Worldwide Poker Headlines June 5th

Two World Series of Poker Tickets Up For Grabs in Titan Poker VIP Race

Leading online poker room, Titan Poker, will stage a week-long competition for its top players with a $50,000 prize pool, including two top prizes of $14,000 packages to the World Series of Poker Main Event 2008.

Titan Poker is opening up yet another opportunity this June for its elite, VIP players to partake extra benefits. By participating in Titan Poker’s $50,000 VIP Race, which runs from 5th to the 11th of June, the players aren’t only competing for a share of an enormous prize pool, but also for seats at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), this July in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Two “all-exclusive” WSOP packages will be awarded to the top two players in this extraordinary race. The $14,000 packages include a $10,000 buy-in to the Main Event, hotel accommodations and travel expenses. The next 98 top finishers in the $50,000 VIP Race take their share of a lavish cash prize pool of $22,000.

The winners of the Titan Poker VIP Race will join other Titan Poker players who have already won their Las Vegas trips at Titan Poker’s WSOP 2008 Main Event Super Satellite Series, Side Event Super Satellite Series and the elite Executive Satellite Series.

All of Titan Poker’s VIP players are positioned on an equal playing field with a chance to win part of the huge prize pool in the race. Players will be ranked according to a unique Race Points system which will calculate an average of a player’s activity at cash games. Players can regularly check Titan Poker’s leaderboard (which is automatically updated every thirty minutes) to see their position in the standings.

KC man wins $830,000 pot at regional poker tourney

A Kansas City businessman sits atop the leaderboard at the World Series of Poker.

Early Wednesday morning at the Rio in Las Vegas, Grant Hinkle, who will turn 28 on Saturday, caught a full house and parlayed his $1,500 seat in the tournament to $831,462 in prize money in a regional World Series tournament.

“My wife and I had been looking at buying a new house the last couple of years,” he said. “This will definitely help.”

The self-described “marketing guy” at Archer Technologies in Kansas City now sits at the top of the World Series money-winnings leaderboard for 2008 and ranks 277th in the series’ all-time Power Ranking.

And he’s not the only family member with World Series credentials. Brother Blair Hinkle is ranked 439th.

Grant Hinkle, a Topeka native, graduated from the University of Kansas with a business degree.

He said this was his second entry in a World Series of Poker event, but the first time he made it to a final table.

Grant Hinkle said the grueling three-day game that wrapped up Wednesday morning is scheduled to be televised July 29 by ESPN.

By then, he said, he plans to have invested $10,000 of his winnings in a seat at the World Series finals, which are to be played in July and televised later this year.

Blair Hinkle earlier this year finished 11th at the Los Angeles Poker Classic and brought home $62,000 for that. He finished 520th in the WSOP main event last year.

Grant said his regular poker game is with a few friends in the Kansas City area or at area casino poker rooms. He said most of his home poker games are for buy-ins of $40 or $50.

Grant said his brother offered some pretty good advice for his winning play in Wednesday’s last hand.

Holding a 10 and a 4, he went all in on a bluff. The cards that turned up: 10-10-4-4-5.

Game over.

US Friendly Poker Rooms- US Legal Poker

Many US poker players have found it difficult to play online poker since the UIGEA(Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was passed in 2006. There are still misconceptions about the legality and access to online poker. According to legal experts who have reviewed and interpreted the law, playing online poker is in fact legal in the US. The UIGEA was designed to make depositing onto US online poker rooms extremely difficult, it does not make any act of the playing poker or depositing illegal. It should be stressed that this law does not address players or prohibit any form of online poker. The main target of this law was aimed at financial institutions, where it makes specific regulations against banks knowingly facilitating transactions onto gambling sites of any kind. It also prohibits any site that is under the jurisdiction of US law from accepting deposits from US players. This is why all of these sites are located and operated offshore.

This law has no doubt made deposing more difficult, but not impossible. There are plenty of us poker deposit options for online poker available today. The easiest of which are Poker Echecks, which are similar to paper check and carry many of the same protections of paper checks, the main difference is they are electronic. According to reviews they are easy, fast and safe to use. You simply need your account information, including your account and routing number, which can be found on your check. Once this information is entered and submitted along with the amount you wish to deposit, your funds will immediately be available for play.

Absolute Poker Introduces Instant Deal Making at Final Tables

Absolute Poker has announced a new final table feature that promises to expedite the deal making process at select online poker games.

“We’re making it easier for players to facilitate deals so that everyone can walk away from a big tournament with a healthy win,” stated David Clainer, Senior Vice President for Absolute Poker.

The new Deal Making button will automatically appear once a game reaches the final poker table. The process will begin only once all remaining poker players have agreed to make a deal. The game will then pause and the tournament manager will join the chat to monitor the players as a deal is discussed and provide helpful information on chip equity.

