Poker News

Poker Strategy: Categorizing Recreational Players

I got into a discussion away from the table recently about what to call bad players when you talk about them. The person I was talking to always called them fish and I took issue with that. Let’s talk about where that comes from. Good players have always been called sharks and bad players fish […]

North Carolina Busts Alleged $20M Gambling Ring

Authorities in North Carolina say they have busted a $20-million gambling ring that stretched across the eastern part of the state, according to reporting from wral.com. The raids began in May and now seizures have reached that massive sum, police said. Nearly 200 store and restaurant owners from more than 40 towns, including Raleigh, Rocky […]

Reid: Online Gambling Ban Efforts Next Year

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid said late last week that 2015 will feature continued discussion at the federal level on what to do about real-money online gambling in the United States. Reid, who apparently was looking to cater to billionaire casino boss Sheldon Adelson, said that although the last-minute efforts this year failed, next year will […]

New York To Award Casinos Licenses This Week

The state of New York will this week award its first commercial casino licenses, according to a report Sunday from Bloomberg. Companies in contention include: Caesars Entertainment, Genting, Empire Resorts, Penn National Gaming, Churchill Downs and Full House Resorts. A total of 16 firms are vying for as many as four licenses, the report said. […]

Switch Poker Kicks Off Final Third Of €1K Xmas Promo

The final third of the €1,000 XMAS Competition at Switch Poker kicks is on! Play poker now between Dec. 15-21 and earn your share of €334. In order to qualify, simply play more hands of poker than anyone else on the site. The more you play, the more you’ll win! The €334 will be shared […]

A Poker Life: Pratyush Buddiga

In the last year and a half, Pratyush Buddiga has put himself squarely on the poker map by winning more than $2.3 million, the majority of which has come in three super high roller events featuring some of the world’s best players. After just four years in the game, the 25-year-old from Colorado has gone […]

UNLV Planning Center On Casino Regulation

In the near future, the University of Nevada Las Vegas will be home to a new academic center focused on gaming regulation. Regulations overseeing the casino industry vary not only by U.S. state, by also by country, as gaming as become a global business. “As (gambling) has proliferated across the world, it’s been the genesis […]

Report: Iranian Hackers Attacked Adelson's Casinos

Early this year, billionaire Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson saw his company fall victim to a cyber attack. Months later, there is evidence that it came from Iran, Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Thursday. Adelson has a net worth of $27.4 billion and is the 22nd-wealthiest person in the world. His is a mega-donor for […]

Online Poker: Phil Ivey Drops $800K

Over the past seven days on Full Tilt, pro gambler Phil “Polarizing” Ivey lost roughly $800,000, according to tracking data from HighstakesDB. Ivey’s losses on the year are back up to around $2.5 million. He’s down nearly $5.3 million lifetime on the site under his Polarizing screen name. His old account under his real name […]

Leonid Markin Wins 2014 EPT Prague €50,000 Super High Roller

A total of 51 entries were made in the 2014 European Poker Tour Prague €50,000 no-limit hold’em super high roller, building a prize pool of €2,448,765 ($3,037,130 USD). Only the top seven finishers made the money, with the biggest slice of the high-stakes pie going to Russian Leonid Markin. For the win the 32-year-old earned […]

Russians Accused Of Traveling To U.S. To Cheat At Slots

Four Russian nationals have been indicted by the federal government for allegedly traveling to the United States to cheat at slot machines in Missouri, California and Illionis. According to KSDK, the four used electronic devices to cheat at the casinos, which involved devices that would communicate with a foreign server, allowing them to predict the […]

Here's The Criminal Complaint Against Dan Bilzerian

High-stakes poker player and Instagram “king” Dan Bilzerian was arrested this week at LAX on a warrant for allegedly trying to manufacture explosives in the state of Nevada. The 34-year-old Bilzerian was charged with a felony, along with Jeremy Guymon. Bilzerian was released from jail Wednesday, according to his lawyer, David Chesnoff, the Las Vegas […]

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 […]

Top Macau Junket Figure Under Investigation

According to The Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong has launched a money-laundering investigating into a top junket operator in Macau. Cheung Chi Tai, who reportedly has disputed ties to the Neptune Guangdong Group, has had his assets frozen, the report added. Seven of his “closely held” companies are being looked at. Police with Hong Kong’s […]

2014 POY Update: Jason Mercier Into To Eighth Place

The final countdown has begun in the 2014 Card Player Player of the Year race, sponsored by CarbonPoker. Here’s a look at what went down in one of the last weeks on the tournament circuit: 2014 World Poker Tour Alpha8 St. Kitts High Roller Jason Mercier emerged victorious from a field of 15 total entries […]

