Poker Guru Blog

If you are following the 2010 World Cup, you must remember Sunday's match between England and Germany, where, although Lampard scored a completely unambiguous goal, the referee did not award it to the English team. 

Betting companies William Hill and Ladbrokes, however decided to provide the winnings for all the people betting that Lampard would score against Germany. 

In December last year, rumors arose that PartyPoker and Bwin plan to join their networks, and speculations started that the two companies will agree on a Bwin – PartyPoker merger. 

At that time, both companies refused to confirm that talks of a merger were really ongoing. 

Later on, the Austrian press reported, that the merger talks between Bwin and PartyPoker were not successful, and the merger will not come true after all. This was due to a statement made by Hannes Androsch, the chairman of the Bwin supervisory board, stating: “It is true, that talks with the English company ultimately did not lead to the desired outcome.” 

Shortly after this, Bwin issued a statement saying that Androsch had been “wrongly quoted” and corrected his statement to this one: "It is true, that up until now, talks have not lead to any specific outcome."

We do not yet know anything else for sure, but I will keep you all updated if any news comes to surface in connection with the matter.

Although he had hired a sports psychologist, Phil Hellmuth still has very serious problems with his temper when it comes to live poker tournaments. 

His last fit came when he got eliminated at the WSOP event #46, $5000 Pot Limt Omaha. What happened is that Dave Ulliott, a.k.a. Devilfish busted him by hitting an Ace high flush on the river. After this, Phil stood up and started screaming. He called Devilfish all kinds of nasty names, like a f***ing idiot, because he didn't fold his flush and straight draw on the flop. 

He then left the table without shaking hands with anyone, while Devilfish happily collected Phil's stack. Phil does not mention the incident on Twitter, all he says is that he played well and did not make mistakes.

Jason Mercier, chosen Player of the Year 2009 by Bluff Magazine, has been a very important figure in the live tournament scene in the past two years.

Bernard Lee, an interviewer for PokerNews Daily, questioned him about his poker secrets, TV shows and passions other than No Limit Hold'em.

The interview was made at the Rio at the 2010 World Series of Poker, in which Mercier is taking part as a PokerStars professional

Mercier has acquired his most recent big cash when he placed first at the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun $25,000 High Roller Shootout and won $475,000. His live tournament winnings reach almost $5 million so far.

Ever since May, Ziigmund has almost completely disappeared from the poker scene: he hasn't logged in at Full Tilt Poker more than two times and he also neglects live tourneys.

According to the Finnish poker pro, he is only having a little summer holiday and will soon return to the poker tables. Because Ziigmund is a serious gambler, he withdrew part of his bankroll and made several deposits at various sports betting sites.

This year's World Cup has not really been easily predictable, and this might be the reason why Ilari has lost more than half a million dollars. According to him, he is planning to view the grand finale in Johannesburg.

Let's just hope he will still have some money left to cover his travel expenses.

Seven female poker players have been nominated for the 2010 Women in Poker Hall of Fame this year, two of which will be chosen into the Hall of Fame in September.

On the list, we can find current well-known poker players along with older celebrities and poker legends. Here they are:

PartyGaming and PokerStars were donated gaming licenses within the second wave of licence approvals, as published by the French gaming regulator ARJEL on Friday.

PartyGaming has received licenses for five of its sites, including PartyPoker and PartyBets.

PokerStars is from now on also licensed to offer online poker in France on a legal basis, with its subsidiary, Reel Malta acquiring group accreditation from ARJEL. 

The second wave of licence approvals also included the French casino group Partouche, and also Chilipoker.

Earlier this month, Phil Laak set a new world record of non-stop poker by playing 115 hours straight.

A few weeks later, an enthusiastic group from Austria decided to break this record.

The group consisted of seven players, led by the German actor, director and screenwriter Max Kruckl. Their aim was to play poker for 150 hours straight.
Having started on Saturday, 19.06.2010, the event was available on the group’s website for everyone to follow and has ended on Thursday, 24.06.2010. 

Andes, being one of the leading beer brands in Argentina, has now come up with an idea never seen before. They have invented a special booth, called the Teletransporter.

The Teletransporter will make Argentinian men’s lives much easier from now on. They will not have to argue with their girlfriends or family about going to the bar again.

This is how it works:

Let’s say you’re at a bar, having drinks with your friends and your phone suddenly starts ringing. It is your girlfriend and ONCE AGAIN you forgot you were supposed to have dinner with her parents. The solution is as easy as it can get: just step into the Teletransporter situated in the corner of the bar, choose a suitable environment (the hospital, for example) and answer the phone. All you have to do is make up a relative with a serious illness that you are visiting and the Teletransporter will handle the rest. How comfortable is that?

