There is huge turmoil in the world of online poker after three of the world’s major online poker sites were shut down by the FBI last Friday, 15 April, now labelled Black Friday in the online poker community.

US federal prosecutors filed an indictment charging the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, as well as nine other individuals, of operating illegal gambling businesses. Federal prosecutors also filed a civil lawsuit of $3 billion in money laundering penalties, accusing the online poker companies of disguising the money they received from US poker players as payments to non-related online merchants such as jewelers and golf ball suppliers.

The PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker.com internet domain names were seized to stop the companies from operating in the US, and a federal judge enforced a restraining order against 76 bank accounts in 14 countries that are connected with these online poker companies.

The accused poker operators have maintained that they were not violating US laws, and that poker is a game of skill and not gambling, but have not commented since last Friday. Some legal land-based casinos have been in the process of setting up lucrative deals with these online sites. These deals will no longer go ahead.

The indictment still maintains that PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker “…used fraudulent methods to avoid restrictions and to receive billions of dollars from United States residents who gambled” and “…deceived or directed others to deceive United States banks and financial institutions into processing billions of dollars in payments”.

The above-mentioned online poker companies are not run in the US but are estimated to have made over $1.4 billion in revenue from US players.

An online poker obsessive has pleaded guilty to stealing £7.4 million worth of chips and awaits sentencing.

Ashley Mitchell hacked into the Zygna online poker game and stole over 400 billion virtual poker chips before trying to launder them out through various Facebook accounts.

Before he was caught, Mitchell was able to sell around 30 per cent of his 400 billion chip stash. He charged £430 per billion chips and netted £53,000.

The incident happened in the summer of 2009 when Mr Mitchell pretended to be an administrator for Zygna games once he had hacked into their system.

However the poker game company quickly realized that something was amiss and set up a trap to catch him.

Having admitted that he has a gambling problem, Mr Mitchell pleaded guilty to the five charges of computer misuse brought against him in Exeter court, UK.

Mr Mitchell already has previous as he tried to hack into computers in a local council, an offence for which he was given a suspended sentence.

Now he has been remanded while a date for the sentencing is set up.

Speaking at his case Judge Philip Wassall said that Mr Mitchell would face the full weight of the law.

Jack Ury, the oldest 2009 World Series of Poker player to enter, passed away last Tuesday. The aged WSOP player died in his home in Terra Haute, Indiana at 97 years old.

Ury made four appearances at the WSOP and made it to the second day of competition in each.

Ury was seen as an inspiration for others at the tables, especially the younger generation who admired him for his pioneering spirit, endurance and sharpness of mind, despite the fact that towards the end Ury needed help with posting blinds.

At last year’s WSOP Ury made it through to the third day of action but didn’t manage to attend on day three.

Poker prowess seems to run in the family; Ury’s grandson, Seth Harrold, is also a poker player who entered the tournament with his grandfather for the past four years. Harrold has not yet cashed in at the main event but will continue to enter.

There are plenty of stories about where Texas Hold ’Em came from but the earliest substantial documentation we could find is in a Life Magazine issue dating back to the 1960’s.

Back then, the game was referred to as ‘Hold Me Darling’ or ‘Tennessee Hold Me’ and the writer prophetically predicted that it was to quickly become the new standard big-money game. As the game grew in popularity the ‘Darling’ and the ‘Tennessee’ in the name was dropped, leaving ‘Hold Me’ which then became Hold ’Em which seemed to stick.

Nobody is certain of who invented the game but the Texas State Legislature has officially recognized Robstown, Texas as the game’s birthplace. After being ‘born’ here, players including Crandell Addington, Roscoe Weiser, Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim started playing it.

Life Magazine featured an article written by AD Livingston in the late 1960’s which referred to what would eventually become Texas Hold ’Em.
Livingston said about this new version of poker:

‘I believe the game is a major event in the history of poker and I predict it will replace stud for the rest of the century.’

