PokerStars has made a publicity campaign out of awarding prizes for whoever wins a big milestone hand on the site. This started with 50 billionth hand or something like that. It’s become difficult to keep up because the site is so big that they seem to turn over another billionth milestone every couple of months. The latest being the 70 billionth hand with a $70,000 prize plus to the winner. Which isn’t even hitting the big News these days. (Give them a couple of weeks and they’ll probably tell us what’s going to happen for the 100^th Billionth Hand.)

But the problem with consistent promotions is that they often lead to someone trying to figure out ways to turn the promotion to their advantage. This isn’t just for gambling promotions, but the more money involved, the more likely someone is to want to figure out a better way to win the money. And some players are claiming that’s what happened with the PokerStars 70 Billionth Hand Promotion.

Players have gone back and check the hand history of the winning table and have claimed that the overall history of the hands played shows that players at the table weren’t really focused on playing each hand but on playing as many hands as possible to give everyone at the table a better chance of hitting the 70^th billionth hand. And if they were, it seems to have worked. Of course, no one seems to be checking the hand history of the tables that didn’t win to see if they were playing the same way.

PokerStars has reviewed the issue and determined that the “fast folding” going on at the table wasn’t a violation of the rules of the promotion. But they will be looking into the way they run the billionth hand promotions going forward or else everyone on that site is going to be fast folding as they get nearer and nearer to those milestone hands.

I’ve been following the news on the two Cereus Network poker rooms - Absolute Poker and UB.com since the Black Friday Poker Shutdown back in April of this year. Well, actually, I was following the news before that, but in a different way. Before the Black Friday Shutdown, the two poker rooms were fun to follow for the action and if nothing else, for Phil Hellmuth’s costumed entrances to the World Series of Poker and other tournaments. But I can’t blame the FBI for depriving me of a little Hellmuth overkill, since he left his pro spot with the Cereus Network before the shutdown. (File that under things that make you go “hmmm”)

But the news on the Cereus Network kicked into high gear right after the Black Friday Poker Shutdown when the poker rooms run by the network were the two that didn’t take steps to work with the United States Department of Justice to obtain approval to pay players back money in their accounts. This worried players, who wanted to know just why that was happening. And it turned out the worst suspicions were correct - Blanca Games, the company that owns the two poker rooms, wasn’t worried about negotiating to pay players back because it couldn’t pay players back. But it was easier to let the blame rest with the FBI for as long as people would buy it. Mostly no one did and the company struggled to deny rumors of bankruptcy while laying off support staff.

Well, now the news is out that Blanca Games will be liquidating their assets in order to try to raise enough money to pay out what they owe players. Perhaps what happened to Full Tilt poker has shown them that not paying out will ruin their reputation and cost them their license. That’s if they have any reputation left to ruin.

The news these days is all about politics, budgets, funding and other critical issues we face. It doesn’t take more than a glance at the CNN site to see that. But it’s always the more unusual takes on the news that draw my interest. One example. The governor of Maryland has spoken out against any federal efforts to legalize online gambling. His reason? Well, you might expect a plea that gambling is addictive and dangerous for people. The usual online gambling is bad for you stuff. But nope. His reason — any federal steps to make online gambling legal in the US would compete with the Maryland state lottery.

See, the governor doesn’t want people in his state to stop gambling. He simply wants them to gamble in his state. Which actually, should mean that its only Federal legalization of online gambling that would worry him because if each state legalizes gambling on its own, then each state could charge to tax and license online casinos that operate in that state.

Of course, there are some drawbacks to that plan, but mainly for gamblers. It could limit the number of places a gambler could visit to place bets or even to play slots free since I could see casinos not bothering to license in states with a low return on investment. While Federal licensing would result in a broader availability for online casino but still potentially give states the chance to opt out.

But what would happen if a state like Maryland opted out? I’ve been to Maryland and it’s not that big. I could easily see folks driving across state lines to hit a café and play at their favorite casino. Which is just another issue that would need to be tackled. But has anyone noticed that people are already gambling online? Because I think some of the politicians are missing the big point - legalizing online gambling really might not change much of anything about how we already play online.

And Maryland Governor, if people already play online and play the lottery, they’ll probably keep doing that.

Listen up poker fans, it’s that time of year again. Time for the World Series of Poker Final Table! The November Nine will soon sit down to determine who wins the much coveted WSOP Final Table bracelet and bragging rights pretty much for life.

