World Poker Tour launches Club WPT, real money online poker room open to US players

World Poker Tour launches Club WPT, real money online poker room open to US playersThe World Poker Tour, a business at the center of the live poker revival in the US, announced plans today to further extend its influence into the online poker arena with the introduction of ClubWPT, a subscription-based poker room that will allow members to compete for real money and prizes in tournaments - including players from most of the United States.

Hot new calendar from HollywoodPoker.com

HollywoodPoker, well-known for being the most celebrity-heavy poker room around, is celebrating the new year in the best possible way, by releasing the 2008 edition of the HollywoodPoker Girls Calendar.

The poker room received over 10,000 entries in its 2008 Hollywood Poker Model Search and managed to narrow the list down to the 12 poker hostesses you'll find in this year's calendar.

So if you like the sound of Amanda Felicia, Jennifer Korbin, Krystyle Lina and many more, the 2008 HollywoodPoker Girls Calendar is available via the site's exclusive VIP clubHOLLYWOODpoker Store or may be purchased at the HollywoodPokerClub.com online retail store.

With the release of the 2008 calendar HollywoodPoker is also kicking off the search for 12 new faces to appear in the 2009 calendar.

Every month from January to May a selection of 50 new models will appear on the site and it's up to the HollywoodPoker community to pick their favorites. The top 10 models with the most votes at the end of each month will qualify for the finals, where they will compete for the title of HollywoodPoker Calendar Girls for 2009.

HollywoodPoker has been producing a calendar for three years now and it has been one of the hottest attractions of the site while introducing the world to some of the most beautiful poker girls around.

Go to http://pokergirls.hollywoodpoker.com to vote for your favorite girl or pick up your 2008 calendar.

Secrets Of A $1/$2 No Limit King

When going all in it's mandatory that you do a dramatic push-away-stand-up-and-pace move.
I'm not afraid to talk to my cards.
I use a cool new word every time I check (Czechoslovakia, Roman Checkmanek, Chex Mix, Checks & Balances).
I only drink rum and Cokes.
I'll be sure to tell at least one crazy Hollywood written poker story per hour ("I once flopped a nut straight playing head to head with Jaleel White in Debra Messings basement...").
You'll have to pony up $7 to see the flop at my table.
I'll talk about hands that happened forty minutes ago.
I never hit the tables without my PartyPoker.com wind breaker, my lucky wife beater (with a picture of a royal flush and the words "Absolute Nuts"), and my Terminator shades.
Worm was right, women are the fucking rake.
The last guy who slow rolled me is eating meatloaf through a tube.
I average thirteen shitty Teddy KGB impersonations per hour ("Pay him... pay that man his money"; "He beat me... straight up"; "Hanging around... kids got alligator blood"; "Last time I stick it in you...").
I'll look at my cards after every bet, cause you never know when they might change.
I use terms like "Big Slick", "Tilt", and "Rags".
My go to poker joke is...
Q: What do women and Fifth Street have in common?
A: They always fuck you.
Heads up is for fags, if I wanted a date I'd call your mother.
You call them Pocket Rockets, I call the American Airlines, either way they're the sexiest thing ever created by God.
Listen to TLC - if you know it's stupid to chase waterfalls, why chase straights?
I painted a mural of Miami John Cernuto on my bathroom wall.
I know the dealers at the Trop better than I know my kids.
A full house is a "Danny Tanner".
I'm never married to my cards.
I'll be sure to tell you about my time spent in Vegas.
I legally changed my last name to Hellmuth.
I sleep between 12 PM and 10 PM.
I've got more time on my poker cards than I do in a serious relationship.
The Cincinnati Kid is my Scarface.
I'll always max my buy in amount.
Bluffings for queers. If I wanted to pretend, I'd play tea party with your daughter.
I'd rather see my brother get killed by a Greyhound bus filled with Japanese tourists than be Bad Beat.
I'll purposely make you remind me I'm the blinds, just to keep you honest.
Saying, "I see your bet, and raise you..." will get you slapped in the mouth at my table.
My wife left me after I used our kids college tuition to fund a trip to the Harrah's at Mardi Gras.
I only talk to the guy to my left, nothing personal to everyone else, that's just what my dad taught me.
After I beat you I'll call you a tourist.
I've got a fever, and the only cure is rolled up aces over kings.
I can do twenty-one different chip-in-hand tricks.
I finished 242nd in a 2003 qualifier for the World Series of Poker.
I'll make castle designs with my stacks.
If someone asks me if I had it I respond with, "I don't know John."
Girls belong on their knees or in the kitchen, not at the table.
I've eaten at the Seaside Buffet for thirty-three straight days.
I drive a Chrysler.
The reason I play at the $1/$2 table is because I don't have much money, and because I've really only been playing poker since I saw Rounders back in '05; and I still have no fucking idea what I'm doing, so I'll over compensate for my lack of skill and knowledge by being a douche.

