after the first year of gaming operation.

Icing on the cake, the scenario of this new movie was entrusted to the well-known writers, Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The duo have already written the scenario for “Ocean’s Thriteen” and for the mythical “Rounders”, starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. This time, the principal character will be embodied by the handsome hero of Titanic, also big fan of poker. Such a role in the world of games is familiar to the actor. In the “Rounders”, launched in 1998, DiCaprio has already played a passionate of poker in land casinos.

As in USA online poker sites are still illegal and forbidden, the action will be set in Costa Rica, a harbour for many online gambling operators. As for the plot and the title of the movie, the star of “Departed” hasn’t disclosed any information.

With his participation at the WSOP beside his friend Tobey Maguire, he earned the respect of the best poker payers in the world. Not long ago, we could see him at a Lakers match, wearing a hat branded “Doyle’s Room”. DiCaprio and Doyle Brunson co-produced “The 11th Hour”, a documentary about the state of the environment and what we have to do to restore the ecosystem.

Under the UIGEA, which prohibits Americans from playing poker online, prosecutors of the Department of Justice have ordered several banks, including Citibank and Wells Fargo, to freeze all transactions between the operators and their clients. The interdiction concerns all the clients having requested the receipt of their earnings.

In a letter sent to banks, prosecutors have called the money duly earned by players as “property involved in transactions of money laundering and crimes of illegal gambling”.

According to several sources, the Court of the Southern District of New York has asked several banks to freeze the equivalent of $ 19 million. Wells Fargo received an order for seizure of $ 14 million, identified as coming from online gambling operators. The sources confirm that the decision affected 24.000 accounts and blocked $ 33 million altogether.

For now, the banks have obeyed the prosecutors’ injunction, but many legal gaps could create a complicated situation for the government. Indeed, several legal consultants intend to call on that the online poker operators are only the depositories of this money that don’t belong to them. Unlike sports betting, online poker is a transaction between two people on the principle of “peer-to-peer”. This argument is quite valid for cash games, but it couldn’t withstand as to poker tournaments. In all cases, it is impossible for banks to make such a subtle difference. And this can turn against US justice. Moreover, one thing is certain: if the government wants to mobilize the poker players, it just has to attack them where it hurts: in their wallets!

According to John Pappas, CEO of Poker Player Alliance (PPA), whose mission is to defend the poker players’ rights, the injunction to the banks is an “unprecedented action”. Pappas promises the organization he is leading will use all legal means for protecting the players’ accounts and their right to play online.

The new resort - a $2.1 billion project - aims to become the first gambling destination on the Cotai Strip, surpassing Las Vegas Sands’ Venetian Macau, the first entertainment center in Macau, owned by the billionaire Sheldon Anderson.

 City of Dreams brings together famous brands including Hard Rock, Grand Hyatt and Crown, in order to deliver exceptional entertainment and hotels of the highest quality. As co-chairman Lawrence Ho stated in a declaration, the City Center project is “crucial” to ensuring the progress of the strip. Ho claims that his entertainment center will cater to a community unhappy with the offer of Venetian resort: “If you are a younger, hipper, cooler crowd and you like to party or you like music, then the Hard Rock is our solution” Ho said, referring to the state-of-the-art hotel.

Nevertheless, the main attraction of the resort will be a casino measuring 420.000 square-feet and featuring approximately 520 gambling tables and 1.350 gaming machines.

“Our dream for a new standard of entertainment in Macau has become a reality,” added Lawrence Ho, proud of the company’s great deed. In his statement, he made allusion at theirs competitors, “who have a very stretched balance sheet”, unlike Melco Crown Entertainment managers, who “have always managed the balance sheet very carefully.”

However, “City of Dreams” is likely to confront tough problems. The gambling market in Macau have been hit not only by the financial crisis, but also by the tight legal restrictions on Chinese visitors adopted last year. Gaming revenues have been falling since the beginning of the year and they are expected to fall over again.

Under the leadership of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the U.S. poker players, many of which are deprived of the game because of the UIGEA, got organised to coordinate their votes on one proposal.

Thus the proposal “to boost U.S. economy with legal online poker” found itself at the forefront of technological concerns listed in the “Citizens Briefing Book”, on a new site dedicated to the claims of American citizens.

This website, set up in the early days of Obama administration, has allowed 125,000 users to vote for 44,000 ideas suggested by the President and his team. The pool collected 1,400,000 votes, each vote matching 10 points. The proposal on legalization of online poker has collected 46,000 points, a total which is the 11th largest overall.