PokerStars has announced last week, that the Argentinian football player Juan Sebastián ‘Brujita’ Verón has also joined the line-up of PokerStars Ambassadors.

Verón plays at the South American team Estudiantes de La Plata, and is currently attending the World Cup in South Africa, as part of the Argentinian national team.

“It is truly a pleasure for us to have Verón as an Ambassador for PokerStars.net. His sporting and competitive spirit embodies the values of our brand and we feel very proud that this great soccer player decided to represent the number one poker site in the world” said Sarne Lightman, managing director of PokerStars Latin America (LAPT).

The Team PokerStars Ambassadors line-up already includes: Boris Becker, Sebastien Chabal, Mats Sundin, Sami Selio, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Gael Monfils, Gianluigi Buffon and the newly recruited Juan Sebastián Verón.

PokerStars has recently officially announced that they will sponsor the Spanish Basketball Federation and the Spanish national team for the time of the upcoming FIBA World Championship, held in Turkey this August. The sponsorship agreement has a time frame of 12 months. According to the contract, PokerStars will accompany the Spanish team throughout its national tour and the World Championship.

This deal provides the opportunity for PokerStars players to win special tickets through online tournaments to basketball games throughout the year, also including the championship.

"Our client PokerStars is very proud to become sponsor of the Federación Española de Baloncesto. Being a global brand, this is a significant opportunity to join a leading sport. PokerStars sponsors numerous teams and sportsmen of international standing and being able to co-operate with the World and European champion is an exciting project by which to convey values like excellence, competition and fair play," said Juanjo Marquez, CEO of the agency representing PokerStars in Spain.

On the 24th June, PokerStars ceased to offer its services to French customers. This is another effect of the newly intorduced French regulations on online gambling. 

Earlier this month, gaming licenses have been granted by the French Authority of Regulation of Online Games (ARJEL) to sites like Everest Poker, BetClic and Bwin. In the meantime PokerStars, Microgaming, 888 and Party Gaming were denied licenses, despite the fact that these companies are among the largest ones in the poker industry.

At this moment French players are unable to play poker on PokerStars main site and they can read the following message upon logging in: “All money in PokerStars accounts is 100% safe and is available for withdrawal. You can choose to cash out now if you prefer.” 

Tiffany Michelle, sponsored by UB, has turned 26 last week and decided it was time to celebrate. She and her buddies headed to the Crystals in Las Vegas, to eat, drink, pose for pictures, dance and have a good time on a Friday night.

Michelle was accompanied by other Team UB pros Liv Boeree, Adam Levy, Smantha Ryan, and 2006 WSOP Player of The Year Jeff Madsen, among others. They first had a nice lobster dinner at Eva Longoria’s restaurant to give the night a start. After that, the party kicked off at the Eve nightclub, also at Crystals.
Michelle’s birthday presents included a very fancy cake, made of pink and black fondant, chocolate and edible gold chains.

Michelle probably had a very good time, or at least this is what her Tweets from that night indicate: “Off the hook at @Eve_NightclubLV. Best bday ever, not to mention the SICKEST cake.”

As you might know, Nanonoko has his own blog on the Pokernews coaching website, and this time, he used the free space there to tell his followers about his journey to Las Vegas and the accommodation he enjoys there.

In his latest blog entry, Nanonoko starts with recalling the details of his flight, which he almost missed because he wanted to save some money by parking his car in the ’economy’ section, which is a greater distance from the terminal as the ’premium’ parking lot. Realizing how little time he had, though, he finally put down his vote for the premium one.

"Well being the savvy saver that I am, I chose to go to the economy parking but as I was driving there...I realized how far it was and that if I parked here...there's no way I would have a chance to get to my flight. So I had to u-turn and circle around the whole airport and go to the premium parking lot."

After the airport incident (he arrived at 4:45 but luckily his plane got delayed to 4:55), he had some rest at his hotel room, the site of which he is grateful enough to share with the public in the video below.

Nanonoko will now be entering his first WSOP Side Event, with the hope of winning himself a bracelet.

Google, a company with a very strict advertising policy, has now decided to allow certain gambling ads to be presented on their sites, including YouTube from now on. Youtube, owned by Google, will allow ’licensed entities located in England, Scotland, Wales, Italy, France or Spain’ to display online gambling advertisements on Youtube. This content, however, will only be viewable by users who can verify they are over 18.

The advertising campaigns on Youtube will appear on the homepage of the site, video pages and the advertisers’ own channels. Google has gradually been lifting the restrictions on gambling advertisements, starting in 2008, when they lifted their AdWords ban on Internet gambling advertising in the UK only.

The first company to run a gambling ad on Youtube will be Ladbrokes, presenting their click-to-play advertising campaign booked by TBG Digital.