I'm not sure exactly when, but at some point poker became more serious. Bucking poker's sobering trend, two upcoming events have built reputations for reveling in the joy of the game. During the second week of December, poker bloggers from around the country will descend on Las Vegas for the third annual World Poker Blogger Tour (WPBT) Winter Classic. Poker bloggers build powerful networks by linking with one another on the internet. The live WPBT events take those virtual linkages and forge lasting 'Brick & Mortar' friendships. The forging process, as witnessed during these events, involves lots of poker, drinking, discussion of craft, and teasing. And of course, the ultimate goal is to be able to remember enough of

the weekend to yield a plethora of irreverent blog posts. While most tourists try to give this group a wide berth, professional players and writers including Howard Lederer, Barry Greenstein, and Michael Craig have spoken at past WBPT events. Phil Gordon ran a charity Roshambo event for the bloggers earlier this year at the WPBT Summer Classic. Marcel Luske and Max Pescatori have been known to drop by. Much of the weekend schedule is flexible allowing for many spontaneous outbreaks of cash games up and down the strip, but there is always time set aside for a blogger tournament. This year's tournament will be held at 1:30 pm on December 9th at Caesar's Palace. The Tao of Poker's Pauly will award the first player busted from the tournament with a DVD of the movie Gigli; which is also tradition. In January another irreverent group of internet connected players will head for the Bicycle Casino for the ninth annual ESCARGOT (Extraordinary Southern California Annual RecGambling Outing and Tournament). ESCARGOT is a regional spin-off of BARGE which was borne from the early days of IRC Poker and the rec.gambling.poker Usenet group. ESCARGOT is steeped in the BARGE tradition of almost obscene poker fun, exercised by some great poker talent. People that have made the money in past ESCARGOT events include writers Lou Krieger and John Vorhaus. Professional players Gavin Smith and Matt Matros also have scored ESCARGOT money finishes. And Suzan 'Sabyl' Cohen, the last woman standing at this year's WSOP Championship Event, honed her money winning ways at ESCARGOT. ESCARGOT 2007 runs from January 11th through the 14th and features four official tournaments, but participants will also be availing themselves of the Bicycle's twice daily tournaments. Rumors of a Roshambo (rock-paper-scissors) event and Chowaha (a three flop variant of hold'em) ring games appear to be well founded. For many, the popularity of poker transformed it from a great game to a serious business. It's comforting to know that there are still talented players out there that get together for ridiculously low buy-in events to celebrate the sheer joy of the game.

Sometimes situations arise which lend themselves to a bluff. Such a bluff is more likely to be successful if the correct groundwork has been laid. You hold 9S 9D and have called a single bet before the flop. Now the board is 10C 8D 4H and you bet out. The pair of nines is quite likely the best hand. You get one lone caller and the turn bring brings forth 10C 8D 4H JS.

If you again bet it is unlikely a strong player will call. You may have a straight; you may have bet with J-9, so that X-10 is now losing; you may have A-10 yourself. The initiative is very important in poker. Moreover, even if he calls, then you can still hit a Queen, seven or a nine to win the pot. This is called bluffing with outs.

If the river is 10C 8D 4S J S 3C, then you should bet again. If he calls you with a hand like KS KD, then you have been outplayed. Say, 'Good call', smile weakly, fold your tents and steal away into the night.

Ask Frequent Poker Players (FPP) in Las Vegas about their favorite rooms and you will often hear low to medium limit players mention the Monte Carlo. Located between New York-New York and Bellagio, the Monte Carlo may be the best "overlooked" room on the Las Vegas Strip. This will probably change when the massive CityCenter opens in 2009 with a 60-story, 4,000-room hotel and casino along with two additional 400-room 'boutique hotels' and 500,000 square feet of premier retail shops, entertainment and dining. The completed complex will literally connect the Monte Carlo to Bellagio and allow gamblers, shoppers and strollers to experience these three casinos with all of their amenities as one massive CityCenter. At least until then,

I would guess that the Monte Carlo poker room will remain one of the 'best known but best kept' secrets in Las Vegas. The card room at Monte Carlo is tucked away back in the rear of the casino but that is actually a good thing. Very near the parking garage entrance and, of course, next to the sports book; the nine table room is well designed in beautiful dark wood paneling, unique and humorous poker paintings and the ever present flat screen televisions. The out of the way location means the room is quiet and amazingly smoke free despite the smokers hanging out at the entrance. You do have to fight through the cloud of haze to get to the podium or to the restrooms but the facilities are very close; you can make it in one hand or less. As with most low-limit rooms the Monte Carlo is usually 'all hold'em all the time.' Until very recently the room hosted one of the few remaining 7 card stud games still spread on the strip, I must announce, however, that this is no longer the case, during my last visit I heard a returning player ask to start a stud interest list and he was told: "There hasn't been a stud game here in six months." However, to counter the all hold'em saturation of the games, the Monte Carlo has a special HORSE night. Every Thursday a regular $4/$8 HORSE game is advertised and most Thursday there is more than one table dealing the mixed game. I played a couple of times and will report that the game is quite fun, moderately loose but is often HOSE and not HORSE as the regulars are not RAZZ fans. Still, it's a nice variation and the always competent Monte Carlo dealers run a very fine mixed game. The room has high hand bonuses for all hands four-of-a-kind and above with prizes generally between $100 and $2000 dollars paid fairly regularly. I would also point out that of all the rooms I have visited in Las Vegas, the Monte Carlo has the best cocktail service in town. The service is incredibly fast, the servers come around at least every ten minutes and they remember your beverage of choice. Tournaments at Monte Carlo are held twice a day. There is a $40+$10 NLHE everyday at 9 AM and a $50+$10 at 6 PM. Generally the morning offerings get two or three tables and the evenings are three or four tables, slightly larger on the weekend. The buy-ins needs some explaining and some complaining. $40+$10 means $40 buy-in plus and optional $10 add-on. The add-on comes at the beginning of the tournament and there are no re-buys, so unless you want to have half as many chips (1,000) as everyone else (2,000) in the tournament, this is in effect a $50 event. After all of the fine print ($32 to prize pool, $8 house fee, $4 prize pool, and $6 staff fee) your $50 goes $36 to the prize pool and $14 to various parts of the house. This amounts to a 28% house cut, which is only slightly lower (26.6%) for the 6 PM ($60) tournament. That's a lot of juice and a higher than most of the low buy-ins I have reviewed recently. One last tip for playing at the Monte Carlo, the CityCenter construction has the parking lots for the casino mostly covered with cranes and bulldozers. The current Monte Carlo lot is to your left as you drive down the cluttered roadway just south of the casino.

