Poker News Round-up

Brought to you every Friday

Poker News Round-up: Week #20

By Adam Noone, 18/05/2007

The main event may still be seven weeks away but the first bracelet up for grabs at the World Series Of Poker this year will be contested in just two weeks’ time. Organisers have now released the set of rules that will apply to the 2007 series and one of the most notable changes is to the controversial f – bomb rule. Critics complained that muttering the f – word to yourself after suffering a horrific bad beat in the most important poker game in the world is hardly a crime that warrants having your misery compounded by having to then sit out the next ten minutes of play. This is after all an adult environment with players contesting vast sums of money so there will inevitably be times when players’ frustrations are expressed with colourful language. What’s more, previously anyone with their wits about them in their moment of agony could get creative and scream all sorts of obscenities without penalty if they specifically avoided the f – word. This year though, a more sensible approach has been adopted and players will only be penalised if the f – bomb, or indeed the c – bomb, is directed towards other players or members of staff in an abusive manner. Harrah’s do however reserve the right to impose a zero tolerance approach at any time, which would probably be invoked at any table being filmed for television.

At first it might seem that Mike Matusow’s blinds will perhaps not be up for grabs so much as they might have been, until further examination of the new rules reveals that excessive chatter can now also be classed as a punishable breach of etiquette. The wind-up merchants may then have to find new ways of needling their opponents this year. Other rules stipulate that items of clothing may not “depict repellently any internal bodily functions or symptomatic results of internal conditions” nor be defamatory, obscene, profane, vulgar, repulsive or offensive in theme, although Jac Arama’s shirts are not specifically mentioned.

Johnny Chan famously used to bring an orange to the table to psych out his opponents but this would now be disallowed following a decision to ban all foreign objects from the table save for a card protector which may be no more than two inches in diameter and half an inch in depth. If this is actually enforced, droves of players will be forced to take part without their lucky icons, including 2004 main event winner Greg Raymer’s fossil.

Top poker players are mainstream celebrities these days but could one actually become the president of the USA? That is a possibility if rumours are to be believed that Raymer will run for president or vice president for the Libertarian party in the 2008 presidential election. The issue of online gambling could attract poker players and other gambling fans to back the party, although it may be more an exercise in raising awareness on this matter rather than a genuine belief that he may win enough votes to take office. If it seems an unlikely story though, a former patent officer might well seem a more plausible candidate for political success than a former Mr Universe and actor becoming governor of California.

The Great British Poker Tour stopped off at Nottingham last weekend and mobsters Barny Boatman and Joe Beevers made the journey up to play in the two day main event. Despite acquiring big stacks early on, both players bust out at the end of the first day just short of the money, leaving twelve players to cash on the Sunday. Eventual winner Stephen Holden had actually won his seat by also taking first place in the £200 event on the Friday, and his impressive double win netted him around £30,000. Next up on the GBPT tour is a visit to Bournemouth in June and with one hour levels and 10,000 chip starting stacks it might serve as a handy warm tournament up to any Brits going to play the main event at the WSOP.

Post your comments in our forum

What's this?