Now, an introduction to the event for those of you who don’t follow the poker world. The World Series of Poker is one of the top rated poker tournaments in the world. It takes place in Las Vegas every summer and lasts for weeks with multiple events for players to enter. But the last three days or so are devoted to the Main Event. This is the big event where the world’s top players gather to see who is king of the hill. They fill the tables at the convention hall and players are eliminated over a series games until only nine remain. Then the Main Event takes a break. In November, those nine players, who’ve had plenty of time to rest and regain their playing strength, sit down and play poker to determine the winner. And every year in recent years, that final table has been a televised event.

This year the event will be shown “almost live.” Now, all this means is that there will be a 15 minute delay between the play and when viewers see what’s going on at the tables. The main reason for this “nearly live” format is that the announcers will be revealing the player’s hole cards as the announcers talk viewers through the play. The delay should ensure that no one knows the hole cards while the hand is live.

If you’ve never seen the top pros in the world play poker, you need to make time for the November Nine on November 6. Check Google for stations and schedules in your area.

Damn you Yahoo, how can you mislead me like that? Well, actually, I can’t blame it all on Yahoo. The supposed Full Tilt buyer was all over the blogosphere early last week. I think Full Tilt was making sure that we all heard the good news - they had a buyer. The French company Groupe Bernard Taipe was going to pull their arses out of the proverbial fire. Then people started taking a closer look at the news and the Groupe Bernard Taipe. Now, it wasn’t that the news wasn’t true. The French company is interested in making an investment in Full Tilt. The problem was that the company wasn’t saying they were will to be the full and only investors involved in pulling the company out of the mess it’s gotten itself into.

Not that I can blame them. Here’s the think — Full Tilt owes about $300 million to players. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission isn’t going to let them resume operation until they can pay that back. So any investor coming in is going to lose $300 million right off the bat. And that’s before they even being getting the messed up poker room in order. Now, Groupe Bernard Taipe does have a sensible approach. If there were enough investors, that would offset the cost per investor and spread out the money crunch. There may be more investors out there. Hey, we know Full Tilt has hinted at them. And we all know that we can trust everything Full Tilt Poker says. Right?

Full Tilt Poker may have found a buyer. Of course the deal isn’t completely sealed just yet and even the prestigious Wall Street Journal is full of stories about the online poker room’s woes from shut down by the FBI to allegations of a Ponzi scheme. So, will the poker room really be bought out by a mysterious French savior? We’re waiting to find out, but we do have the name of the man behind the purchase offer.

Bernard Tapie, a French investor who has faced allegations of tax fraud and even served time in prison for fixing a soccer match with a team he owned, is apparently the mysterious European buyer with interest in Full Tilt Poker. Now, not all of Tapie’s investments are as problematic as the poker room, but the French investor’s Groupe Bernard Tapie company is known for buying up and salvaging financially distressed businesses.

But there are still some issues left to resolve. First, Full Tilt must successfully resolve the issues it faces with authorities in the United States, and even the WSJ doesn’t give me much insight on how it’s going to do that. And Full Tilt must also have a valid license to provide gambling services. Which could be a problem for the online poker room since the AGCC (Alderney Gambling Control Commission) just revoked their license. My guess is that there’s a lot of discussion going on about that one and how to get the license reinstated.

So, why would players want the admittedly problematic poker room to get its license back? Because part of the agreement with the Groupe Bernard Tapie is that they will pay back the estimated $300 million that Full Tilt owes to players both in the United States and around the globe. And players want to get their money back. Whether they’ll play with the site after that remains to be seen.

Full Tilt Poker is having another bad week. Heck, Full Tilt is just having a plain bad year. But now they’re being accused of being a Ponzi scheme and the quote from Preet Bharara who serves as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York is showing up everywhere. Now, online gambling blogs that follow casino and poker news have been covering the Full Tilt news for months, but the term “Ponzi scheme” has suddenly catapulted the news to the main stream media. Now the question that some are asking is — is it an accurate term?

Probably not. Oh, there’s no doubt that Full Tilt suffered from some massively bad management decisions and that they’ve passed that suffering on to the players. But a misuse of funds doesn’t make something a Ponzi scheme. Though I can see where some of Full Tilt’s actions are confusing. So, first, let’s look at what a real Ponzi scheme is. A Ponzi scheme generally starts with the decision to commit a fraud. An investment scheme is set up and investors talked into putting money into it. Money from new investors is used to pay dividends to early investors and everyone gets statements showing how great the “investments” are going. But there’s seldom anything actually happening behind the Ponzi to really generate revenue. Look, say I tell you I have a diamond mine on the moon and we’ll make millions but I need investment money. So, you give me money. And I get money from other people. They I give everyone part of that money back because our moon diamond mine is doing well, but there’s still room for more investors. So, you tell your friends about this great investment. And they tell their friends. And as long as new people are coming in, I can give out money. Once that stops, well, the problem is that I really don’t have a diamond mine on the moon.

