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Hi Guys

Just wondering who people would list as the most influential people of last year, in poker.

With this year and the next few years probably being some of the most important for what the future of poker is going to look like, be interesting to see who was last years, and most likely this years most influential people in poker.

Patrick Leonard’s remarkable year at the virtual felt shows no signs of slowing down judging by yet another stellar week in some of online poker’s biggest tournaments.

It’s difficult to believe that Leonard used to focus on cash games before 2014 when you look at some of the amazing results that he can brag about. Each time we write our weekly article about PocketFives-com’s rankings, it seems Leonard has helped himself to another five-figure score. This week he banked two such cashes.

After finishing second in the PokerStars $320 NL Hold’em 6-Max for $5,513 and fifth in the PokerStars Bigger $75 for $5,237, Leonard helped himself to $21,225 by finishing fourth in the $109 buy-in Sunday Rebuy, also at PokerStars.

On the same night as his deep run in the Sunday Rebuy, Leonard took down the T-Rex at Full Tilt Poker for $18,075 and followed that up with a victory in the Monday Mayhem for $4,217 less than 24 hours later.

Leonard doesn’t put in as much volume as some of his rivals, but that looks to have changed in recent weeks; perhaps he is mounting another challenge for the number one spot in the worldwide rankings?

In the UK rankings, Spanish PokerStars Team Online’s Vincent Delgado attempted to close the gap on the seemingly unstoppable Leonard by coming second in the Super Tuesday for $81,715. Although that result helped push Delgado to seventh in the world, he still trails Leonard in the UK by almost 500 points, going to show how amazing Leonard’s results have been.




Patrick Leonard Returns to Top 3 of the Online Poker Rankings | PokerNews

Can't play. don't live there. too bad.

“Stopping someone from hijacking your computer boils down to software and common sense”
Reputable poker sites have invested in tight security measures, rivaling the sophisticated encryption used by financial institutions for online banking. But the onus lies on players to ensure their computers are protected from malicious types out to defraud you, Kolodgy said.

Sheldon Adelson has been earning himself a lot of ink with his relatively new Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling.

But will his mission to wipe regulated online betting from the face of the United States succeed?

Here’s a look at 8 things that could happen if it does.
#8) Laundering money online will become easier

Pretty much anyone can sign up at one of the unregulated online poker sites currently operating in the US. These sites don’t require any form of ID or a social security number, and they don’t run player verification or geolocation checks.

For a more in-depth look at the signup process at regulated and unregulated online poker rooms you can read this article.

Now, let me ask you what should be a very simple question: if you were going to launder money which would you prefer, the site that forces you to identify yourself or the site on which you can simply pretend to be anyone you want?
#7) Minors will have unabated access to online gambling sites

And if you think laundering money would be easy in a completely unregulated industry, just think about how easy it would be for a minor to sign up at an online poker site that doesn’t require any type of age verification beyond clicking a box that says you are over 21!
#6) Problem gamblers will be at the mercy of “predators”

One of the highfalutin talking points Sheldon Adelson and his CSIG group like to throw around is “predatory gambling,” a term that is little more than what the late great George Carlin would call, “OOOH, spooky language!”

Apparently Adelson and his cronies feel the best way to protect problem gamblers is to leave them to their own devices, and not let them play at regulated sites that are required to report problem gambling behaviors. Oh, and did I mention that a specific percentage of the revenue generated from New Jersey’s licensed online gambling sites goes directly to problem gambling initiatives? Well it does.

“The governor recommended extending existing prohibitions on casino-related employment for state workers and others with conflicts of interest, increasing funds for programs that treat compulsive gambling, and requiring elected state officials to disclose current and former connections to companies seeking online gaming licenses.”

If Adelson considers the regulated and licensed online poker rooms to be predators, like a puma or leopard, then unregulated sites are like velociraptors and tyrannosaurs.
#5) Online poker players will continue to get ripped off by shady providers

With no legitimate regulation in place, and no one to hold providers accountable, players will remain at the mercy of offshore sites that have already done a wonderful job of screwing us over on multiple occasions.

Without real regulations and oversight in place you can pretty much guarantee that the poker world will deal with another Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker, or any of the other smaller sites that have run off with our money or are in the process of doing so.

The bottom line is this: if Sheldon Adelson gets his way you can say goodbye to consumer protections and holding the providers accountable.
#4) Poker will cease to exist as we know it

Poker in the US – and the thousands of jobs and millions in economic activity that it generates – will enter a very dark time that will put the aftermath of UIGEA and Black Friday to shame.
#3) The US economy will lose out on high-value, high-paying jobs

It may not be enough to have an impact on the unemployment rate, but online poker sites are creating more jobs than you think.

Not only does the industry require IT and software people, marketing, advertising and salespeople, but think about all of the ancillary jobs for web developers, bloggers/writers (like yours truly), and affiliates that are also seeing new streams of revenue thanks to the newly regulated markets.

Furthermore, as John Mehaffey of USPoker-com mentioned recently, a well-written federal bill could easily demand all customer service and other jobs be filled by US residents rather than be outsourced overseas.

