1.
2008 World Series of Poker
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The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker. Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30,2008, and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All events but the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas hold em Main Event, the most prestigious of the WSOP events, ended by July 15. As has been the WSOP custom since 1976, each of the event winners received a championship bracelet in addition to that events prize money, which ranged from $87,929 to $9,119,517. Highlights of the 2008 series include the selection of Erick Lindgren, nikolay Evdakov led all players with a record 10 money finishes, and Phil Hellmuth set a WSOP record of 41 career final tables. This year was the first in which the Main Event was suspended in this fashion, in a stunning statistical improbability, Justin Phillips knocked out Motoyuki Mabuchi in the Main Event. Phillips held a Royal Flush and Mabuchi held quad aces, one of the broadcasters, Lon McEachern, mentioned on air that the chances of such a showdown occurring were 1,2.7 billion. Ray Romano had just sat down at the table when this hand played itself out, nikolay Evdakov set a WSOP record for most cashes at a single World Series with 10. The previous record of eight was held by five players, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Humberto Brenes, Michael Binger, evdakovs achievement also represents the most cashes by a player at one WSOP without reaching a single final table. Hellmuth, who made two final tables, established a new WSOP career record of 41 final tables, two more than T. J. Cloutier. Scotty Nguyen became the first player to both a Main Event and a $50,000 H. O. R. S. E World Championship bracelet. Several nationals were the first from their country to win bracelets, brazilian Alexandre Gomes won Event 48 to become the first South American player to win a WSOP bracelet since Ecuadorian-born Carlos Mortensen won the 2001 Main Event. Rob Hollink won Event 30, becoming the first Dutch WSOP bracelet winner, the 2008 Main Event final table took 15 hours and 28 minutes to play, beating the previous record of 14 hours and 2 minutes in 2005. The $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas Hold em Main Event began on July 3 with the first of four starting days, after reaching the final table of nine players on July 14, the final table was delayed until November 9. This change in schedule was made to allow ESPN to broadcast the final table on November 11, All final table players were paid ninth place prize money in July, with the remaining prize pool distributed in November. Instead of the Amazon Room, aka the Poker Room, where all of the events were held, on November 9, players played down from nine to two and the winner was decided the next night. The final table consisted of 274 hands in total, after a large decrease in Main Event participants in 2007 compared to 2006, the number increased slightly in 2008 but was still far from the 2006 number. As in 2007, the structure is flatter than in 2006 and before, with the lowest payouts at $21,230
2.
Las Vegas
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The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment and it is the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World and it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the worlds most visited tourist destinations. The citys tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century, population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85. 2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to a 2013 estimate, perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago, a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, the area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for the meadows, as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C, frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street is named after him, eleven years later members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward, the remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city,1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks and this year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935, in 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Currently known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the team called the Thunderbirds
3.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
4.
World Series of Poker
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The World Series of Poker is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment Corporation. The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet, over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants. Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit holdem Main Event, the victor receives a multi-million dollar cash prize and a bracelet, which has become the most coveted award a poker player can win. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker, as of 2014, the WSOP consists of 65 events, with most major poker variants featured. However, in recent years, over half of the events have been variants of Texas hold em, Events traditionally take place during one day or over several consecutive days during the series in June and July. However, starting in 2008, the Main Event final table was delayed until November, the 2012 Main Event final table commenced in October because of the United States presidential election. Since 1971, all WSOP events have been tournaments with cash prizes, in 1973, a five-card stud event was added. Since then, new events have added and removed. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP, later on, the tournament grew slowly for over a decade, reaching 52 participants in 1982. In the early 1980s, satellite tournaments were introduced, allowing people to win their way into the various events, by 1987, there were over 2,100 entrants in the entire series. At the 2006 World Series of Poker, there were 45 events, participation in the Main Event peaked that year, with 8,773 players. Currently, Texas hold em, Omaha hold em and Seven-card stud, H. O. R. S. E. has been played in the past and returned in 2006. Also, S. H. O. E. has been played in the past, other events played in the past include Chinese poker, Five card stud, and many others. Like most tournaments, the sponsoring casino takes a fee and distributes the rest. In the 2005 Main Event, US$52,818,610 in prize money was distributed among 560 players, with US$7.5 million as the first prize. The 2006 Main Event, won by Jamie Gold, is the largest single poker tournament by prize pool or by entrant numbers in history, in July 2010, it was announced that the winner of the 2010 Main Event would receive just under US$9 million. 11% of the went to Lalibertés charity, the One Drop Foundation. At the time of the announcement,15 of the maximum 48 seats had been taken
5.
World Series of Poker bracelet
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The World Series of Poker bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP, even if the victory occurred before 1976, WSOP championships are now counted as bracelets. During the first years of the WSOP only a handful of bracelets were awarded each year, in 1990, there were only 14 bracelet events. By 2000, that increased to 24. As the popularity of poker has increased during the 2000s, the number of events has likewise increased, in 2011,58 bracelets were awarded at the WSOP, seven at the World Series of Poker Europe, and one to the WSOP National Circuit Champion. This brought the number of bracelets awarded up to 959. Five additional bracelets were awarded for the first time in April 2013 at the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific in Melbourne, Australia. Since Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 Main Event, only two players have won and followed it up with a win in another event, Jonathan Duhamel. The 1976 bracelet looked like gold nuggets kind of hammered flat, the bracelet in 1976 cost approximately $500. In the 1980s, Las Vegas jeweler Mordechai Yerushalmi became the manufacturer of WSOP bracelets until Harrahs Entertainment bought the rights to the WSOP in 2004. According to 2003 WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker, the design of the bracelet remained relatively unchanged under Yerushalmi, in 2005, Gold and Diamond International based in Memphis, TN won the bid from Harrahs Entertainment to manufacture the 2005 World Series of Poker bracelets. The company also manufactures the WSOP circuit rings, in 2006, Frederick Goldman, Inc. made the WSOP bracelets while luxury watch maker Corum introduced some commemorative watches as part of the prize package. In 2006, the Champions bracelet had 259 stones including 7.2 carats of diamonds,120 grams of white and it also used rubies to represent the heart and diamond suits, a sapphire to represent the spade and three black diamonds to represent the clubs. In 2007, Corum became the official bracelet manufacturer for the WSOP, some of the 2007 World Series of Poker champions received both a watch and a bracelet from Corum. Corum designed four variations for the 2007 World Series of Poker Bracelets, the standard version that is presented to 53 winners features 53 diamonds. The Ladies World Champion receives a bracelet that is adorned with four black diamonds, the $50,000 HORSE Champion Bracelet has 91 black diamonds and two rubies. The World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet has 120 diamonds on 136 grams of 18 carat white gold, the value of the 2007 bracelets have not been released, but the typical price of a Corum watch ranges from $1, 500–$30, 000+. In 2008, the Main Event Bracelet had 291 diamonds, totalling 2.81 carats set in 168 grams of 18kt white gold, the other 54 event bracelets consisted of 55 diamonds, totalling 0.25 carats set in 80 grams of 14kt yellow gold
6.
