The Ontario Lottery has embarked on a creative campaign using monarch bullies to promote its new poker lottery game. The campaign which is being billed by Due North Communications, the creator, is billed as a solution to what it calls “poker intimidation”.

The TV adverts, which I’ve embedded at the end of this post, features three young men in a car, merrily laughing as they drive down the road, where they stop at a light and a car suddenly, stop next to them. In the car are two kings who sit in the front seat and taunt the men, somewhat reminiscent of a school bully. The rear window then goes down and a king in the back seat bares his teeth at the men.

In addition to the TV spot, there are two radio adverts as well, in which they are presented as breaking news bulletins, with the announcer warning listeners about people dressed in royal garb intimidating local citizens.

Anyone seen this adverts or this campaign in action? What are your thoughts on it?

Eight poker playing buddies got a surprise home visit by North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement officers on Thursday, who then proceeded to arrest them and confiscate their assets.

Many states in the US allow social gambling as long as no entry fees are collected or any entry fees taken are  paid out as winnings.

However, many US states will not tolerate any social gambling whatsoever, including Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. And, of course, North Carolina.

The eight men arrested were therefore deemed to be in violation of North Carolina’s gambling laws, and as well as their poker table, cards and chips being seized, $23,700 in cash was also taken away.

Seems a little bit overboard for me.. almost like arresting grandmothers for playing bridge

When a gold and copper mine in San Jose, Chile, collapsed almost a month ago, 33 miners were left, trapped in a tiny underground chamber with almost nothing to survive on. So far, the men have managed to stay alive by rationing their meagre supply of food and playing poker. It is forecasted that the miners will be down there for a further four months while the rescue tunnel is built.

The daughter of one of the stranded miners, Carolina Lobos, seems to be consoled by the news of the poker games. She said: “I’m not worried about him. I know he is happy and content down there because he is playing lots of poker and cards. It is good for his mind.” It seems she isn’t that far off; according to the Elements Behavioural Health treatment centre in California, partaking in games that stimulate and distract is helpful in assisting with getting through traumatic situations.

Poker is therefore perfect for this group of miners. It is enjoyable, stimulating and does not take up a lot of room. While their small rations of water, medicine and food keep their bodies alive, the poker will keep their minds alive.

It seems that the 2010 Poker Hall Of Fame admission are under way at Harrah’s. The nominations are mounting up and so far 191 players have been nominated but fans and players for a spot in this prestigious group of players. The nomination period which has been open from July the 1st to August the 31s, with voting apparently following last year’s trend, according to the representatives at Harrah’s.

Seth Palansky, World Series of Poker (WSOP) Communications Director, recently said, “It’s going well and we’ll have a good batch of candidates to mull over and see who gets in.” Last year’s class consisted of Mike Sexton, but some changes to the voting should ensure that two new members will be joining this year.

Some of the requirements for a player to be considered are:

• Players must have played poker against recognized top competition
• They must have played for high stakes
• They must have consistently played well and gained the respect of their peers
• They must have maintained the previous criteria for a prolonged period of time

Next week the candidates will be publicly named and then a nomination committee will review the picks. Last year Tom Dwan was not allowed because he’s not had a long enough career, and finally on the 16th of September, 16 living Hall of Famers and a select board will decide who is worthy.

Some of the candidates are expected to be the candidates that were on last year’s nominees list. The include such names as; Phil Ivey, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein. The induction ceremony will take place during the November Nine weekend at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Thousands upon thousands of cards are discarded in Las Vegas casinos to make way for newer, fresher and less ‘marked’ cards every day. BRC Designs has taken these unwanted decks and recycled...ahem...reshuffled them into a chair called the Deuces Wild Chair.

This chair is also surprisingly functional i.e. people can actually sit on it without it ‘folding’. The chair’s designer, Benjamin Rollins Cadwell, says that the “materials to speak for themselves and stay as true as possible”. By this he means that the shape of the chair is inspired by the shapes created during card dealing. Quirky.

It seems the fate of US poker players boils down to deciding whether poker is a game of skill or luck and the courts seem to be holding the cards. If judges come to the agreement that the game is a game of skill and not chance then the anti-gambling laws that apply in many states will no longer have any sway.

Most poker players will attest to the game being one of skill, requiring a good ratio of memory, math skills and the ability to control your own behaviour while successfully reading that of others.

Kevin Raley, 44, an engineer and avid poker player from Colorado, argues this point by saying that while he has always been naturally gifted at mathematics and maintaining a good ‘poker face’, reading people is a skill that he has had to acquire and that he is better at it now than he was 5 years ago. To become better at something implies conscious effort, practice and consistency and Raley’s growing winnings reinforce this.

He has now decided to take this one step further. He was arrested a year ago for having a $20 buy-in Texas Hold’em tournament but was later on acquitted by the jury. Raley is now returning to court to convince the Colorado Supreme Court that poker is indeed a game of skill. Most US states only consider poker to be legal if it is played amongst friends where nobody apart from the players make a profit. Colorado is one of the 37 states that don’t constitute poker as gambling.

In a recent review of Raley’s case this month, a judge stood by the notion that poker still relies mostly on luck and that while a good player does require some skill, these players will always face possible defeat with the turn of the next card and poker is therefore predominantly based on luck.