Succinctly put, if Sheldon Adelson gets his way the US economy loses jobs.
#2) The US economy will lose revenue

Licensing fees, tax revenue, taxes gleaned from the new jobs created (see above), additional economic stimulus as online poker providers hire outside vendors and liberally spend on marketing and advertising… POOF!

All gone, just like that if a federal ban on online gambling is passed.

Additionally, valuable resources will be spent prosecuting black market online gambling providers instead of just letting them wither and die on the vine as players switch to licensed providers.
#1) Sheldon Adelson will still be a very rich man

At the end of the day, when millions of dollars have been wasted on this fight, Sheldon Adelson, win or lose, will still be one of the richest men in the world.

Perhaps the old adage of, “he has more money than he could ever spend” is literally true in Adelson’s case.

Perhaps this fight, and his other recent exploits of setting money on fire, are just Adelson’s way of buying the latest infomercial product?

Now that I think about it, Adelson’s proposed $100 million spending spree on a hopeless effort to stop online gambling is like that time I bought that little stick that was supposed to eliminate clothing stains – it did work, but it also eliminated any color it came into contact with and I had to throw away my prized polo sweater which is about as traumatic an experience as a high school kid could suffer.


What if Sheldon Adelson Wins His Fight Against Online Gambling?

Long gone are the days of poker being reserved only for men - meet the women who know when to hold, and when to fold


In recent times women are proving themselves to be just as capable as their male counterparts and today we're running down the five most compelling and succesful among them.

From crushing major live poker tournaments to playing key roles in the poker industry, women are making major contributions to the poker world. And their presence is only getting stronger.

Keep reading for the low-down on five must-know poker women.

1 - Vanessa Selbst

Vanessa Selbst has won more money through live tournament poker than any other woman in on the planet.

Selbst, who is sponsored by PokerStars, has earned over $9.6m in an eight-year career that has seen her secure seven-figure scores on two separate occasions. Her biggest win was in 2010 when she pocketed $1.8m for her victory at the Partouche Poker Tour in France.

Selbst is currently ranked seventh in the Global Poker Index (GPI) Top 300 and has already earned $1.4m in the first two months of 2014.
2 - Liv Boeree

Liv Boeree is a young British superstar who first shot to fame in 2010 when she won the $1.7m first-place prize at the European Poker Tour Main Event in San Remo; a victory that catapulted her onto the world stage and into a sponsorship deal with PokerStars.

The heavy metal loving astrophysics graduate has found it difficult to find the right blend of skill and fortune since that groundbreaking victory, however, but the most commonly photographed female player on the European circuit has started the new year in fine fettle, taking $165,000 in live tournament earnings after impressive performances at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, The United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour Edinburgh & The Aussie Millions.
3 - Kara Scott

Kara Scott is the hardest working woman in poker, hands down!

Her ambassadorial role at online poker giant PartyPoker means that she is never far away from the glare of the TV cameras, whether she is playing on the felt or acting in the role of sideline reporter or TV presenter.

Scott is also an integral part of ESPN's coverage of the World Series of Poker and combines a grueling filming and playing schedule without a hair out of place.

Scott’s recent performances on the felt have been the most successful of her career, and it won’t be too long before she is experiencing the same sort of success she experienced back in 2009 when many believed she was unfortunate not to win the Irish Open when she finished second for $413,000.
4 - Ana Marquez

Spanish poker is on a roll right now and a big part of that is the success of Ana Marquez.

The young Spaniard is a former PokerStars Team pro who has earned just shy of $1 million in live tournaments. Her biggest score to date came when she won the 2013 Hollywood Poker Open for $320,000.

Marquez is a feared competitor. She plays every form of poker imaginable and is equally adept in both cash-games and tournaments.

In 2013 she won the honour of Europe’s Leading Lady at the GPI European Poker Awards.
5 - Ebony Kenney

Ebony Kenney got her first big break when she was selected as a World Poker Tour One to Watch in 2012.

Kenney isn’t just a hot shot at the tables. The Floridian is also a model, full-time mother, and has recently been signed by the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) outfit Fighters Source to act as their host/sideline reporter.

Kenney has won close to $200,000 in live tournament earnings including a recent 10 place finish at the WPT Main Event in St Kitts recently.

Top five female poker players from around the world - Mirror Online
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook

Yeah, they are really top female poker players.

I like to take challenges and Poker is my favorite online gambling game to play and make money online because I have confidence in me that I will be able to play any poker game and win with a big difference against competitor.

How much you need ??

There is a free Chinese Poker App available at the app store. ABC Chinese Poker. Get on it degenerates...

I would like to know which program allows me to record my sessions.

1. 888Poker

There are four main types of tournament to be found on fully regulated and licensed 888Poker: Bounty or Knockout, Sit 'n' Go, Poker Freerolls, and Satellite Tournaments.

Tournaments are frequently held and there are even private ones if you already have participants.

2. Sky Poker

As one of the UK's biggest online poker sites, Sky Poker usually has poker tournaments going on all day, every day.

The full schedule can be found on their site. Most games are Hold'em and buy-ins range from around £1 to £60.

3. Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt offers various types of tournaments, including the rather unusual Swag Tournament, where you can win Full Tilt Merchandise, and Avatar Tournament, where you can win an exclusive avatar to use on the site.

Schedules, buy-ins and prize-pools vary, so check their site for further information.

4. Titanbet Poker

Titanbet Poker tournaments are some of the best around, with huge guaranteed prize-pools of over €5,000,000!

They have tournaments to suit every kind of poker player, from Full Ring to Deep Stack to Knockout.

5. Poker Stars

With a game starting every second, Poker Stars is an exciting place to play poker.

They also run two of the biggest online tournament series in the world: the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP).

The Sunday Million and Sunday Warm-Up are their two huge weekly tournaments, but they also have thousands more games happening every day.

Chris Carlson, a bright son of New York, returned from college in 2001, looking for a job in the securities industry.

“It was kind of the de facto path for Long Island kids who studied business,” recalled Carlson, 36, who had a couple of promising Wall Street interviews that led to nothing after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the subsequent recession and the loss of thousands of Wall Street jobs.

After a few years as a waiter, Carlson was hired as a deskbound junior equity analyst for Reuters in 2004. He was bored. He started playing online poker at night, using his proficiency at math and probability to help him make $100,000-plus within six months. He quit his lower-paying day job.

“Poker is a game of skill, not of chance,” insists Carlson, who eschews other casino games because of the long odds when playing against the house. Carlson also built an online business organizing poker competitions and getting a cut for sending players to online games sponsored by various sites. Those big paydays stroked his ego, financed a pricey Manhattan flat and resulted in a booze-laden nightlife.

A decade later, Carlson is the humbler and now-sober CEO of FourCubed, a small business housed in a renovated car-painting factory in northeast Minneapolis. The company builds poker websites, attracts thousands of players, tracks them and guides them — for a fee — to licensed-gaming ******companies who also are his advertisers.

“I don’t even play poker ******anymore,” Carlson said in an interview last week. “It takes a lot of time, and now I have a business to run and build and a family.”

Carlson moved to the Twin Cities in late 2005 to undergo treatment for alcohol addiction at Hazelden. He liked the Twin Cities. He doubts that he would have survived a business setback in 2011-12 if not sober. A gradual humility, gratitude for his wife and two kids, and some financial success have replaced hangovers and the smart-guy edge. But he still has that drive and ambition.

“Chris was kind of the typical ‘ADD’ entrepreneur, six or seven years ago, chasing any ‘shiny object’ because he recognized that gambling thing could be great, but there was also great risk,’’ Jeff Redmon, a veteran business lawyer who has advised Carlson. “Chris understands that the Internet is about eyeballs. He gets people to go through his site, keeps them, and then effectively sells those folks to the poker sites that pay Chris for bringing players to them.”

According to a presentation Carlson shares with partners and potential investors, FourCubed generated operating income of nearly $160,000 on revenue of $2.7 million in 2013. He plans to add six people to his workforce of a dozen and grow revenue to about $3.2 million in 2014.

FourCubed also was a Minnesota High Technology Association innovation award finalist last fall.

Business boomed for a while

But the business is still a shadow of its former self — before what’s known in the online gambling trade as “Black Friday.’’ FourCubed soared to nearly $1 million in operating profit and $13 million in sales in 2010. Then on Friday, April 15, 2011, online poker in the United States essentially was shut down by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The department subsequently determined that the Wire Act of 1961, an anti-mob law, applied only to sports betting. Justice has left it to the states to license and regulate online poker and other games.

Carlson was not used to contraction. He sought help from small business consultant Rick Brimacomb.

“We … tightened things up, sharpened the focus and shifted the product mix to improve margins,’’ Brimacomb said. “The Internet will change the gaming landscape just as it has every business. Who would have imagined 10 years ago that online holiday shopping would eclipse bricks-and-mortar shopping? This is like the early days of e-commerce to the gaming industry. The opportunity is massive.”

Said Mike Bromelkamp, a veteran CPA and adviser to Carlson: “Chris has learned from the hard knocks. He’s much more focused and appreciative of the success he’s had. He is going to be successful.”

Carlson plans “to grow by seven- to tenfold over the next three to five years.” FourCubed is long-established in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey online and casino operations. And the company is poised for California, where pending legislation would let operators of Indian casino open online-gambling operations.

Carlson, who owns more than 90 percent of FourCubed, also is trying to raise an unspecified amount of capital from individual local investors to finance that growth.

Gambling opponents say the gaming industry will use techniques perfected in online advertising and marketing to target vulnerable consumers, leading to a spike in problem gambling.

Proponents say prohibition, whether of alcohol or betting, doesn’t work.

Said Carlson, a recovering alcoholic, “I’m in a restaurant with a bar in it, and that’s fine. Gambling only addicts about 1 percent who try [it]. ... Addiction is a hard-wired thing, and if I’m addicted to gambling, I’ll find a way to gamble, either illegally or through legally, state-sponsored lotteries or charitable pulltabs.

“I don’t connect our business to perpetrating ******addiction,’’ he said. “We don’t target that 1 percent. We target entertainment for poker players.”



St. Anthony: Online poker entrepreneur is willing to take a gamble | Star Tribune