World Poker Tour
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The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting the final table of each tournament. It was started in 2002 in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises, in 2008, the WPT started offering bracelets to its event champions. Players who won a title prior to the release of the WPT Bracelet were given one retroactively, in November 2009, PartyGaming announced its acquisition of the World Poker Tour from WPTE for $12.3 million. In December 2014, World Poker Tour announced an alliance with Ourgame, agreeing to license products, in June 2015, The World Poker Tour announced that it was acquired by Ourgame International Holdings Ltd. for a price of $35 million in cash. The year-round WPT television show, building on the annual broadcast of the World Series of Poker, has contributed to the Poker boom in American homes, in casino poker rooms. The key sponsors of the WPT are casinos and online poker sites, the WPT television show, which is syndicated internationally, features commentary and analysis by World Series of Poker bracelet winner Mike Sexton and actor Vince Van Patten. Interviews and sideline reporting are provided by a female host, shana Hiatt served as the show host and sideline reporter in its first three seasons. Courtney Friel took over the host role for the fourth season, layla Kayleigh and Kimberly Lansing began serving as hostesses in season six. Poker player and reporter Amanda Leatherman was the host for season seven, Kimberly Lansing returned as anchor for seasons nine through eleven. Lynn Gilmartin assumed the role for season twelve and remains the current anchor for season thirteen. Following the November 2009 acquisition of the World Poker Tour by PartyGaming plc and this series has, to date, focused on televising the European stops of the WPT. Mike Sexton continues to provide commentary, though he is partnered with Denmark-based American commentator Jesse May rather than Vince Van Patten, the role of female show host and sideline reporter has been served by a number of personalities, often from the country where the event is held. One exception is Canadian born poker player Kara Scott, who has served as host for a number of the Party Poker branded telecasts of these European WPT events. In 2014, the World Poker Tour launched a high roller tournament series, WPT Alpha8, the series originally featured commentary and analysis by Ali Nejad and Olivier Busquet, with Lynn Gilmartin serving as anchor. In later seasons, Vince Van Patten and Tony Dunst replaced Nejad, the tour had its debut season in the latter part of 2002 and early part of 2003, climaxing with the WPT Championship in April 2003 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first season aired on the Travel Channel on American cable television in the spring of 2003, the show made its network debut on February 1,2004 on NBC with a special Battle of Champions tournament, which aired against CBS coverage of the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show. The Travel Channel aired the first five seasons of the Tour, in April 2007, WPTE announced that the series would move to GSN for its sixth season in the spring of 2008. The first WPT tournament to air on GSN, the Mirage Poker Showdown, in July 2008, WPTE announced that the series would move to Fox Sports Net for its seventh season
7.
Henderson, Nevada
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Henderson, officially the City of Henderson, is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, about 16 miles southeast of Las Vegas. It is the second-largest city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, the city is part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which spans the entire Las Vegas Valley. Henderson occupies the end of the valley, at an elevation of approximately 1,330 feet. In 2011, Forbes magazine ranked Henderson as Americas second-safest city and it has also been named as One of the Best Cities to Live in America by Bloomberg Businessweek. In 2014, Henderson was again ranked as one of the Top 10 Safest Cities in the United States by the FBI Uniform Crime Report, the township of Henderson first emerged in the 1940s during World War II with the building of the Basic Magnesium Plant. Henderson quickly became a supplier of magnesium in the United States. The plant supplied the US War Department with magnesium for incendiary munition casings and airplane engines, frames, a quarter of all US wartime magnesium came from the Henderson Plant to strengthen aluminum, using 25% of Hoover Dams power to separate the metal from its ore by electrolysis. The British liaison officer sent to Henderson, Major Charles Ball, had a named after him. There was some concern that Ball St, would sound improper, although born in Americas defense, Hendersons future after World War II was uncertain. In 1947, magnesium production was no longer necessary for defense, enrollment in the school system was reduced by two thirds, and well over half the townsite houses, built to house plant workers, became vacant. In 1947, the United States War Asset Administration had offered Henderson for sale as war surplus property, in an effort to save the city, the Nevada Legislature spent a weekend visiting Henderson, evaluating the possibility of state administration of Basic Magnesium. Within days of the visit, the unanimously approved a bill giving the Colorado River Commission of Nevada the authority to purchase the industrial plants. Governor Vail Pittman signed the bill on March 27,1947, with the help of local industry, Henderson was incorporated on April 16,1953 as the City of Henderson. On May 23,1953, Henderson, with its population of 7,410, originally only about 13 square miles in size, the city quickly began to grow, reaching over 94 square miles in size today. In 1988, the Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada rocket fuel factory, in the modern-day Gibson Springs neighborhood of Henderson and these sent shockwaves throughout Henderson and parts of the Las Vegas Valley, shattering glass and damaging buildings. The explosions also caused earthquakes, some of which measured over 3.0 on the Richter magnitude scale, two people were killed, and an additional 372 injured. The events of the PEPCON factory disaster spurred development in Henderson years later, there are now no signs of the explosion where it happened. Today, the site consists mostly of office buildings, Henderson is located 16 miles southeast of downtown Las Vegas at 36°2′23″N 114°58′52″W
8.
Video poker
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Video poker is an arcade or casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a console similar in size to a slot machine. Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like monitor with a state central processing unit. The earliest models appeared at the time as the first personal computers were produced, in the mid-1970s. Video poker became more established when SIRCOMA, which stood for Si Redds Coin Machines. Throughout the 1980s, video poker became increasingly popular in casinos, today video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos. The game is popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize locals casinos off the Las Vegas Strip. These local casinos often offer lower denomination machines or better odds, after inserting money into the machine, play begins by placing a bet of one or more credits and pressing the deal button. The player is then given 5 cards and has the opportunity to one or more of them in exchange for new ones drawn from the same virtual deck. After the draw, the machine pays out if the hand or hands played one of the winning combinations. Unlike the table version, the player may discard all 5 of their cards if they so choose. Pay tables allocate the payouts for hands and are based on how rare they are, the variation. A typical pay table starts with a hand of a pair of jacks. Some machines offer progressive jackpots, or other bonuses, thereby spurring players to both play more coins and to play more frequently. Maureen OConnor, former mayor of San Diego, lost nearly $13 million playing video poker, Video poker machines in casinos in the United States are regulated by state or Indian gaming agencies. These agencies typically require that the machines deal random card sequences using a deck of cards. This is based on a Nevada Gaming Commission regulation later adopted by states with a gaming authority. Video poker machines are tested to ensure compliance with this requirement before they are offered to the public, there are many variations of video poker
9.
Westin Las Vegas
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The Westin Las Vegas is a resort and casino near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The Westin is managed by Pyramid Hotel Group, under franchise from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and it is noteworthy for being one of the first Las Vegas resorts to prohibit smoking in almost all parts of the property, only in a part of the casino is smoking permitted. The casino floor has fewer than 300 slot and video machines and only ten table games, far smaller than Strip megaresorts. Instead, the resort concentrates more on its hotel amenities, including a destination spa, the property was originally opened on July 1,1977 as the Maxim Hotel and Casino. Though smaller than typical Vegas resorts even before todays megaresort era and it thrived during the 1980s, but went into decline as flashier, larger resorts opened on the nearby Strip. The Maxim was the site of the death of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996. Shakur was a passenger in a BMW that was driving in front of the casino and he died a week later from his injuries. In 1999, the casino was closed in a dispute between the operator and hotel owners. The hotel itself remained open without gaming, until closing entirely in 2001, Columbia Sussex bought the former Maxim for $38 million then spent an additional $90 million on the remodel. They reopened the hotel as The Westin Casuarina on November 6,2003, the Westin Casuarina marked the first Westin resort nationwide to feature a casino and was the first Westin in Nevada. In November 2010, lenders filed for foreclosure on The Westin Casuarina, the hotels general manager said in October 2011 that Columbia Sussex would not fight the foreclosure, and that the hotel was overleveraged due to property values declining in the recession. Lenders asked a court to appoint Pyramid Hotel Group as receiver to operate the resort, Pyramid leased the propertys casino to 777 Gaming, a company that had operated several rural casinos and a slot route, for four years beginning in May 2012. The hotel was later renamed The Westin Las Vegas and it announced in 2016 that it will phase out its casino facilities and operate purely as a hotel. Westin Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa
10.