FTOPS Returns

Full Tilt Online Poker Series, one of the longest running and richest of online poker series, will return with a seventh run, according to a recent press release. The release details the match schedule, which will include 20 events. The last event will cap things off with a two million dollar guarantee, being one of only a couple events expected to hit such a high prize pool mark this year. In addition to the great money to be won, FTOPS hosts the games with pro players in the mix, bringing an added bit of fan service to the matches.

Money for Nothing and Your Chips for Free

 

Every single time you play poker on Bodog you're earning poker points. Put chips into a cash game pot that gets raked, that's some points. Buy-into a tournament or SNG, that's some more points. Just sitting there folding all day long? That's right, you even earn points for time spent at the tables. The exciting thing about getting all these points is that not only can you use them to buy into various tournaments but now you can also convert them directly into cash!

PokerStars bans JJProdigy from Caribbean event

Josh Field may have intended to play in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure starting on Saturday, but PokerStars had its own plans for the notorious online player known as JJProdigy.

Field is permanently banned from playing online at PokerStars, and it appears the poker site has decided to extend that ban to its live events as well.

Last week Field issued an apology on a few different poker forums. He said he was sorry for the multi-accounting that led to his ban from PokerStars as well as from PartyPoker, and for other inappropriate activity in the online poker world.

Field is now turning 18 just in time to enter the live tournament world at the PCA. However, once he announced he was going to be there, many online players and media sources asked PokerStars about the matter since it's their sponsored tournament.

One response from the poker site has been posted in several forums and other locations online:

Thank you for your e-mail.

PokerStars management has decided to extend player's JJProdigy current ban to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) event.

If you have any further questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Jacob, PokerStars Support Manager

The situation has raised some other questions as well. Will all players who've been banned from PokerStars also not be allowed to play in the poker site's live events?

A specific example online players are giving is that of ZeeJustin, aka Justin Bonomo. Bonomo was also caught multi-accounting and was banned. He has since transitioned to live play with great success, including two World Poker Tour cashes and three cashes at the 2007 World Series of Poker.

The difference between ZeeJustin and JJProdigy, however, is that ZeeJustin stopped multi-accounting and worked hard to restore his online reputation. JJProdigy continues to try to get away with cheating and issued his apology just in time to make his debut in the live poker world.

Germany ban online gambling?

Germany's way of ringing in the New Year should bring a shudder of familiarity to fans of online poker. Faced with pending complaints in the EU from some major European online gambling firms, Germany decided that rather than be a good European citizen, they were going to mount the ramparts and ban online gambling in its entirety.
The votes were conducted in each of Germany's 16 member states and reached a legal majority in time for Jan. 1st, meaning that right now, in the wink of an eye, in governmental terms, Germans have lost a chunk of their online freedom. It's a shame, really, from a country that's had historical reasons to be one of the world's most open and tolerant toward its citizenry.