Take a look at more interesting quotes from the article:

•    ‘The game's fascination lies in the number of players involved -- up to 22 can play.’
•    ‘This was Hold me Darling or Tennessee Hold Me, or just Hold Me for short, the culmination of a new form of poker, widow poker.’
•    ‘At home, I went through my poker library.  None of my books covered Hold me or any game like it.’
•    ‘Hold Me is, in a way, poker upside down.  The really big action, unlike normal poker, can often come at the beginning of a hand, as players try to bully one another out.’
•    ‘A few weeks ago, I called a poker man in Colorado and asked whether Hold Me Darling was being dealt out there.  "Never heard of it", he said, "but a new game has really caught on.  High Hold 'Em.  Each player gets two cards...’

The belle of poker, Annie Duke, is to become the commissioner of a new poker league planned to become the equivalent of the PGA in the poker world. The league goals include becoming a showcase for the best games of the best players as well as to host invitational tournaments for the best of the best. Best, best, best – we get it.

The, as yet unnamed, league will televise four regular-season events and a $1 million championship freeroll in Las Vegas within the year.
Duke told The Associated Press:

“This is incredibly pro-centric…This is the one piece that’s kind of missing from the poker landscape right now, which is something for the best players in the world to compete against the best players in the world.”

The biggest poker event presently is the World Series of Poker which is open to anyone to play if they can afford the hefty entry fees. The main event, the no-limit Texas Hold’em event, costs a whopping $10,000 to enter but still manages to draw in thousands of players every year. Last year’s main event winner, Jonathan Duhamel, wasn’t known before winning and taking home $8.94 million and with the growing number of tournaments and players, ever-entertaining showdowns between the ‘big’ players cannot be guaranteed.

Duke has certainly claimed her place in the world of poker fame. She’s racked up a series of wins and also featured as a contestant on the “Celebrity Apprentice” series. She thinks this league will showcase what it really takes to become and remain a poker pro.

The league will use a mathematical formula to measure who will get to be part of it. The formula will take into account finishes in major events, money earned and recent wins. Cash games and online poker will not factor into these calculations.

Players in the league will have two-, three- or five-year terms and less than 10 lifetime cards will be dished out to living players who have experienced remarkable success at the tables.

“This is something that I really wanted to see happen for a very long time,” Duke said.

As the second biggest event after the WSOP, the PCA is one of the biggest tournaments in poker and now that the 2011 PCA Main Event is to be broadcast the question arises; will it attract more people/viewers to the game?

Televsied poker has become more and more popular recently and there's no doubt that the PCA broadcast plans to capitalize on this. It will also continue in the poker-broadcast trend to use niche stats and terminology that the average crowd would not understand. This means that the crowd they are trying to attract already have accounts and already watch poker. Why would they change what they’re already doing for a similar product?

The average, casual viewer is going to find this kind of broadcast slow, difficult to understand and therefore boring. More so when you consider that the broadcast of the final happens at the same time as the NFL playoffs. All that these broadcasts entail is poker, stats, analysis, poker and more poker.

The set is also a problem. It seems to reinforce the blandness. The set should be something that attracts a viewer as they flip from channel to channel and, at the moment just doesn’t grab anyone’s attention.

The actual poker stars are of a different kind these days too. They used to be strong minded and willed personalities who relied on feel and intuition. These days there seems to be a parade of young savant-like players with no charisma or entertainment value. This is beyond the control of the broadcaster but a factor nevertheless.

If the broadcasters and production houses want an audience, they need to start thinking a bit more out of the box. More excitement, more entertainment and a faster pace is necessary to bring in a broader audience. Audiences need a ‘hook’ to get them watching, interesting excerpts to keep them captivated during the slow times and they need to feel some sort of an emotional connection with the players.

While the present broadcast was done well for advanced players and audiences, it just doesn’t have the necessary ‘draw cards’ to reel in a bigger audience.