Texas hold 'em
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Texas hold em is a variation of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as the cards, are dealt face down to each player. The stages consist of a series of three cards, later a single card and a final card. Each player seeks the best five card poker hand from the combination of the community cards, if a players best five card poker hand consists only of the five community cards and none of the players hole cards, it is called playing the board. Players have betting options to check, call, raise or fold, rounds of betting take place before the flop is dealt, and after each subsequent deal. Texas hold em is the H game featured in H. O. R. S. E, in Texas hold em, as in all variants of poker, individuals compete for an amount of money or chips contributed by the players themselves. The game is divided into a series of hands, at the conclusion of each hand, the objective of winning players is not to win every individual hand, but rather to make mathematically and psychologically better decisions regarding when and how much to bet, raise, call—or fold. Ones pattern of betting may encourage opponents to bet or to fold, the winning poker players know how to enhance their opponents betting and maximize their own expected gain on each round of betting, to thereby increase their long-term winnings. Although little is known about the invention of Texas hold em, after the game spread throughout Texas, hold em was introduced to Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan gamblers and card players, including Crandell Addington, Doyle Brunson, and Amarillo Slim. This is when ace high was changed from the form in which aces were low. Addington said the first time he saw the game was in 1959 and they didnt call it Texas hold em at the time, they just called it hold em. … I thought then that if it were to catch on, it would become the game. Draw poker, you bet only twice, hold em, you bet four times and that meant you could play strategically. This was more of a mans game. For several years the Golden Nugget Casino in Downtown Las Vegas was the only casino in Las Vegas to offer the game, at that time, the Golden Nuggets poker room was truly a sawdust joint, with…oiled sawdust covering the floors. Because of its location and decor, this room did not receive many rich drop-in clients. In 1969, the Las Vegas professionals were invited to play Texas hold em at the entrance of the now-demolished Dunes Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. This prominent location, and the inexperience of poker players with Texas hold em. After a failed attempt to establish a Gambling Fraternity Convention, Tom Moore added the first ever poker tournament to the Second Annual Gambling Fraternity Convention held in 1969 and this tournament featured several games including Texas hold em
11.
Card sharp
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A card sharp is a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at poker or other card games. Sharp and shark spellings have varied over time and by region, the label is not always intended as pejorative, and is sometimes used to refer to practitioners of card tricks for entertainment purposes. A card sharp or shark may be a rounder who travels, according to the prevailing etymological theory, the term shark, originally meaning parasite or one who preys upon others, derives from German Schorke or Schurke, as did the English word shirk. Sharp developed in the 17th century from this meaning of shark, Card sharp and card shark are synonymous, although American English is somewhat, but informally, beginning to favor shark as a positive term versus sharp as a negative one. Card sharps who cheat or perform tricks use methods to control of the order of the cards or sometimes to control one specific card. Many of these methods employ sleight of hand, essential skills are false shuffles and false cuts that appear to mix the deck but actually leave the cards in the same order. More advanced techniques include culling, and stacking, dealing the cards can also be manipulated. Once a desired card or cards are located they can be controlled and this is called a false dealing, if a card is dealt from the bottom it is called bottom dealing and if it is second from the top it is called second dealing. Two cards could be dealt as one or the card from the bottom could be dealt, hence the Greek deal. Dealing may also be done from the middle of the deck, known as the deal or center deal. Gambit, fictional Marvel superhero Card sharps are common characters in caper films, in Friends season 2, episode 10, The One with Russ, Ross debates with his doppelgänger Russ about the correctness of the term card shark vs. card sharp. On Mission, Impossible, members of the Impossible Missions Force, in Prison Break, the character Theodore T-Bag Bagwell is an expert card sharp, who says, there are maybe five people in this country who can do what I do with a deck of cards. T-Bag uses this skill successfully in season 1, episode 18, sanford and Son featured an episode wherein card sharps defeated Lamont at poker. Fred was able to defeat the card sharps and win Lamonts money back, in the Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop, characters Fay Valentine and Spike Spiegel both exhibit card sharping skills, usually at the expense of their partner, Jet Black. In Arrow season 1, episode 21, The Undertaking, Felicity Smoak poses as a sharp, so that she. In Downton Abbey series 4, episode 3, Ediths love interest Mr. Gregson expresses his pleasure in beating a card sharp, Mr Sampson, who was a card snark of the first degree. In the British reality TV show The Real Hustle, co-host Paul Wilson is a card mechanic who uses his skills to demonstrate scams. The antagonist Luxord, of Organization XIII in Kingdom Hearts II, is a gambler who fights with dice and cards, in League of Legends, the champion Twisted Fate is a card sharp
12.
Betting in poker
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In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing. Players in a poker game act in turn, in clockwise rotation, until the first bet is made each player in turn may check, which is to not place a bet, or open, which is to make the first bet. A player may fold by surrendering her cards, a player may check by tapping the table or making any similar motion. All other bets are made by placing chips in front of the player, in general, the person to the left of the dealer acts first and action proceeds in a clockwise fashion. If any player has folded earlier, action proceeds to next player, in games with blinds, the first round of betting begins with the player to the left of the blinds. In stud games action begins with the showing the strongest cards and proceeds clockwise. If there is a bring-in, the first round of betting begins with the player obliged to post the bring-in. If no one has yet opened the round, a player may pass or check. In games played with blinds, players may not check on the round because the blinds are live bets. A player who has posted the big blind has the right to raise on the first round, called the option, if no player has raised. If all players check, the round is over with no additional money placed in the pot. A common way to signify checking is to tap the table, either with a fist, knuckles, some poker variations have special rules about opening a round that may not apply to other bets. For example, a game may have a structure that specifies different allowable amounts for opening than for other bets. Normally, a player makes a bet by placing the chips they wish to wager into the pot, to raise is to increase the size of an existing bet in the same betting round. A player making the second or subsequent raise of a round is said to re-raise. A player making a raise after previously checking in the betting round is said to check-raise. A bluff is when a player bets or raises when it is likely they do not have the best hand, it is often done in hopes that opponent will fold mediocre yet stronger hands. When a player bets or raises with a hand that has a chance of improvement on a later betting round
13.
Bluff (poker)
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In poker, a bluff is a bet or raise made with a hand which is not thought to be the best hand. To bluff is to such a bet. The objective of a bluff is to induce a fold by at least one opponent who holds a better hand, the size and frequency of a bluff determines its profitability to the bluffer. A pure bluff, or stone-cold bluff, is a bet or raise with a hand that has little or no chance of improving. A player making a pure bluff believes he can win the pot only if all opponents fold, the pot odds for a bluff are the ratio of the size of the bluff to the pot. A pure bluff has a positive expectation when the probability of being called by an opponent is lower than the pot odds for the bluff. For example, suppose that all the cards are out. If the player bets the size of the pot on a pure bluff, note, however, that the opponent may also consider the pot odds when deciding whether to call. In this example, the opponent will be facing 2-to-1 pot odds for the call, the opponent will have a positive expectation for calling the bluff if the opponent believes the probability the player is bluffing is at least 33%. In games with multiple betting rounds, to bluff on one round with an inferior or drawing hand that might improve in a round is called a semi-bluff. A player making a semi-bluff can win the pot two different ways, by all opponents folding immediately or by catching a card to improve the players hand. In some cases a player may be on a draw but with strong enough that he is favored to win the hand. In this case his bet is not classified as a semi-bluff even though his bet may force opponents to fold hands with better current strength. For example, a player in a poker game with four spade-suited cards showing on the penultimate round might raise. If his bluff fails and he is called, he still might be dealt a spade on the final card, bluffing may be more effective in some circumstances than others. Bluffs have a higher expectation when the probability of being called decreases, several game circumstances may decrease the probability of being called, Fewer opponents who must fold to the bluff. The bluff provides less favorable pot odds to opponents for a call, a scare card comes that increases the number of superior hands that the player may be perceived to have. The players betting pattern in the hand has been consistent with the hand they are representing with the bluff
14.