People often conjecture about what percentage of luck there is in poker and what percentage skill. Probably you won't find two experts who will agree on this thorny subject. Anyway, it partly depends on the game you play. For example, there is much more variance in Omaha than in Omaha high-low eight or better.

Perhaps in a cash game it is 80% skill and 20% luck and in a tournament 60% skill and 40% luck. The reason for the higher randomisation in a tournament is that you, not only have to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune caused by the cards you hold, but also have the randomisation due to the opponents you meet.

Pamela Anderson Waves Goodbye to Online Poker, While Margolis Waves Hello
Another shoe has dropped relative to the US passage of the UIGEA and it appears to be the high heel of former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson. Apparently Anderson has ended her affiliation with Pamela Poker, her Doyle Brunson Network affiliated online poker room. Citing "too many rules in the USA" and the growing legal "red tape," Anderson wrote in her online diary that it was "fun while it lasted." She also wished good luck to Doyle and Doyle's Room adding, "I love him. He is authentic to the game." In a December 2004 poll taken by Empire poker, Anderson was voted the celebrity that online poker players would most like to have at their table. In April 2006, online players got that opportunity when Pamela Anderson became one

of the regular celebrity bounties at Doyle's Room's popular weekly Bounty Tournament. Anderson's affiliation with the Doyle Brunson Poker Network deepened when she agreed to do a series of commercial spots for Doyle's Room which debuted during Game Four of the NBA Championships between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks Pamela Poker's launch was announced during the mock wedding between Anderson and Brunson, staged during the 2006 WSOP. The news that Pamela Anderson is saying goodbye to online poker comes just one week after the announcement of a new online poker affiliation for model and internet phenomenon Cindy Margolis. Margolis and her agents at Poker Royalty confirmed a new major player-representation deal with Tropical Poker. The timing of Cindy's new venture was coincident with the release of Playboy Magazine's Christmas issue featuring Margolis on the cover.

It was relatively good news for WPT Enterprises, Inc (WPTE) when they announced their 3rd Quarter 2006 earnings yesterday. WPTE reported net earnings for the quarter of $2.7 million, or $0.12 per fully-diluted share, compared to a net loss of $1.6 million, or $0.08 per share (without dilution), in the same period in 2005. Net earnings in the quarter included a $4.5 million realized gain on the sale of WPTE's Company's remaining 450,000 shares of PokerTek, Inc's common stock. Excluding this gain, pre-tax earnings would have been approximately $13,000 for the quarter. While $13,000 in pre-tax earnings basically represents a break-even quarter, WPTE's performance still beat the analysts' expectations of a $.02 loss for the quarter.

Revenues for the quarter were $5.9 million compared to $2.1 million for the same period last year. The increase was primarily driving by the delivery of nine episodes of the PPT versus none delivered in 2005. But the PPT revenue boost is primarily a 3rd and 4th quarter story, as the WPTE still has not locked down a television home or sponsors for a potential second season. While less significant to the bottom line, online gaming revenues for the quarter were $912,000 versus $170,000 for the same period last year. WPTE is currently utilizing its original online gaming platform, and is still planning to implement its new platform in June of 2007. WPTE CEO Steve Lipscomb also commented on the recent passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, noting "Since we have had a policy from inception of not accepting wagers from U.S. players, we believe the Act will not require a change in our day-to-day business activities." WPTE continues to carry no debt and increased its cash position to $40 million this quarter, aided by its Poker Tek, Inc. investment. With that investment depleted and revenue from season one of the PPT fully recognized in the 4th quarter, WPTE will be playing a waiting game over the next few quarters until its online gaming growth engine fully engages. But with the current health of its Balance Sheet, it appears WPTE is well positioned to wait.

The TV programme Deal or No Deal has been a huge success. This must be because it is so simple. To have the maximum winning probability, you should never take the deal offered. But people are such quivering jellies that they usually chicken out when near to the winning line.

The TV programme Poker Face deserves to be a huge success. Basically, it combines the element of general knowledge, so popular in do you want to be a millionaire and the weakest link, with the opportunity to bluff your opponents that you have the better hand. Also the first prize is 1 million pounds and it has to be won by one of the 36 contestants in the series.

It shows that there is truth in the ancient adage, that you don't need cards in order to play poker.