Full Tilt Poker really did have a poker room. And players weren’t investors being led to believe they’d make an easy profit. They could and did lose money. The problem was that Full Tilt mingled player funds and operating funds. The result was a crash sort of like what happens in a Ponzi scheme. Once new money stopped coming in, it turned out the player’s funds weren’t sitting in protected accounts like players believed they were. Bad management decisions. Not necessarily a Ponzi scheme.

Are you considering signing up for an account at an online casino? Before you take that first step, there’s a lot of information you’ll want to sort through to determine the best places to play and to understand how an online casino works. Now, the more of this information that you come to understand, the more reassured you’ll be about playing at an online casino, but how much time do you have in your day to do intense research? For example, if you want to know how a casino works, you could find a wiki on the web and research information on random number generators. It’s a great idea. After all, I’ve done it. I have to know what I’m writing about because I’m providing information to others on where and how to spend their money. So, yes, I’ll look up and read what some might consider the “boring” parts.

After you’ve searched information on how casinos work, you’ll still need to find places to play. So, what you do is make a list of online casinos and then start going through that list ranking them all based on whether or not they offer play in your area, are they certified as fair and safe by a reputable organization, who are they licensed through, what gaming platform do they use … What, you don’t want to do that? You’d rather just start playing? Well, you can take a short cut and let someone else do the work and just look for a site that offers the best Canadian online casino advice if you’re Canadian or US casino play if you’re American.

If you were in need of medical advice, you’d go to an expert who already has a wealth of knowledge to pull from. You can follow the same process when it comes to online casinos. Let the experts who’ve done the research help you find the best place to play. That’s what we’re here for.

Have you check out the Crewpon over at Silver Oak Casino? This is possibly one of the best casino bonus offers out there — but only if we all work together. Because the more of us who play the Crewpon the more the casino will pay on the Crewpon.

So, here’s how it works. Every month Silver Oak offers a 200% bonus on any deposit of $50 or more made with the bonus code CREW200. Now this offer is good for slots and keno only, but it’s also only the start of the bonus offer. If you claim the CREW200 bonus offer you become part of the crew going after the Crewpon. Silver Oak tracks how many players redeem the CREW200 offer each month and at the end of the month gives EVERY player who claimed the bonus offer a free chip. Yep, every player. I’ve seen other casinos make similar promises but those are usually for the top 5 depositors meaning that the lower money folks get left out of the fun. Not so at Silver Oak. Here if you make a minimum $50 deposit for the month, you qualify for the CREWPON free chip which means the other players are helping you win free money. Because the more claims, the bigger the payout.

How big? Well, the largest possible free chip bonus is $1000 if 1500 people claim the offer. The smallest possible bonus is $25 if just 10 people claim the bonus. But it’s only the first half of September at the Crewpon already sits at 557 claims and a $300 bonus for players. That money won’t go down and if it hits 1000 claims, that’ll be $500 per player. Last month the Crewpon bonus was $300 to 900 players. So if you play slots, check the Crewpon at Silver Oak out today and win some free money!

Welcome to September! I always head out to check out the newest bonus offers waiting for us at our favorite online casinos. So today I’m checking out Club USA online casino because I know I can always depend on them for a great bonus offer or two. And they’re starting September off with a new month bonus now through September 4^th. All you have to do to take part in this bonus offer is to deposit $100 and Club USA Casino will give you $100 in bonus money. Now, keep in mind that this bonus is only to play slots with, but slot fans will want to use the coupon code EXTRA100 and remember — you only have until Sunday to claim the bonus!

Now, if you don’t play slots, don’t worry, Club USA hasn’t forgotten about you. In addition to their standard bonus offers of 65% on slots, keno and scratch cards using the coupon code SLOTS65 or their offer for 55% to play table games, blackjack and video poker using the code OTHERGAMES55, they’ll be offer a free chip starting Monday, September 5^th. All you have to do is claim a deposit bonus using either SLOTS65 or OTHERGAMES55 between Monday, September 5^th and Wednesday, September 7^th. Now, you do have to claim the same coupon 5 times, so choose whether you want to spend some time playing slots, keno and scratch cards or whether you want to enjoy the strategy offered by blackjack, video poker and other games. Either way, Club USA casino has a bonus offer for you this month.

I’ll be checking in with the online casino again next week to see what else they have planned and of course I’ll be writing about their bonus offers and other bonus offers as I find them. So stay tuned to the blog!