But what’s a gold card? I’m glad you asked.  Gold cards Cake Poker’s way of rewarding you for playing in their poker room.  When you play a real money game with Cake Poker, you may randomly be awarded a Gold Card. You don’t have to win the game. You can lose or even fold.  You can then use your gold cards to buy in to daily satellites or prize pool events under Cake Poker’s Gold Tab.  Or in September, you can use them for the Match and Win game with bonus cash and tournaments. The cash prizes go up to a whopping $25,000.

Better yet, Turbo Gold Cards are back for September.  This means that if you play Ring Games during the Turbo times, Cake Poker will be rewarding Gold Cards four times as often.  So you want to play between 3pm to 5pm, or 8pm to 10pm, or 1am to 3am.  All times are GMT, so check for your local time zone before you play.    

Remember, it’s September, it’s time for Cake.

But having a home for the next three years will give the World Poker Tour plenty of growth opportunity.  The show will have better air times running from 8pm to 11pm on Sundays. Other poker show times have had fans staying up to past midnight to watch the game.  Or recording it for later (recorded TV is my best friend.)  And the good news is that actor Vince Van Patten and poker pro and “sexy voice” Mike Sexton will continue to offer commentary on the games. 

For poker players, watching the games can provide great insight into how the pros play.  Don’t just watch, analyze. Can you spot different types of play and how it affects the game?  Hey, this will be easier to do now that the games will air earlier in the day while the brain is still awake.  Remember, it’s not just TV, it’s research.  Watch and learn.

Phil Ivey who has won the WSOP an astonishing eight times and is the currently leader in poker winnings. 

Daniel Negreanu a four-time WSOP winner currently known for his interesting vocabulary choices.

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson a five time winner of the WSOP winner known for his long hair Jesus look.

Jennifer Harman-Traniello who is the only woman to hold two bracelets in open events and also a Two-time WSOP winner.

Barry Greenstein: a Three time WSOP winner who is also a two time World Poker Tour winner.

Dan Harrington a two time WSOP winner.

Tom McEvoy a four time WSOP winner.

Scotty Nguyen a five-time WSOP winner.

Erik Seidel an eight-time WSOP winner, one WPT victory.

Linda Johnson “The First Lady of Poker”

Now, any of those listed above could be inducted into the WSOP Hall of Fame but usually only a couple of players are added each year. And here’s an interesting tidbit, you don’t actually have to be a poker player to make it into the WSOP Hall of Fame.  The criteria does allow for the induction of non-players who’ve contributed to the growth and success of poker.  I wonder if they’d nominate Barney Frank if he gets his gambling resolution passed. 

Ever wondered about the criteria you’ll have to meet if you want to make it into the Hall of Fame.  Well, you must have played poker against acknowledged top competition and played for high stakes.  You also have to played consistently, gained the respect of your peers and withstood the test of time.

So, who will make it in this year?  Well, I have my favorites but I think Phil Ivey is probably your safest bet.

 The Bounty Hunt tournaments will take place at Titanpoker.com and the buy in will be $5 + $1, so these are affordable tournaments.  If you manage to knock out one of the Team Titan members, you’ll win a $100 bounty prize.  But Titan Poker is throwing an extra $500 into the tournaments to make them even more exciting. 

 If you want to go on a bounty hunt, you’ll have to register at Titan Poker, which is one of the leading online poker rooms in Europe and part of the iPoker Network.  This is a hot poker room with a reported nearly 30,000 online players in the peak playing hours.  That means you’re going to be able to find plenty of action waiting for you.  The sites poker software comes from Playtech and the site guarantees, oh, about 16 million in monthly prizes.  So follow the money to Titan Poker. Unless you’re from the United States. Unfortunately the site doesn’t accept US players.

So, a certain unnamed pro player, let’s call him Mr. Happy Pants, was playing poker at the Horseshoe Casino in Indiana and was doing well. He’d won over $9000 at the tables and he was feeling pretty happy.  But instead of putting his money in his happy pants and leaving, he got into a conversation with a young woman named Lakasha Johnson. Of course Lakasha started it when she pulled up a chair beside him and asked “is that nine thousand dollars in your pants or are you just happy to see me.”  (Okay, she really didn’t say that, but she might as well have.) 

Well, Mr. Happy Pants was happy to see her and the two played poker, went to breakfast, picked up some condoms and gum … everyone see where this is heading?  Lakasha knew where it was heading and Mr. Happy Pants was happy to follow along as they went back to his room at the Quality Inn.  (Really, Mr. Happy Pants, the Quality Inn is where you take a women?)  The two made use of the condoms. No report on whether or not they used the gum.  And then they went to sleep. 

A few hours later Mr. Happy Pants woke up to find the Lakasha, the lady of his dreams, had taken off and taken the $9,000 in winnings with her. Which meant he’d either been robbed or vastly over paid her for her services.  Also, it means that he should have stayed at a hotel that had a safe to put the winnings in instead of thinking hiding them behind the TV and the Quality Inn was a quality hiding place. 

Lakasha was eventually caught and sentenced to probation and community services. She’s also supposed to pay restitution to Mr. Happy Pants who may be more cautious about lovely casino ladies in the future.

High stakes baccarat of all things. Do you know what high stakes baccarat is supposed to be like? It’s supposed to be a fancy game where players dress up and stand around sipping martinis while introducing themselves as “Bond, James Bond.”  It’s not supposed to be the place where you find the outrageous behavior in a casino!

And Caesar’s Palace is probably agreeing with me after paying out that $250,000 fine.  So, way back in October, a player who the casino has declined to name, climbed up on the Baccarat table to express his love of the game.  Mr. Happy Feet apparently climbed on the table at least three times and even placed a bet while up there.  According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the security staff at Caesar’s didn’t do enough to convince Mr. Happy Feet to keep his feet on the ground.   The Gaming Control Board is not paid to have a sense of humor. 

