Police in Idaho were tipped off that there was a wagered poker game that was in operation every week that would be conducted by 20 players who were buying into the game for $20 each

Acting on the tip, the police headed to the Twin Falls Senior Center, surely this had to have been a wind up? The police had to act on the tip and so placed monitoring onto the centre on a weekly basis.

Monitoring of the building seems to confirm the information that was provided to them and they bust into the centre to investigate further.

On entry of the building, they found that there were 20 pensioners who were seated within a poker game, revealing that they were infact wagering funds for entry into the game, something that is illegal in Idaho. Read the rest of this entry…

When play resumes at the Commerce Casino Wednesday, 22 poker players will be battling for one of six spots at the final television table at the Los Angeles Poker Classic. Among the 22 hopefuls is a virtual who’s who list of poker stars, apparently being so close to Hollywood demands star-power.

Leading the way is 2001 World Series of Poker Champion Carlos Mortensen, who was able to overtake the chip lead from Day 3 chip-leader Mark Newhouse (who now sits in second place). Also in contention at the LAPC:

Steve Sung, currently in 9th place with 671k chips. You may recall Sung won the “Stimulus Special” at the 2009 WSOP.

Johnny Chan, currently in 17th place with 406k chips. Chan won back-to-back WSOP championships in 1987 and 1988, and finished 2nd in 1989! His 10 WSOP bracelets rank him second on the all-time list.

Annie Duke, currently in 21st place with 241k chips. Duke, along with Phil Hellmuth, Read the rest of this entry…

Marchese is a well known commodity in the world of online poker, but the man known as “KingofCards” to his online fans has had zero success in live tournaments. That was until he won the first-ever NAPT event at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. Marchese and 871 other poker hopefuls put up the $5,000 entrants-fee to be part of the first ever NAPT event.

Marchese had to beat out a tough final table that included runner-up Sam Stein, a PokerStars sponsored player; Eric Blair who finished 8th, another PokerStars pro; and longtime tournament veteran “Miami” John Cernuto, one of poker’s most colorful, and respected, players.

The win was worth $872,648, which prompted Marchese to offer the following statement, “The event is one of my favorites now.” Considering the $872k payday, and his first major tournament Read the rest of this entry…

Poker News Daily has confirmed that Amanda Leatherman and the WPT have parted ways. Amanda has done an excellent job acting as the hostess of the show, and has interviewed just about every professional poker player at some point.

Leatherman has been the hostess since season 7, taking over the interviewing and special segment role made famous by Shana Hiatt: Other WPT hostesses have included, Courtney Friel, Sabina Gadecki, Layla Kayleigh, and Kimberly Lansing.

Of all the former hostesses, Leatherman definitely had the most poker chops, which she has utilized to make herself one of the best interviewers in all of poker.

The Internet poker forums are buzzing over where Amanda will land next, with most of the speculation revolving around PokerStars recently created North American Poker Tour. Another possibility would be for Leatherman Read the rest of this entry…

PokerStars has announced that the inaugural North American Poker Tour event, taking place at the Venetian in Las Vegas, will conclude with a $25k buy-in High-Roller tournament with a twist; certain pro players will have a $5,000 bounty on their head, and the player collecting the most bounties will receive an additional $100k from PokerStars!

Another unique feature of the tournament will be the payout structure. The prize-pool will be distributed in the following way: PokerStars will award each player at the final table $50,000, and the remainder of the prize-pool will be awarded to the winner of Read the rest of this entry…

One of the last bastions for US poker players has apparently been closed off. MasterCard has decided to block all online poker transactions from US players. The move is likely spurred by UIGEA legislation being enacted in June –unless the government overturns the legislation before then—and other payment processors having been brought to court and fined by the US government.

This marks the second time MasterCard has taken such action; after the first instance online poker sites changed their codes in order to process MasterCard deposits. However, this time it appears the online poker world is going to press on without MasterCard, as many online sites have removed MasterCard as a deposit option. Read the rest of this entry…

It has come to the attention of the media that online poker rooms that are based within the United States of America are having an increased amount of difficulty with the processing of deposits made by their members from their credit cards.

The issues started to happen when the UIGEA was passed in 2006 and since that point, the online poker sites have been finding that more and more of the major credit card issuing banks are rejecting funding to be sent to the site in order to fall into line with the UIGEA.

This has meant that players are having to find alternative methods of placing their deposit into the sites in order to get their funds into their playing account.

The knock on effect of these issues has seen a number of players having to seek Read the rest of this entry…

Poker lovers in North America are about to be told that they are soon to have a new poker channel added to their list of things to watch, CanadianPokerPlayer.TV.

The new channel is to be created by HeadsUp Entertainment Limited and will be purely dedicated to poker, offering viewers the opportunity to get their fix of the game they love at any point in the day and night.

The channel will broadcast live feeds from Read the rest of this entry…

Here’s a question for you, how do you know poker has gone mainstream? When the personal lives of its biggest names make TMZ headlines! This is precisely what happened yesterday when TMZ announced that Phil Ivey and his wife of 7-years, Luciaetta, filed jointly for divorce on December 22nd.

No reasons have come to light –not surprising given Ivey’s tight-lipped approach to his personal life—and the couple has no children together. Read the rest of this entry…

According to PokerNews.com Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will delay implementation of UIGEA legislation after a petition by the Poker Players Alliance was brought to him. Instrumental in spearheading the delay is Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank – A name held in high esteem among poker players.

Frank is expected to officially announce the delay sometime today, but rumors have been circulating since early this week when it was announced there would be hearings to discuss the two bills Frank introduced earlier this year: One to repeal UIGEA, and the other to legalize and regulate the online gaming industry. The hearings are scheduled for December 3rd, and UIGEA was to go into effect December 1st.

The delay will keep UIGEA from passing while Congress continues to debate the more significant issue of health care: Poker players were probably feeling the short-end of the stick, as it was unlikely Congress could devote the time to online poker legislation during the heated health care debate.