Not really poker related but take a look at this fantastically racist billboard targeting President Obama on his efforts as far as the United States president. This billboard, which is a toned down version from artist and Tea Party member Paul Snover’s original version which included a Swastika, a Muslim and numerous communist Soviet emblems.

The ‘artwork’ is a poker themed advert in Grand Junction depicts the country's first African-American president with not one but four caricatures, each showing him as a jihadi terrorist, a cigar-smoking gangster, a Mexican bandit in a sombrero and a flamboyant gay man.

The four caricatures are all seated around a poker game and the billboard's headline reads: "Vote DemocRAT, Join the game."

The artist, a self-described "Constitutionalist libertarian", would not reveal who commissioned and paid for the billboard, in a report by Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Sentinel.
Amusing.

 It was a seemingly lucky night for Thomas Gigliotti until the moment he pulled into his driveway.

Thomas Gigliotti, 74 and his wife Josephine 71, were returning home to their house from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood after a lucky night on to the tables.  According to Police, several masked bandits robbed the couple of their winnings in their driveway of around $4,000 in cash. The masked men rushed towards Gigliotti, pulled him from his car knocked him to the ground and stole his cash, credit cards and mobile phone.

However, this was not the end of this crime tale. Rather than being shaken up after being robbed and assaulted, the feisty senior citizen jumped back in his Lincoln Navigator and took off in a almost Hollywood-esque chase after the bandits. He spotted the bandits jumping into a white getaway car near an intersection not too far from where the robbery occurred.

Gigliotti tailed the robbers through the streets of Plantation and at one point even attempted to ram the smaller getaway vehicle in an effort to make force the car to spin out. Gigliotti bumped the car twice from behind in a scene that  could only be reminiscent of a Jason Bourne movie. “The chase was one of the greatest chases you've ever seen, they took rights and lefts, rights and lefts. They couldn't shake me. They just couldn't," Thomas said.

Eventually at speed of around 65mph, he rammed the getaway car sending the vehicle out of control and the bandits skidded off the side of the road.

The suspects bailed out of the vehicle and abandoned the car, "I put my high beams on and reversed to see the vehicle, it looks like there's nobody in the car.' Gigliotti said he as he cautiously approached the vehicle but the men had fled by this point.

Although, in the meantime his wife has said that her card –playing days are over. “I’m not going back there she said. “I don’t ever want to go back there.”The senior bravado was however not on the same opinion, and believes he was not tempting lady luck; “I like to go down to the casino” he said.

And this is why I play online. This same sort of robbery seems to happen far too often. 

Phil Ivey, Arguably the world’s most successful professional poker player has had a room at the Aria Resort & Casino named him and unveiled on Saturday. The resort celebrated this event with a $1 Million Dollar Freeroll and invited celebrities, poker pros and guests to compete for this staggering prize pool and celebrate in the opening of the poker room.

Ivey’s reputation as one of the best poker players in the world did not super cede his reputation as a wonderful host. From all accounts that we have heard of the party was that we heard was that it was one of the best parties that Vegas has ever seen. The event started off with Ivey, in a fashionable questionable jacket, cutting the ribbon to the venue, and as a host does, mingle.

The party itself seemed like quite the place to be, and had some of the biggest names in poker in attendance. Doyle Brunson, Tim Phan, David Benyamine, Eli Elezra, Jennifer Harman, were all seen mingling about and all playing high stakes poker like it was the lowest PokerTime stakes tables.

The top prize of the night went to Larry Litton who also got the opportunity to compete in a heads up against Ivey for a cool $250,000. Ultimately there’s a reason Ivey is considered one of the best players in the multiverse and Litton went home early.

I’m fairly sure the rest of the party didn’t.

Whether poker should be defined as a sport or a game is an ongoing debate that is unlikely to be resolved any time soon. Well, unlikely to be resolved anytime soon anywhere else but Lithuania, that is.

Lithuania has recently announced that it defines poker as a sport. On the 20th March 2010, the Department of Physical Education and Sports issued a decree recognising poker as a sport and establishing the Lithuanian Sports Poker Federation.

This means that the Lithuanian Sports Poker Federation can now organise non-commercial poker tournaments outside of casinos.

Andrius Tapinas, the president of the Poker Federation said: “This is extremely important step in our work,”, “We are receiving congratulations from many of our colleagues abroad, and I know that we are breaking thick ice with our progress for similar international initiatives.”

Interestingly, Lithuania’s neighbour, Russia, also classified poker as a sport for a brief amount of time but removed the distinction last year.

                                 Does Not Happen on PokerTime

Most of you already know the advantages of playing online poker, but one that has been constantly coming to mind over the past couple of weeks has been the fact that us online poker players and poker rooms do not constantly get robbed at gunpoint. I’ve yet to be sitting on my living room, multi-tabling a couple of games, when suddenly masked men break through my front door and demand my poker winnings and other valuable belongings.

A group of 24 poker players playing at underground games in Texas this week had this unfortunate situation happen to them. It might sound like something that happens in the Wild West but it seems to be a regular occurrence constantly.

The latest heist Happens during a poker gaming in Austin, Texas. During the early hours of the morning an armed gang stormed the building armed with AK47s, and started firing their weapons into the air. Players were forced to lay face down as their belongings were lifted from their pockets before making their getaway.

A witness told the Pokerati website:

“Gunshots were fired inside. They kept yelling at us not to look up or move, so we didn’t know if people were shot.

Joseph saved our lives. He obeyed them, rationalized w/ them, showed them closet w/ money, but had no key, they harassed him, they shot or kicked doors in,

Over 9 cops were arriving as we drove away. They stopped us and interviewed us individually, were very concerned for our safety and catching criminals, not even a question of poker game. Helicopters, forensics, detectives and K9 were all there lining the street.”

Plus if you do play online poker at work, hope there is no camera pointing at your screen in case you do get robbed.

We’ve been keeping tabs on what’s been happening with the EPT Poker tournament Robbery on March 6 in Germany where a couple of robbers successfully stole a couple of hundred thousand dollars from the hotel.

The arrests began on the 17^th of March when one of the suspects turned him in and from the point onwards, the Berlin police had the names and photos of the other thieves and claimed it was only a matter of time until the suspects were in police custody.

The first suspect to fall under police custody ratted out all his accomplices. So much for a good bluff I say. The trio was apprehended as Ahmad el-Awayti, Jihad Khaled Chetwie, and Mustafa Ucarkus all saw their dreams of making away with €242,000 disappearing into thin air.

The latter two were arrested at Berlins Tegel airport last Sunday and last Wednesday, el-Awayti was arrested in a subway station and brought into custody.

Bluff Magazine Europe quoted Berlin police officials of a 28 year old Lebanese man involvement “According to the current state of our investigation, the suspect is thought to have been the organizer… He also drove the getaway car””