If an agreement is reached, the pot will be divided in accordance with the agreed terms. If no agreement is reached, the game will continue.

Clainer notes that by the time a poker tournament gets to the final table, the game often turns into a coin toss as players go all-in for a shot at winning the pot. Deal making enables the players to split the pot and avoid leaving a potential big win or loss to chance.

The Deal Making feature is available at select poker tournaments as indicated in the lobby of the Absolute Poker software. Full details can be found at www.absolutepoker.com.

Full Tilt Poker Pro Erick Lindgren Captures His First Ever World Series of Poker Title

Erick Lindgren overcame an extremely stacked 332 player field to capture his first World Series of Poker bracelet on early Thursday morning in the $5k Mixed Hold’em event. Lindgren overcame Justin “Zeejustin” Bonomo in heads-up play to take down the first place prize of $374,505, plus the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet. This was Lindgren’s first ever World Series of Poker bracelet.

The final table of the event was a great mix of experience and youth. As mentioned, Lindgren and Bonomo finished first and second. The final table also included the following names: Roland de Wolfe, Howard Lederer, David Williams and Isaac Haxton. This was an extremely strong final table (and event, for that matter), and Lindgren’s victory was well-earned.

Lindgren’s lack of a World Series of Poker bracelet must have been frustrating to him, especially given his ultra-competitive nature. He has come agonizingly close before (second place finish in the 2006 $5k Short-Handed No Limit Hold’em event), but was never able to seal the deal. Prior to this event, Lindgren had already had a phenomenal career which included $5.96 million in total lifetime cashes and two WPT titles, but no WSOP bracelet.

For Justin “Zeejustin” Bonomo, this was yet another deep run in a major tournament without a win. As we’ve said before, you have to figure that it is just a matter of time before he takes one down.

The final hand of the tournament came when Lindgren raised pre-flop and Bonomo called. They saw a flop of 10-5-3 with two clubs. Both players checked, and the turn card was the 4 of hearts. “Zeejustin” bet 80,000, and Lindgren called. The river was the eight of hearts. Bonomo bet again, Lindgren raised, and Bonomo called, putting himself all-in.

Lindgren turned up A-2 for a straight, while Bonomo showed 5-4 for two pair.

“Zeejustin” received $230,159 for his second place finish. This was Bonomo’s second trip to a WSOP final table - he finished in fourth place in a $2k No Limit Hold’em event in 2007 for $156k.

With this victory, Erick Lindgren will move up to 20th on the all-time money list, one behind Johnny Chan.

WSOP debuts ‘green’ poker table

This year’s World Series of Poker - the highlight of the poker calendar - will feature green tables of a different kind.

Executive Gaming Monthly (EGM) will be presenting their eco-friendly poker table, made of 98% sustainable products.

In an effort to introduce recycled and sustainable products into the gaming world, EGM aims to reduce waste and impact on ecosystems. Their specially designed green tables are made of wood certified by the Forestry stewardship Council and use only water-based adhesive.

As well as displaying their wares in the WSOP exhibition, the winner of the WSOP will take home their own ‘EGM green’ poker table.

EGM also makes environmentally friendly tables for roulette and baccarat, and green yet comfortable lounge furniture.

The WSOP will run throughout June and July, until the competition is whittled down to the last 9 players. These 9 will have to wait till November when they will sit down at the final table to compete for the top prize in poker.

Britain has gone Poker Crazy

Britain has gone poker crazy with one in four adults playing in the last year, a study revealed. One in 14 join a game every day and one in seven play at least once a week.

Experts say poker is seen as “cool” and gets 40 times the TV coverage it did five years ago. Consumer analyst Mintel which quizzed 4,000 Brits, found that live games between friends are as popular as online poker. Senior analyst Matt King said .. “The extra excitement and social side are important .. “ Talking about gambling .. Air travellers will soon be able to gamble during flights as airlines introduce on-board casinos. ? Passengers on long-haul journeys will be able to log on to the internet and stake cash on games including poker, blackjack and roulette.

But the decision has been widely criticised by the anti-gambling lobby. A spokesman for the charity Gamcare, which provides help to people suffering addictions, said: “Clearly these games will attract people sitting on a flight for hours on end who don’t normally bother with betting online. There is a real danger that people who don’t normally take an interest in gambling will be attracted to betting”

The casinos will be provided by the world’s biggest online gambling company 888.com which already rakes in £1.2 billion a year from Britons. Passengers will be able to use their in-flight TV screen to access the online casinos.

Team Full Tilt Announces newest member

Over the weekend Full Tilt Poker announced that cash game specialist Patrik Antonius signed on as the newest team member.