Carlos Mortensen
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Juan Carlos Mortensen is a Spanish professional poker player of Danish descent and the only Hispanic Main Event winner of the World Series of Poker. Mortensen is known for his play, bluffing tactics. Mortensen moved from Spain to the United States in the late 1990s to play poker and he won $1,500,000 at the 2001 World Series of Poker Main Event. He defeated a field of 613 players, including a tough final table that included professional players Mike Matusow,1989 WSOP Main Event champion Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon. In the final hand, Mortensens suited King-Queen out-drew and defeated Tomkos pocket aces and he won his second bracelet at the 2003 World Series of Poker in the $5,000 Limit Holdem event, earning $251,680. He defeated professional player Mark Gregorich heads-up to win the title, at the 2006 World Series of Poker Carlos made 3 final tables. He finished 9th in event #2 winning $71,617 and he would once again finish 9th in event #6 earning him another $73,344. He came up just short of winning his 3rd bracelet in event #33 where he finished runner-up to James Richburg earning him $94,908 and he is considered to be the last big-name poker professional to win the Main Event at the World Series of Poker. A few other players have made the final table in the post-boom years since his win. He finished 10th in the 2013 WSOP Main Event, being the Final Table Bubble Boy, in 2004, he won the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship for $1,000,000. In 2010, Mortensen won the Season Eight WPT Hollywood Poker Open, with this win, he passed Daniel Negreanu for first on the all-time WPT money list, and tied Gus Hansen for most WPT titles with three. Mortensen has also made the money in the World Heads-Up Poker Championship. In 2006, he and his wife, fellow poker player Cecilia Reyes Mortensen, as of 2014, his total live tournament winnings exceed $11,400,000. His 21 cashes as the WSOP account for $3,080,524 of those winnings, GENEALOGY, family origins of Carlos Mortensen in the Mauricio Alvarado-Dávilas genealogical database for Ecuador. World Poker Tour – profile Hendon Mob tournament results
15.
Daniel Negreanu
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Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player who has won six World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour championship titles. The independent poker ranking service Global Poker Index recognised Negreanu as the best poker player of the decade in 2014. Since his second place finish in the Big One For One Drop 2014 tournament, he is the biggest live tournament poker winner of all time, having accumulated over $32,600,000 in prize money. He was named the WSOP Player of the Year in 2004 and again in 2013 and he was also the 2004-05 WPT Player of the Year. He is the first player to make a table at each of the three WSOP bracelet-awarding locations and the first to win a bracelet at each. In 2014, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, Negreanu was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1974, seven years after his parents, Annie and Constantin, emigrated from Romania. The Negreanus had hoped to start a new life in the United States, but ended up settling in Toronto, Daniel is five years younger than his brother Mike. Even at an age, Negreanu was extremely ambitious, stating in a 2009 interview From the age of four. I told my mom I’d build an out of Popsicle sticks. He attended Pineway public middle school in North York, where the principal complained to his mother about Daniels poor manners or behavior, while nursing dreams of a career as a professional snooker player, the then 15-year-old learned how to play poker. By 16, he was spending time in pool halls, hustling, sports betting, while in Toronto, he met and began dating Evelyn Ng, who would also become a well-known professional poker player. After building up his bankroll, he left for Las Vegas at the age of 22 to pursue his dream of becoming a poker player. However, The Strip got the better of him and he was forced to back home to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll. In August 2005, he married Lori Lin Weber, they separated in November 2007, Negreanu has a blog at Full Contact Poker where he posts his thoughts and feelings about life, politics, and the poker world. He is also a heavy National Hockey League fan, once claiming on Poker After Dark at the table he was thinking of declining the offer because the tournament was in the middle of hockey season. He is often seen wearing NHL jerseys of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Daniel became a vegetarian in 2000 and has been vegan since 2006. After many years living in the United States, he received his green card on July 15,2009, on November 23,2009, his mother died in her sleep after being ill for many months. Negreanu has a history of philanthropy, the first annual Big Swing event was held on June 25,2009 at the Harrah’s Rio Secco Golf Club
16.
2005 World Series of Poker
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The 2005 World Series of Poker opened play on June 2, continuing through the Main Event No Limit World Championship starting on July 7. The conclusion of the Main Event on July 15 marked the close of play, eSPNs broadcast began July 19 with coverage of WSOP Circuit Tournaments, and coverage of the Main Event began October 11 and ended November 15. All events were held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino with the exception of the two days of the Main Event which were held at Binions Horseshoe. This marked the last time the Main Event final table was held at Binions Horseshoe, there were 5,619 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter what was the largest poker tournament ever played in a brick, many entrants won their seat in online poker tournaments. NB, This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry
17.
Hoyt Corkins
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Hoyt Bricken Corkins is an American professional poker player. He also has three children in Chelsei Corkins, Brittney Corkins, and Ashley Roundtre, known for his softly-spoken voice and his aggressive style, Corkins has two World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour titles. He started playing at the age of 19 after receiving lessons from his father and he is often known by his nickname Cowboy as he always wears a cowboy hat and boots to the table. However, he has given other nicknames, including Mr. Move All-In by Phil Hellmuth Jr. Many players also call him Nightmare and he often wears a pair of ear plugs while playing in live poker tournaments in order to prevent other players chatter from affecting his game. Corkins won a World Series of Poker bracelet and $96,000 for winning the 1992 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, in total, he has finished in the money on 26 occasions. In November 2005, Corkins finished second to Mike Matusow in the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions freeroll, receiving $325,000. In the 2007 World Series of Poker, Corkins won the $2,5006 Handed No Limit Hold Em event, defeating Terrence Chan and winning over $515,000, in addition to the championship bracelet. At the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, Corkins finished in 162nd place out of 6,844 entries, after the win in 1992, Corkins disappeared from the game for 11 years whilst going through a divorce. He was encouraged to return to poker by his ex-fiancee Natalie and he also had a second-place finish to Gus Hansen in early 2004 at the PokerStars Caribbean Poker Adventure, which earned him $290,065. Corkins was sick from flu during the event, but he says it did not affect his play, also in 2004, he made the final table at the United States Poker Championship main event held at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, NJ. Away from the circuit, Corkins has sixty head of cattle to tend in Alabama. In 2006, he made another World Poker Tour final table in the Season V Legends of Poker event, in 2008, in the Season VI of the WPTs World Poker Open WPT Corkins finished second winning $458,267. In December 2008, during Season VII of the WPT Corkins made the table of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic and finished in 6th place. In January 2010, Hoyt made another World Poker Tour final table at the Southern Poker Championship, as of 2010, his live tournament winnings exceed $5,200,000. His 26 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,017,074 of those winnings, official site Blind Bet Poker interview
18.
