Poker News

South Africa To Continue Anti-Web Poker Stance

South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry has no desire to see the legalization of real-money online gaming in the country, dashing previous optimism that online poker would become legal in the near future. According to iol.co.za, the Department said: “In our view no amount of control will adequately curb the harm that may be […]

CPPT: Season III Begins January 31 at Foxwoods

Action will heat up for the second time as the Card Player Poker Tour begins Season III at one of the most popular poker destinations in the Northeast. A 13-tournament series at Foxwoods Resort Casino, located on the Pequot Indian Reservation in Mashantucket, Connecticut, will begin Jan. 31 and last until Feb. 9 when the […]

2015 POY Update: Pratyush Buddiga Into Top Ten

The 2015 Card Player Player of the Year race, sponsored by CarbonPoker, is about the wrap up the first month on the year, with a number of huge events already in the books and several more set to come to a close in the near future. Here is a look at the events that made […]

Nebraska Live Poker Bill Introduced

Libertarian Nebraska lawmaker Tyson Larson is looking to label poker as a game of skill and also authorize certain establishments in the state to host the games. Card Player reported on Larson’s plan a week ago, but the Senator’s measure was just made available online. The text of LB 619 is below. “You can be […]

Adelson Visits Capitol Hill Over Web Gambling

Billionaire casino boss Sheldon Adelson met with some lawmakers in Washington earlier this month to talk about their collective efforts to ban real-money online gambling nationwide, TownHall.com reported. “Sources familiar with Adelson’s lobbying describe the meeting as both a strategy session and an update for the gambling mogul,” the report said. Currently, anti-online gaming provisions […]

Frenchman Ludovic Lacay Plans To Quit Poker

Ludovic Lacay, one of France’s all-time great poker players, has decided to end his sponsorship with Winamax and move on from poker, he wrote in a blog post. “I have played poker for nine years, and I travel from one tournament to the other, from a country to the other for eight years,” Lacay wrote. […]

SWAT Team Raids Virginia Home Poker Game

Last week, lawyers for a group of poker players were gearing up to challenge the law in the state of Virginia after a militarized police force stormed the players’ home poker game with semi-automatic weapons drawn this past November, the Washington Post reported. But the state decided to offer them a deal. The Great Falls […]

The Rules Guy Tackles Sunglasses and Softplay

Most players learn poker’s explicit rules pretty quickly: the “one-chip rule,” for example, or “verbal declarations are binding.” But not everyone seems to have digested the game’s vast book of unwritten rules, admonitions like “don’t berate other players (particularly bad ones)” or “say ‘nice hand’ even when you mean something entirely different.” Enter “The Rules […]

WSOP Drops $10M Guarantee For Main Event

On Tuesday, the World Series of Poker announced that the 2015 $10,000 buy-in main event will no longer guarantee a $10 million top prize, and instead will guarantee that at minimum 1,000 players will make the money—the most in the event’s history. The move could very likely make it so that the entire final table […]

PBKC Kicks Off New Year With $1M Guarantee

The Palm Beach Kennel Club’s World Series of Poker Circuit stop, which runs Feb. 4-16 and includes the $1 million guarantee, is back. With a buy-in of only $580, the $1 million guarantee no-limit hold’em re-entry event gives you the opportunity to compete starting on Feb. 4-7. Nightly second chance and mega satellites are also […]

NLH Is Way Harder To 'Solve' Than Chess

For years there has basically been a consensus that heads-up limit hold’em is “solved,” but recently a team from the University of Alberta unveiled the latest in unbeatable poker bot technology. In other words, a computer can tackle the entire complexity of the game and play what in human terms can be considered perfect. However, […]

AGA: Billions In Illegal Super Bowl Betting

Wagering at Nevada sports books is at record levels, and the casino industry is looking to continue the upswing by getting full-scale sports wagering in New Jersey, as well as betting on the Olympics in Nevada. In an effort to push forward the campaign for law changes favorable to sports betting expansion, the American Gaming […]

Wynn Resorts Unveils Boston Redesign

Billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn is prepared to make his planned Boston-area casino look more like his casinos in Las Vegas than he originally had envisioned. Despite winning the license to build a Las Vegas-style casino in the Boston area, Wynn Resorts was told by Massachusetts gaming regulators that the company’s proposed design for the […]

Poker Strategy: Cash Game Conciousness

Poker started as a cash game. Somewhere along the line tournament poker was invented, but cash poker has been and always will be king. Every hand is independent of every other hand. Chips can be cashed out at any time and turned into money to spend on things. Hollywood, while loving to play poker, hasn’t […]

Why You Need Poker Strategy In Your Life

You might not know it, but PokerStrategy.com is probably the best thing you’re missing from your life. Bold claim perhaps, but as the many whom frequent the site can attest, it’s rather fantastic. It’ll revolutionise your online poker experience. There are plenty of guides and sites online that claim to teach budding poker players the […]