Phua, Son Only Defendants Left In Gambling Case

According to reporting from Bloomberg, Paul Phua and his son, Darren Phua, are the only defendants remaining in the criminal case stemming from this summer’s raid on a villa at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The other defendants have pleaded guilty. Eight people in total were arrested for the alleged illegal gambling operation. Four men […]

Dan Bilzerian Facing Felony Charge In Nevada: Report

Though he reportedly is in trouble with the law after a video recently surfaced that shows him allegedly kicking a woman in the face at a Miami nightclub this past weekend, high-stakes poker player Dan Bilzerian was arrested at LAX on Tuesday over an unspecified felony charge in Nevada. However, TMZ reported that Bilzerian has […]

No Online Gambling Ban In Federal Spending Bill

The speculation that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid would get an online gambling ban into the omnibus spending bill is over, as such provisions aren’t in the measure, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Huffington Post caused a stir last week after speculating that Reid might be willing to cater to billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s demands to […]

Gavin Griffin: Pre and Post-Session Routines

People in the poker community often come up to me and ask about whatever is on their mind. Some of these questions are good questions, and some are bad beat stories in disguise. I’ve been through quite a few things in my poker career and I like to help whenever possible, and in this new […]

Bazeley Wins WSOPC Harrah's Cherokee Main Event

Jake Bazeley topped a field of 797 entries to win the 2014 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee $1,675 no-limit hold’em main event. For the win the 31-year-old poker pro from Cincinnati earned his first WSOP Circuit gold ring and the $239,096 first-place prize. “It hasn’t even set in yet,” Bazeley told WSOP.com. “I’ve […]

Phil Hellmuth Shares Winning Poker Tips In Webinar

The most decorated player in World Series of Poker history, Phil Hellmuth, has put together a poker strategy webinar with two-time World Poker Tour champion Jonathan Little that details how he took down the WSOP Europe main event in 2012, winning €1,022,376 in prize money. Card Player readers can now take advantage of a holiday […]

The Rules Guy Tackles Hygiene and Tabling Cards

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 […]

Las Vegas Police Kill Robbery Suspect At Rio

Las Vegas police officers shot and killed a man suspected of a series of armed robberies of casinos at the Rio Hotel and Casino on Sunday morning, according to reporting from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The suspect allegedly had a gun on him and was reaching toward it during a struggle near the guest elevators, […]

Poker Film Angers Costa Rican Government

According to a report from insidecostarica.com, the crime film involving online poker, Runner, Runner, which starred Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, has not made officials in Costa Rica too happy. The film was based in the country. The film, the report said, depicts Costa Rica “as a haven for gamblers and drug addicts, a den […]

October Sees Fewest NV Poker Tables Since 2005

This past October saw the fewest poker tables in Nevada since July 2005. There were 691 tables, and the last time it dropped below 700 was in July 2005, according to research from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The 691 tables had revenue of $8,743,000. The peak for Nevada poker tables came in July […]

Miss Finland Runs Crazy Bluff On Ronnie Bardah

Finnish poker players have garnered an international reputation for aggression, and it seems that tendency applies even to their beauty pageant winners. Sara Chafak represented Finland in the 2012 Miss Universe pageant, but turned out to be just as aggressive as she is congenial. The former Miss Finland took part in the Shark Cage poker […]

Poker Strategy: Why Three-Bet?

A common theme in $2-$5 live no-limit hold’em games is that most players don’t three-bet preflop very much. Mostly, of course, people are three-betting with the most premium hands: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, and A-K. Since these hands are dealt so rarely—and you have to face a raise in front of you to three-bet—you simply don’t […]

This Week In Tournament Poker: Dec. 8 - 14

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 December 8th through the 14th. Head to our tournament […]

Report: Reid Might Help Adelson Ban I-Poker

According to the Huffington Post, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid might be so worried about losing his Senate seat in 2016 to current Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval that he’s willing to flip-flop and help billionaire Sheldon Adelson ban online poker nationwide. Reid’s state is one of three with fledgling Internet gaming industries. Ironically, Adelson’s casinos in […]

Taj Mahal: 'Last Ditch Effort' To Stay Open

One of Atlantic City’s iconic casinos has moved back its scheduled closing date to Dec. 20 in what it says is a “last ditch effort” to not be the fifth brick-and-mortar casino in the seaside town to close this calendar year. According to the AP, Trump Taj Mahal said in a bankruptcy court filing on […]