Jeff Lisandro
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Jeffrey Lisandro is an Italo-Australian professional poker player, now residing in Salerno, Italy. Lisandro is known as a cash game specialist, but he also often in the poker tournament circuit and is regarded as one of the premier Seven Card Stud players in the world. Growing up near Salerno, Italy, Lisandros mother taught him how to play poker at the age of five, in December 2004, Lisandro won the $25,000 limit holdem heads-up tournament, defeating Howard Lederer in the final to take home the $194,000 grand prize. In May 2005, he won the $10,000 no limit holdem World Series of Poker circuit event at Lake Tahoe, defeating Phil Ivey in the final heads-up confrontation to win the $542,360 prize. Lisandro has said that he considers this to be one of his greatest achievements, Lisandro finished 17th in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, winning $659,730. He was also noted for an incident with Prahlad Friedman during the event, Friedman brought it up constantly through the hand, with the dealer telling him to stop bringing it up. Friedman would not stop, and called Lisandro a thief, Lisandro was very upset to hear that, and argued with Friedman, telling him he would take his head off. Friedman tried to settle things with Lisandro afterwards during play, Lisandro asked him, Can you take him with you. He won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2007 in the $2,000 Seven-Card Stud event beating a final table that included Daniel Negreanu, Lisandro plays online at PokerStars and is a good friend of Jean-Robert Bellande. He is known for chewing gum at the table to reduce tells. He placed 2nd in the World Championship Pot Limit Holdem in 2007 and he won $294,620 as the runner-up to Allen Cunningham. At the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific, Lisandro won his 6th bracelet in Event #3, A$1,650 Pot Limit Omaha, as of 2014, his total live tournament winnings exceed $5,400,000. His 56 cashes at the WSOP account for $4,151,222 of those winnings, in 2009, Lisandro won the World Series of Poker Player of the Year award. In addition to his residence in Salerno, he owns a property in Santa Barbara
19.
Antanas Guoga
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Antanas Guoga, more commonly known as Tony G, is a Lithuanian-Australian businessman and poker player, Lithuanian politician and philanthropist. He is a Member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Movement, in May 2016, Guoga was the temporary leader of the Liberal Movement following the bribery scandal that prompted Eligijus Masiulis to step down after potentially corrupt activities. Guoga spent his childhood in Kaunas and in the Alytus district in Lithuania, when he was 11 years old, he moved to Australia. Guoga lived in Melbourne where he graduated from school, and had various jobs, including repairing sewing machines, later, Guoga started working as an assistant to Australian Mortgage Brokers chief Bill Buchanan. He studied accounting and finance at college, in 1993, he was employed by an investment bank in Hong Kong managed by CitiBank. His responsibilities included attracting new customers and managing their investment portfolios, following that, Guoga successfully invested in a news portal, and in Rate Detective life insurance company in Australia. In addition, he developed a business in London. Guoga also owns a business in Australia. Today, more than 500 jobs have been created in the companies in which he has invested, over 300 of them are in Lithuania. Since 2014, Guoga has been married to Aistė Šlapokaitė, a psychology student. Guoga and Šlapokaitė met during her 30th birthday celebrations in a Vilnius night club, together they have a son and are expecting a second child in 2016. Guoga also has a son and two daughters from previous relationships, Guoga was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats group in the European Parliament until 4th of October,2016. He became a member of the European Peoples Party which is the biggest party in the Parliament and he works on a range of digital policies in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee. Guoga is actively involved in a number of Digital Single Market topics, being an entrepreneur himself, Guoga works for better conditions for European businesses, especially in the technology sector. These conditions include smarter regulations, less red tape, and policies that encourage innovation, in 2015 Guoga was chosen as the Lithuanian representative in the POLITICO28 list. The European affairs weekly newspaper chose one person from each of the European Unions 28 member-states who is shaping, shaking and stirring Europe and he is also a substitute member in the Employment and Social Affairs Committee. Guoga is Coder Dojo and entrepreneurship education ambassador in Lithuania, in 2016, he plans to launch Coder Dojo movement in Lithuania and to organise more than 30 programming clubs for 7–17 years old youth in the country. In 2015, he organized #SWITCH, the biggest ICT and entrepreneurship event in the Baltics and this event attracted approximately 6000 participants, including 120 speakers from 16 countries
20.
High Stakes Poker
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High Stakes Poker is a cash game poker television program, which was broadcast by the cable television network GSN in the United States. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold em. It premiered on January 16,2006 and ended on December 17,2007 for the first 4 seasons, the participants on the show include both professional poker players and amateur players. The show was hosted by AJ Benza in the first five seasons, starting with the sixth season, Kara Scott replaced Benza as Kaplans co-host, with Scott conducting interviews from the poker room floor. Starting with the season, Norm Macdonald replaced Gabe Kaplan as Scotts co-host. The second season, taped at The Palms and consisting of 16 episodes, premiered on June 5,2006 and ended on September 18,2006. The third season, consisting of 13 episodes, was taped at the South Point Casino at 9, 00pm and premiered on January 15,2007 at 9, 00pm and ended on April 9,2007. New players for the season included Jamie Gold, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Patrik Antonius, Paul Wasicka, David Benyamine, Brian Townsend. Returning players from previous seasons included Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Sammy Farha, Phil Laak, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, Brad Booth and others. On April 2,2007, GSN announced that High Stakes Poker would return for a fourth season, taping was completed in May, with the season premiering on August 27,2007 at 9, 00pm. Returning players included Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Sam Farha, Jamie Gold, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth Jr. Jennifer Harman, and Daniel Negreanu. Newcomers for the season include Brandon Adams, Mike Baxter, Brian Brandon, Phil Galfond, Guy Laliberté, Bob Safai, Antonio Salorio. The later episodes of this season featured a $500,000 minimum buy-in, Season four finished airing on December 17,2007 and featured 17 episodes. The network cited the strong ratings performance in younger demographics. Season five, which ran from March 1,2009 to May 24,2009 at 9, 00pm, was taped at the Golden Nugget on December 19–21,2008 and featured a minimum cash buy-in of $200,000. The format for season 5 differed slightly from its predecessors by having Kaplan and Benza not appear on camera until after the first commercial break in the show, rather than at the outset. Season six premiered at 8, 00pm on February 14,2010 and ended on May 9,2010, with Gabe Kaplan and it was taped for a second straight season at the Golden Nugget. The sixth season aired with three different groups of players throughout 13 episodes, Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey bought in for $500,000
21.
European Poker Tour
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The European Poker Tour is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour, created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the explosion in Texas Hold em popularity. Since 2011 the EPT has been sponsored and wholly owned and controlled by PokerStars the online casino and taped by Sunset + Vine for television broadcast across Europe. In seasons 1-3, the most significant difference between the competing poker tours was the buy-in and its effect on the pool, with the EPT featuring buy-ins about half the size of the WPT. This changed in season 4 when the buy-in for most EPT events was increased to €8,000, at 2007 exchange rates, this is approximately equal to the US$10,000 which is the buy-in for most WPT events. Furthermore, the table is made up of 8 players. For the first couple of seasons, Duthie commentated for the show alongside Colin Murray, since the middle of Season 3, James Hartigan has been the lead commentator, with professional players Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu and Victoria Coren providing analysis. Hartigan also presents the live webcast from each event, the TV show was first hosted by Caroline Flack, then joined by Natalie Pinkham. Seasons 4 and 5 were hosted by Kara Scott, while Seasons 6 and 7 were fronted by Michelle Orpe, on March 6,2010 four masked men, armed with knives and at least one hand gun robbed the EPT event in Berlin. According to the police, the robbers got away with €242,000, no one was seriously injured, only one guard got a minor cut while trying to detain one of the robbers. The panic which gripped the crowd was briefly captured on the live webcast before the cut away. The attackers were caught several days after the robbery and later convicted and sentenced to three years in prison
22.