A surprising result after all, but not for John Pappas, the Executive Director of the PPA: “Poker players from all over the country have spoken with one voice to protect the game they love, and the White House has heard this message. We hope that the Administration will listen and act in response to this clear message sent through the Citizen’s Briefing Book: legalize online poker through a suitable regulation”.

The content of the proposal includes plain and unequivocal specifications. Most of the Americans who responded to this survey demand the right to legally play, without fear of prosecution; a reform of the law to exempt poker - a game of skill - from UIGEA. They have also spoken out for a law meant to “boost the economy by allowing American companies and American players earn money and pay taxes instead of sending the business offshore”.

A recent study by the lobbying group American Gaming Association has revealed that 2% of adults surveyed were playing online. These results are consistent with estimates of the PPA that between 10 and 15 million Americans regularly play on the internet. Still according to the PPA, the legalization of online poker could bring 3 billion dollars annually to the Administration.

It is true that some software offer unimaginable opportunities in regard to new technologies. In particular, the opportunity of interacting with live dealers when gambling online! This is the latest achievement of Playtech, a software company that has developed a revolutionary system for its casinos: live dealers, all filmed by web cams! Shortly, there are real dealers who manage some games on Casino Tropez - a casino run by Playetch. Beyond the mere technical performance, we must recognize that live dealers on Casino Tropez can reproduce almost identically the sensations that one can live in a land casino.

Casino Tropez is not the only operator having introduced this system. Using web cams and technology in “real time”, many operators employ professional dealers to run the game while playing online. Thus, depending on the game you have chosen, you can receive your cards directly from the dealer’s hand rather than seeing them on the screen. Obviously, the game is much more interactive!

In fact, it is not very difficult to develop such a system. But the difference is that the dealer is really part of the game and he is at your disposals.

Of course, games of this type are much slower than those managed entirely by the computer. But games with live dealers offer an attractive alternative for many players: they are now part of the options offered by a growing number of online casinos. As technology develops and improves constantly, we can even expect to see more, so that casinos increase the choice of games available on their sites.

The Gran Scala project has made good progress today, but there are still challenges to take up. At this moment, when the boom of the gambling world is more than a story, even if affected by the global crisis, who could properly foresee the future of this Las Vegas or Macau clone in the European version? According to the initial proposal, this complex could be born in France, in Valencia or on the shores of the Persian Gulf in Dubai. Once the decision on the location had been taken, its promoters, members of the ILD consortium, in partnership with independent government of Aragon,  announced the effective implementation in 2012.

At the announcement moment, back in 2007, Sebastien Tranchant, the general manager of the ILD Consortium, also owner of the eponymous French society, advertised that this great leisure complex would consist of 32 casinos, 70 hotels, 232 restaurants, 500 shops, a racecourse, a golf course, 5 theme parks, museums and a convention center. In other words, a city in the city! Given the almost ideal weather and perfect location in the county of Aragon, “Gran Scala” hopes to attract at least 25 millions of tourists.

However, its location in the desert and its volume raises water and energy  issues. In addition, some residents of surrounding communities have expressed their concerns about the environmental and social impact of a project of this size and the Government of Aragon announced that a development plan would be map out and emphasis would be placed in the environmental field. Moreover, Gran Scala will create over 65.000 jobs in the region and this should, in essence, dispel people’s doubts.

Nevertheless, given the social responsibilities that this type of project requires, the 32 casinos in the Center will be under the rigorous rule of the Government of Aragon, having to obey a specific legal system. This will govern gambling matters and will define the type of games allowed.

The much awaited tournament series run between September 17 and October 1st, the day of the Main Event finals. As for the location where the event is intended to take place, Casino at the empire was considered to be a perfect choice for gambling: “The Casino at the Empire soon became the reference point for poker in the United Kingdom. We look forward to attracting the best players in the world at the event this fall and by then we will continue to offer them the best playing conditions”, Michael Silberling, General Manager of the London Clubs International said.

There are four bracelet tournaments scheduled for the 2009 WSOPE and the contest is expected to be tight, as the race for a WSOP bracelet will draw once again some of the big names in the field. A mixed tournament, combining Pot Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha was added, which will make an even more thrilling action. This event is planned for September 21. The addition of a 4th event at the WSOP Europe was hailed by Jeffrey Pollack, the Vice president of Sports and Entertainment Marketing at Harrah’s Casino and Commissioner of the World Series of Poker, who commented: “Winning a bracelet is recognized as the supreme title and we are very excited to crown new champions at Casino Empire this year.”

Pre-registration for WSOPE is already available at the London Clubs International institutions, in London, or in Las Vegas, at the Rio casinos. It is also possible to register for this event during the WSOP, which will kick off this month, in Las Vegas.