This Week In Tournament Poker: Jan. 26 - Feb. 1

In this Card Player weekly feature we look to provide our readers with a guide to some of the biggest poker events taking place in their area for the upcoming week. Check out all the tournament action set to go down in your own backyard from January 26th through February 1st. Head to our tournament […]

Smith Recalls $100K Bluff On Pacquiao

Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao is no stranger to the game of poker. He’s played in poker tournaments in Asia, in addition to having been seen playing $100-$200 no-limit hold’em at the Commerce in Los Angeles. Last week, high-stakes poker player Justin Smith shared his favorite Pacquiao poker moment. Pacquiao has been grabbing headlines most recently […]

Washington State Eyes Betting On Fantasy Sports

In addition to looking at legalizing online poker, the state of Washington is considering authorizing real-money betting on fantasy sports leagues and contests. According to seattletimes.com, some lawmakers in Olympia want to reclassify fantasy sports betting as a skill-based game, rather than gambling, like 40 other U.S. states have done. There are bills in both […]

Brunson Wins $5 Million From Andy Beal

High-stakes poker player Todd Brunson played billionaire Texas businessman Andy Beal at Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas over the weekended and took Beal for $5 million, according to at least one observer. Brunson later confirmed the reports via his Twitter account. According to poker pro Kyle Loman who was at Bellagio during […]

VIDEO: Card Player Player of the Year January Update

The 2015 Card Player Player of the Year race, presented by CarbonPoker, is just underway but there have already been some huge results on the tournament circuit this January. In our monthly Player of the Year race spotlight videos, we’ll take a look at top players and largest events impacting poker’s most prestigious award. January […]

Poker Hand of the Week: What's Your Play?

Give us your opinion in the comments section below for your chance at winning a six-month Card Player magazine digital subscription. Ask any group of poker players how you played your hand and they’ll come up with dozens of different opinions. That’s just the nature of the game. Each week, Card Player will select a […]

Don’t Bet On Sponsorship Until U.S. I-Poker Rebounds

When poker players made the World Series of Poker main event final table in years past, the top prize wasn’t all they were gunning for. Also at stake were potential million-dollar sponsorship deals to represent popular online poker sites. During the poker boom, top, and even medium tier players, had ample opportunity to pad their […]

Kostritsyn Jumps Out To $900K In Winnings

Russian poker pro Alex Kostritsyn won roughly $415,000 over the past week on PokerStars, bringing his profits on the year to more than $900,000. Most of his profits have come at the deuce-to-seven triple draw games. Kostritsyn is leading the way on the 2015 earnings list. Poker pro Ben Sulsky, who hails from New Hampshire, […]

Second California Web Poker Bill Introduced

As of Thursday, the state of California now has two online poker bills on the table in 2015. The first bill, introduced by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, was put forth late last year. On Thursday, Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer unveiled his own proposal at legalizing online card playing. Jones-Sawyer’s bill is called the Internet Poker Consumer Protection […]

CPPT: Foxwoods, Wynn and Atlantis Stops Approaching

For the second time, the Card Player Poker Tour will set foot at one of the most popular poker destinations in the Northeast beginning Jan. 31 to launch the start of Season III. Foxwoods Resort Casino, located on the Pequot Indian Reservation in Mashantucket, Connecticut, will host a 13-tournament series lasting through Feb. 9 and […]

Poker Strategy: Tips For Lower Buy-In Events

Tournament players—the era of big guarantees, multiple starting days, and multiple re-entries is here. This development isn’t going to reverse itself any time soon, as many, if not most tournaments, will continue to allow re-entries into 2015 and beyond. They’ve become a fact of tournament life. So where, then, are the opportunities? What can re-entries, […]

Judge Awards Sands $2M In Lawsuit

A federal judge has ruled that infringers of Las Vegas Sands Corp.‘s trademarks who used the company’s likeness to promote Internet gambling sites catering to gamblers in Asia must pay the company $2 million, according to Courthouse News Service. There’s one problem: No one knows who the infringers are at the moment. Sands, the largest […]

FantasyDraft Launches NBA Beta Product

This week, our friends over at FantasyDraft launched the beta version of their NBA product. This Friday night should be a fantastic night to give the new FantasyDraft NBA product a try as we are treated to a great slate of 11 games, some of which are very appealing from a daily fantasy sports (DFS) […]

Mississippi's Casino Industry Wins $2.07B In 2014

Casinos in Mississippi statewide won $2.07 billion from gamblers in 2014, down about $70 million (3.2 percent) from 2013, according to figures released by state gaming regulators. That’s down from 2007’s record of $2.89 billion. Casino revenue has fallen in Mississippi in six out of the past seven years, according to the Associated Press. Lower […]

VIDEO: Hansen Says His Tilt Is Worst In World

High-stakes poker player Gus Hansen has been on a historic downswing playing Internet poker. He’s down more than $20.7 million lifetime on the Full Tilt software, thanks in part to dropping $5.8 million last year, according to data from HighstakesDB. Hansen, who has been taking some time off from online poker (he hasn’t played a […]