Poker After Dark
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Poker After Dark is an hour-long poker television program on NBC. The show made its debut on January 1,2007, and was cancelled on September 23,2011 following the Black Friday criminal case, for its first two seasons, both of which originally aired in 2007, the show was presented by Shana Hiatt. The host for season 3 was Marianela Pereyra, and Leeann Tweeden took over starting with season 4, all seasons have contained voice-over commentary by Oliver Ali Nejad. The program returned to American television over the NBCSN on March 5,2012 with previously aired repeats, NBCSN schedules the show on weeknights at midnight, although the start time varies due to overruns by sporting events. The Poker After Dark format featured a look at one table as it develops over the week. Blinds start at $100/$200 and slowly escalate, commentator Ali Nejads commentary is limited, allowing viewers to hear much of the table talk among the players, all of whom are miked. The series was originally structured as a series of week-long No Limit Texas hold em mini-tournaments for six top poker professionals, each week the players vied for a $120,000 winner-takes-all prize pool, with each paying a $20,000 buy-in. By the end of the show, a winner is determined. The sixth show was a cut that includes excerpts from the action from the previous five days. Also, Seasons 3,4 and 5 had a Dream Table, pitting an amateur against five pros. Poker After Dark aired six times a week, at 2,05 a. m. ET Tuesday through Saturday, the early Sunday show is a directors cut weekly summary of the previous weeks shows. NBC Sports has since removed their poker section entirely from their webpage, eventually, repeats of the series began to air in late time slots on the NBC Sports Network with that networks January 2012 rebranding. In Canada Poker After Dark aired afternoons and late nights on Rogers Sportsnet and, in France Poker After Dark airs at night on RTL9. In Germany, it airs on SPORT1, with commentary provided by Michael Körner, in Ireland, Poker After Dark airs on Setanta Ireland and Setanta Sports 1 on most weeknights with little change from the US version. In The Netherlands, it airs on Veronica, episodes feature the original English commentary with Dutch subtitles, in Sweden, Poker After Dark airs on afternoons and nights on TV4 Sport and on TV10 weekday nights at 01,30. In Denmark, it airs at night on TV3+, in Italy, Poker After Dark airs at night on POKERItalia24. In Poland, Poker After Dark airs during evenings on Sportklub and Sport Klub+, commentary is provided by Paweł Majewski, in Russia, the show airs on 7TV at 11, 30pm every day until the Febral, and now shows on REN-TV at 3,00 pm. Full Tilt Poker held promotional tournaments that offered a seat on the show as the grand prize, Season 2 was taped in May 2007 at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas
23.
Online poker
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Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Traditional venues for playing poker, such as casinos and poker rooms, also, brick and mortar casinos are reluctant to promote poker because it is difficult for them to profit from it. Though the rake, or time charge, of traditional casinos is often high, Online venues, by contrast, are dramatically cheaper because they have much smaller overhead costs. For example, adding another table does not take up valuable space like it would for a brick, Online poker rooms also allow the players to play for low stakes and often offer poker freeroll tournaments, attracting beginners and/or less wealthy clientele. Online venues may be vulnerable to certain types of fraud. However, they have collusion detection abilities that do not exist in brick, Online poker rooms also check players IP addresses in order to prevent players at the same household or at known open proxy servers from playing on the same tables. Free poker online was played as early as the late 1990s in the form of IRC poker, Planet Poker was the first online card room to offer real money games in 1998. The first real money poker game was dealt on January 1,1998, author Mike Caro became the face of Planet Poker in October 1999. The major online poker sites offer varying features to new players. One common feature is to offer tournaments called satellites by which the winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments and it was through one such tournament on PokerStars that Chris Moneymaker won his entry to the 2003 World Series of Poker. He went on to win the event, causing shock in the poker world. The 2004 World Series featured three times as many players as in 2003, at least four players in the WSOP final table won their entry through an online cardroom. Like Moneymaker,2004 winner Greg Raymer also won his entry at the PokerStars online cardroom, the $340 million acquisition marked the first time an online card room was owned by a public company. Since then, several other card room parent companies have gone public, at the time of the IPO, ninety-two percent of Party Gamings income came from poker operations. In early 2006, PartyGaming moved to acquire EmpirePoker. com from Empire Online, later in the year, bwin, an Austrian-based online gambling company, acquired PokerRoom. com. Other poker rooms such as PokerStars that were rumored to be exploring initial public offerings have postponed them, as of March 2008, there are fewer than forty stand-alone cardrooms and poker networks with detectable levels of traffic. There are however more than 600 independent doorways or skins into the group of network sites, as of January 2009, the majority of online poker traffic occurs on just a few major networks, among them PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the iPoker Network
24.
Cereus Poker Network
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Cereus Poker Network was an online poker network comprising Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. The site is now insolvent and not processing player withdrawals, Cereus is owned by a private company, Blanca Games. Blanca Games bought all Network assets in August 2010 from Tokwiro Enterprises, the Cereus network was one of the worlds ten largest online poker cardrooms prior to losing the majority of its player base in the wake of the April 15,2011 online poker indictments. Absolute Poker was established in 2003 and it was licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. By October, widespread Internet allegations of cheating led to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission beginning an investigation, although allegations had been made about several accounts, one of the most remarkable pieces of evidence was a complete history of a tournament which was won by a player called POTRIPPER. It was sent out, perhaps by accident, when a player complained about suspicious play, reviewing the data, mathematician and gaming expert Michael Shackleford said, Hand after hand POTRIPPER’s play is consistent with that of a player who had knowledge of every player’s hole cards. The majority of hands show POTRIPPER bluffing at just the times when his opponents were weak. Yet, when he was hopelessly outmatched, even with good cards, Shackleford subsequently blacklisted Absolute Poker on his gaming related website. On October 19, a source within Absolute Poker claimed that an employee had hacked the system to prove a point. We will pay for all losses suffered by the players as soon as our audit is finished. In November 2007, Absolute issued a statement claiming the employee cheating had taken place over a period of forty days. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission issued its report on the incident in January 2008, among other consequences, Absolute Poker was fined $500,000. The Quebec provincial police opened an investigation into the ongoing matter, founded in 2001, UltimateBet was licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. UltimateBet offered Texas hold em, Omaha high and high low, mixed game tables were also offered. Like other online poker rooms, UltimateBet also offered a. net play-money-only cardroom, UltimateBet hosted an annual live tournament, the Aruba Poker Classic, which was a World Poker Tour event for the first four seasons of the show. In 2005, Freddy Deeb won the event, claiming the $1,000,000 prize, prior winners were Eric Brenes in 2004, Erick Lindgren in 2003, and Juha Helppi in 2002. The tournament in 2008 was a $5,000 buy-in event with a guaranteed $1 million top prize, the company sponsored the poker television series Poker2Nite, hosted by professional poker player Joe Sebok and radio host Scott Huff. Spokespeople for UltimateBet have included poker players Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke
25.
PokerStars
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PokerStars is the largest online poker cardroom in the world, it can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. A PokerStars. com online satellite tournament produced the 2003 World Series of Poker champion, as the first person to become a world champion by qualifying at an online poker site, Moneymakers 2003 win was an important factor in catalyzing the poker boom of the mid-2000s. The press has called this the Moneymaker effect, PokerStars launched its beta play-money-only site on September 11,2001. The company began offering real money wagering on December 12,2001, PokerStars was originally a Costa Rican company, Rational Enterprises, which was majority owned by the Israeli Scheinberg family. The company was moved to Onchan, Isle of Man. The move was driven by the establishment of a 0% corporate tax rate, PokerStars holds its licence with the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission and also holds government licences in Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, Estonia and Spain. On February 10,2012, PokerStars acquired a European Union license granted by the Malta Lotteries, while privately owned, PokerStars had been the subject of financial media speculation regarding a possible initial public offering or merger with a publicly listed company. Analysts estimated its value would have been approximately $2 billion in 2006. PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the worlds largest online poker room at after the U. S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Many sites, including PartyPoker, immediately suspended business with U. S. gamblers, while others, including PokerStars, on December 27,2009, PokerStars set the world record for the biggest online tournament. The tournament entry fee was $1, and the number of entrants reached 149,196 and they broke that record on December 4,2011, when 200,000 players played in a $1 buy-in tournament with a first prize of $50,000. PokerStars was so busy during the stages of the tournament. This record had been again at June 16,2013. The Buy-In was $1 and went completely into the prizepool, with no rake, in January 2012, PokerStars introduced a downloadable mobile client for iOS from iTunes. In February 2012, the company introduced a client for Android. On July 31,2012, PokerStars bought its former competitor, the $731 million deal settled a civil lawsuit with the Department of Justice while giving ownership of Full Tilt Pokers assets to PokerStars. On June 12,2014, Amaya Inc. agreed to buy PokerStars, the deal was completed on August 1,2014. As of April 6,2016 they have reached an agreement with Netent to add desktop and mobile gambling games to its poker lobby in New Jersey and other locations
26.