So, while Caesar’s in this case didn’t throw the player out or call for the Vegas cops to arrest the player who apparently wasn’t doing anything threatening or overly dangerous ( though I don’t know if Baccarat tables are designed to support a full grown man), the Gaming Control Board would like to see them exercise more control. 

So, next time you find yourself at the Baccarat table remember  – no dancing on the tables!

What goes with poker better than a big frosty mug of beer?  Well, maybe a big pile of chips. Make that two piles of chips.  Potato Chips in a bowl to munch on and poker chips on the table to play with.  Poker, beer, chips, sounds like a plan to me.  

It also sounded like a plan to Soren Eriksen who took some of his poker winnings and opened his own brewery in New Zealand. (Now, someone will probably comment and tell me that in New Zealand they don’t drink beer in frosty mugs, but back to Soren.)  Soren Eriksen is a poker player from Denmark who moved to New Zealand to be with his gal pal.  He worked as a biochemist, played poker and dreamed of beer.  That dream started after he was given a home brewing kit as a present.  He brewed a batch and he liked it. So much that he took a job at the Renaissance Brewing Company in Blenheim (New Zealand, folks, remember were in the land of the Kiwi for this story.)  Once he had the hang of the hoops, he took a bit over $100,000 of his poker tournament winnings and started his own brewery. 

The brewery is called 8 Wired Brewing Company.  Since 8 Wired seemed to have significance in New Zealand, I had to go find out what that was.  Apparently No. 8 Wire is a gauge of wire that is used for fencing in the country.  It’s come to stand as a symbol for Kiwi self-sufficiency and adaptability.  Sort of like Duct Tape in the United States.

If you want to try any of the 8 Wired Brews, you’ll probably have to head to New Zealand.  And if you want to play against Soren in a poker game, you may only be able to find him at a friendly Kiwi table. Despite his success in the game, Soren is really a fan of the professional poker scene and prefers the land of Kiwis to Las Vegas.

Thinking of sitting down at the poker table with a group of buddies?  Well, if you live in North Carolina, you might want to think again.  North Carolina is one of those states that won’t allow gambling, even social gambling, in any form.  (A fair number of states south of the Mason Dixon line have that attitude.)  But eight men in the great state of North Carolina certainly didn’t expect the police to show up when the dealt out the cards.  But apparently there had been multiple complaints from members of the public about illegal games taking place.  (I live in the South. Yes, North Carolina is the type of place where people would care about this sort of thing going on, even if they weren’t a part of it.  In the South, we mind our own business and everyone else’s so we don’t miss anything interesting.)  

Well, the officers of the law showed up and arrested the players and confiscated their money. Now the eight men will have to appear in court to answer for their poker playing ways.  The good news for the players is that the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) often takes an interest in cases like this. The PPA takes them as an opportunity to argue before the courts that poker is a game of skill, not luck, and therefore does not count as gambling.  So, a North Carolina judge will soon find him hearing arguments in the case. And if he doesn’t feel poker is a game of sport, the case could be challenged at a higher level in the state.  So, once again, we have a case where eight dudes playing poker may play a part in the legal history of the game.

Despite the European Union and the supposed promise of unified gambling laws throughout Europe, every country has been off pursuing its own specific gambling legislation. And without much opposition.  In Holland, the Dutch Ministry of Justice had a committee review the country’s online gambling laws and report back.  The report supports the legalization of online poker, but states that other online gambling, such as casino games and sports betting should be illegal in the country.

While this is good for online poker, or  maybe if the country does pull what France did and restrict players to only playing on sites operating within the country.   Since poker is essentially a social sport where players are expected to compete against one another, restricting play affects poker players more than it would slot players or blackjack players.  

But this proposal to legalize poker but not other gambling games isn’t sitting well with those in Holland.  Sports betting and lottery are already allowed in the country under existing laws and managed by the state owned monopoly DeLotto.  So, the report would have the country restricting sports betting which is currently legal and which I’m sure has as many fans as poker.  Since it seems that sports betting would still be allowed and controlled by DeLotto, this is criticized by some as offering the state a monopoly on the popular form of gambling. 

So, once again, online gambling comes under debate in Europe. Though right now there’s no indication that anyone will act quickly on the committee’s report.  After all, politicians elsewhere have proven that they’ll ignore a committee report in favor of gambling if the politicians aren’t in favor of gambling. 

The Cereus Poker Network which runs the well known poker rooms Absolute Poker and UB.com (Ultimate Bet) has been acquired by Blanca Games, Inc.  Blanca Games is led by e-gaming entrepreneur Stuart Gordon who wants to “leverage” the existing strengths of the Cereus Poker Network.  Leverage is corporate speak for use or take advantage of.  Don’t you just love corporate speak?  When playing poker, I love to be able to leverage the power of a royal flush at the table.  I’ve had some commenters on the blog ask about my background. Let’s just say that for years I had a career where people talked like Mr. Gordon.  Like when he says the Cereus network is “extremely well-positioned in the most desirable demographic in our market: players in the 20s and 30s age brackets.”  In other words, Absolute Poker and UB.com are delivering an age group Blanca Games wants.  Competition for the 20 to 30 age group is tough. So grabbing an existing network that has players in that age group is good for the company.

And the acquisition may do Absolute Poker and UB.com some good too.  The two poker rooms have had some “iffy” moments in their past.  Like the cheating scheme that involved a super user account that allowed some well connected players in the company to see other player’s hole cards.  And a smaller scandal where the site’s security protocols were proven to be less than desirable.  Despite these problems, the network has remained popular.  But perhaps it is time to hang up an “Under New Management” sign and move forward.