Full Tilt Poker
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Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. A statement by Amaya said the takeover would not affect the activities of Full Tilt Poker, the deal was closed on August 1,2014. Just prior to the close of the purchase, Full Tilt Poker redirected and rebranded its domains from FullTiltPoker. com and FullTiltPoker. eu to FullTilt. com and FullTilt. eu. A company spokesperson stated the change reflected the fact Full Tilt had expanded to offer a range of single, Full Tilt has gaming licenses in Malta and the Isle of Man. Full Tilt offers both play and real money games and tournaments. Freeroll, satellite, sit-n-go, and multi-table tournaments take place throughout the day, the site offers the following poker variations in limit, pot-limit, and no-limit, Texas Holdem, Omaha, and Omaha 8 or Better. The site also offers limit Razz, Stud, Stud 8 or better, Draw poker variants, stakes offers ranged from $0. 01/$0.02 blinds to $500/1000 blinds in big bet games and up to $2000/4000 limits in limit games. In early 2010, Full Tilt introduced a new variation called Rush Poker designed to increase the number of hands a player can play per hour. In Rush Poker players do not remain at a specific table, instead, they join a pool with hundreds of other players. Whenever they fold their hand, they are transferred to a new table. Full Tilt Poker also launched Rush Poker Mobile for iOS and Android devices, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series is Full Tilts premier tournament series. It was established in August 2006 and is approximately every three months. The FTOPS consisted of multiple tournaments in a variety of different poker games and formats, throughout the series, Full Tilt offered a number of challenges and prizes that rewarded players for accomplishing certain feats. Full Tilt also sponsored a Mini FTOPS, which place one month later. Full Tilt Poker initially opened as a poker card room with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman. Full Tilt Poker was launched by parent company TiltWare, LLC in June 2004, the license of Full Tilt Poker was suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission on June 29,2011 and revoked on September 29,2011. The previous Tiltware ownership group was involved in legal disputes. In late 2008, Full Tilt was sued in Nevada by Clonie Gowen, prominent poker professional and she claimed that during Full Tilts formative year of 2004, she was offered a 1% ownership in the company in exchange for her promotional efforts
27.
Jonathan Little
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Little was a student at the University of West Florida studying psychology when he began playing poker with friends. As his interest in poker grew, it led him to many books on poker. After earning an initial bankroll of $35,000 online over a period, he decided to drop out of college. Little is a professional poker player who has played online under the screen names FieryJustice, Jcardshark. Little posts a weekly educational poker blog and hosts a weekly podcast at his personal site, Little was a participant in the now defunct online poker training site called SNGIcons. com. This win brings Littles total online cashes on Pokerstars to over $280,000, Little finished fifth in the World Poker Tour PokerStars. com Caribbean Poker Adventure Championship winning $317,000 and went to win the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown title, earning $1,091,295. The final table was made of four other professional players, Cory Carroll who finished runner-up, Darrell Dicken, Phil Ivey. In November 2007 he finished runner-up to Scott Clements in the WPT North American Poker Championship, Jonathan Little is the WPT Season VI Player of the Year. In November 2008, Little won the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals for his second WPT title after defeating professional poker player Jonathan Jaffe during heads-up play, the final table included professional poker players Mike Matusow who finished 6th and David Pham who finished 4th. The match broke the record for longest WPT final table at 275 hands, Little has cashed 30 times at the World Series of Poker. In 2010, he cashed 5 times, including a 3rd-place finish in Event #53, the Limit Holdem Shootout for $73,218. In 2013, he cashed 5 times, including a 3rd-place finish in Event #32, in 2015, he cashed 4 times, including a 6th-place finish in Event #25, Eight-Handed $5,000 buy-in for $85,616. In 2016 he cashed in 5 events for $63,231 - including a tag team event with his mother and father as partners and his lifetime winnings at the WSOP total $696,841. As of 2015, his live tournament winnings exceed $6,200,000. Little married on August 1st,2015 to Amie Broder and his best man was fellow poker player, Shannon Shorr
28.
Phil Hellmuth
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Phillip Jerome Hellmuth, Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won a record fourteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker and the Main Event of the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe, Hellmuth is also known for his temperamental poker brat personality. Since 1992, he has lived in Palo Alto, California with his wife Katherine Sanborn, who is a psychiatrist at Stanford University, as of 2016, his total live tournament winnings exceed $20,900,000. He is ranked seventh on the money list. Hellmuth is known for taking his seat at poker tournaments long after they begin. On October 18,2015, Hellmuth is ranked #119 on the Global Poker Index, Hellmuth holds the records for most WSOP cashes and most WSOP final tables, overtaking T. J. Cloutier. As of March 2015, Hellmuth has won over $12,000,000 at the WSOP and ranks fourth on the WSOP All Time Money List, behind Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Colman, and Daniel Negreanu. Hellmuth also is tied for all time in number of times cashed in the WSOP Main Event. He has eight Main Event cashes, placing him behind Berry Johnston, and Humberto Brenes, Doyle Brunson, of those 22 events, Hellmuth has finished runner-up six times. At the 1993 World Series of Poker, Hellmuth became the player in WSOP history to win three bracelets in one WSOP. At the 1997 World Series of Poker, Hellmuth won his 5th bracelet of the decade, at the conclusion of the 1999 World Series of Poker, his five bracelets would stand to lead the decade for most WSOP bracelets won by one player in the 1990s. At the 2006 World Series of Poker, Hellmuth captured his 10th World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,000 No Limit Holdem with rebuys event, at the time, it tied him with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan for most bracelets. At the 2007 World Series of Poker, Hellmuth won his record-breaking 11th bracelet in the $1,500 No Limit Holdem Event, Hellmuths sponsor arranged for him to arrive at the 2007 WSOP Main Event in a race car. Hellmuth lost control of the car in the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino parking lot and he gave up the car for a limo, arriving at the Main Event two hours late. At the 2008 WSOP Main Event, Hellmuth verbally abused another player, after a private meeting with WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack the penalty was overruled and Hellmuth finished the tournament in 45th place. On June 11,2012, Hellmuth won his 12th World Series of Poker bracelet in the $2,500 Seven-Card Razz event, defeating Don Zewin, Zewin had finished third to Chan and Hellmuth when Hellmuth won his first bracelet in 1989. Hellmuth also collected $2,645,333 for his finish in the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament. This win also made Hellmuth the first player in WSOP history to win multiple bracelets in three different years, also, Hellmuth finished runner-up in the WSOP Player of the Year race for a record third time
29.
Chai (symbol)
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Chai is a Hebrew word that figures prominently in modern Jewish culture, the Hebrew letters of the word are often used as a visual symbol. According to The Jewish Daily Forward, its use as an amulet originates in 18th century Eastern Europe, Chai as a symbol goes back to medieval Spain. Letters as symbols in Jewish culture go back to the earliest Jewish roots, in medieval Kabbalah, Chai is the lowest emanation of God. The Jewish commentaries give a long treatment to certain verses in the Torah with the word as their central theme. Three examples are Leviticus 18 וָחַי בָּהֶם Chai Bahem, and you live by. Deuteronomy 31,9 רְאֵה נָתַתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ הַיּוֹם, אֶת-הַחַיִּים וְאֶת-הַטּוֹב, וְאֶת-הַמָּוֶת, there is nary an ancient Jewish commentator who does not comment on that verse. The Shema prayer as well speaks of the importance of Chai, to live, two common Jewish names used since Talmudic times, are based on this symbol, Chaya feminine, Chayim masculine. The Jewish toast is lchaim, to life, the word is made up of two letters of the Hebrew alphabet - Chet and Yod, forming the word chai, meaning alive, or living. The most common spelling in Latin script is Chai, but the word is also spelled Hai. The usual modern pronunciation of word is, while a transcription of the Biblical. There have been various mystical numerological speculations about the fact that, according to the system of gematria, for this reason,18 is a spiritual number in Judaism, and many Jews give gifts of money in multiples of 18 as a result. The Chai symbol can be worn by Jews as a medallion around the neck, similarly to other Jewish symbols, such as the Star of David and the Hamsa. In Hebrew, the related word chaya means life or long life, Jews often give gifts and donations in multiples of 18, which is called giving chai. Mailings from Jewish charities usually suggest the amounts to give in multiples of chai rather than the usual multiples of 25 and it appears in the slogan ʿam yisraʾel ḥay. It is heard in a BBC recording from April 20,1945 of Jewish survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp five days after their liberation and this was the first Sabbath ceremony openly conducted on German soil since the beginning of the war. With people still dying around them, the survivors sung what would become the Israeli national anthem, at the end of Hatikvah, British Army Chaplain Leslie Hardman shouts out, Am Yisrael Chai. In the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, which was held in Germany four decades after Shoah, Israel was represented with the song Chai, performed by Ofra Haza, an English language Jewish radio station in Johannesburg, South Africa is called ChaiFM. Elvis Presley wore a Chai necklace while performing toward the end of his life, baseball star Rod Carew wore a chai necklace during his playing days, his first wife and daughters were Jewish, even though Carew himself never formally converted to Judaism
30.
Podcast
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The word arose as a portmanteau of iPod and broadcast. Thus, the files distributed are typically in audio or video formats, the distributor of a podcast maintains a central list of the files on a server as a web feed that can be accessed through the Internet. This process can be automated so that new files are downloaded automatically, files are stored locally on the users device, ready for offline use. Podcasting contrasts with webcasting or streaming which do not allow for offline listening, many podcast players allow listeners to adjust the playback speed. Podcasts are usually free of charge to listeners and can often be created for little to no cost and it is very much a horizontal media form, producers are consumers, consumers may become producers, and both can engage in conversations with each other. Podcast is a portmanteau, invented by BBC journalist Ben Hammersley in 2004, of the words pod — from iPod, despite the etymology, the content can be accessed using any computer or similar device that can play media files. Use of the term podcast predated Apples addition of support for podcasting to the iPod. Other names for podcasting include net cast, intended as a term without the loose reference to the Apple iPod. The name is used by shows from the TWiT. tv network, some sources have suggested the backronym portable on demand for POD, for similar reasons. Podcasting, once a method of spreading information, has become a recognized medium for distributing audio content. Podcasts are similar to programs, but they are audio files. Listeners can play them at their convenience, using devices that have more common than portable broadcast receivers. The first application to make this process feasible was iPodderX, developed by August Trometer, by 2007, audio podcasts were doing what was historically accomplished via radio broadcasts, which had been the source of radio talk shows and news programs since the 1930s. This shift occurred as a result of the evolution of internet capabilities along with increased access to cheaper hardware and software for audio recording and editing. In August 2004, Adam Curry launched his show Daily Source Code and it was a show focused on chronicling his everyday life, delivering news and discussions about the development of podcasting, as well as promoting new and emerging podcasts. Daily Source Code is believed to be the first podcast produced on a consistent basis, Curry published it in an attempt to gain traction in the development of what would come to be known as podcasting and as a means of testing the software outside of a lab setting. The name Daily Source Code was chosen in the hope that it would attract an audience with an interest in technology, Daily Source Code started at a grassroots level of production and was initially directed at podcast developers. As its audience became interested in the format, these developers were inspired to create and produce their own projects and, as a result, as more people learned how easy it was to produce podcasts, a community of pioneer podcasters quickly appeared
31.
Gavin Smith (poker player)
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Smith learned how to play cards by playing cribbage and rummy with his father. He started playing poker at the age of 26, playing mixed games with co-workers and he became a poker dealer in 1996 and set up his own poker club in 1998. He has also worked as a driver and on a golf course. Smith first came to note by winning tournaments in no limit Texas hold em, in May 2005 he won the first prize of $1,128,278 in the World Poker Tour Mirage Poker Showdown in Las Vegas, defeating Ted Forrest in the final heads-up confrontation. In October 2005 he made the WPT final table again in the 2nd Annual Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship and he made a third WPT final table in January 2006, finishing 4th. The three WPT final tables earned him the World Poker Tour Player of the Year award for season 4 and he first cashed in the World Series of Poker in 2003 and would later cash in the $10,000 no limit holdem main event in 2004, finishing 52nd. He went on to cash in 2005 also as well as in 2007, Smith boasts several other high finishes including a runner-up finish in 2007. The experience Smith gained in mixed-games when he started playing has also served him well as he has several high finishes in H. O. R. S. E. Smith earned his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,500 Mixed Holdem event at the 2010 World Series of Poker, defeating Danny Hannawa heads-up, in May 2006, Smith finished 2nd in the World Series of Poker circuit event at Harrahs New Orleans, winning $293,930. Smith had made a bet with Allie Prescott on who would win, if Smith won, Prescott would give him $70,000 per year for 10 years, if Prescott won, Smith would give him $100,000 per year for 10 years. Peter Feldman went on to win the tournament and he won the Big August Rec. Gambling Excursion Main Event in 2004, besting a strong field of 249 poker enthusiasts, in Las Vegas, NV. In July 2006, Smith won the World Pro-Am Challenge event at the Poker Dome Challenge, from April 2006 until October 2006, Gavin was one of the hosts of The Circuit radio show sponsored by Card Player Magazine. Beginning in 2007, Smith and Joe Sebok co-hosted PokerRoad Radio with Joe Stapleton, smiths final episode as a co-host on PokerRoad Radio was July 12,2010. He won Poker After Dark´s Season 3 Week 2 19th Hole defeating Phil Ivey in heads up play and it was his first time on the show. Smith plays online poker on several sites and has played under the alias birdguts as well as his own name on Full Tilt Poker where he plays as one of their Full Tilt Pros, Smith is good friends with Erick Lindgren who helped bankroll him early in his career. As of 2010, his live tournament winnings exceed $5,375,000. His 17 cashes as the WSOP account for $874,278 of those winnings, Smith co-stars with Joe Sebok on a show called Prop Bets on the Internet-TV site RawVegas. tv, mainly thanks to the above-mentioned prop bet at the 2006 World Series of Poker. Smith won a bet with Joe Sebok on who would win the most Card Player Magazine points at the 2006 World Series of Poker, as a consequence, Sebok had to wear a bear outfit on Day 1B, among other funny looking outfits including Wonder Woman
