Poker News Round-up

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Poker News Round-up: Week #07

By Adam Noone, 15/02/2008

The Gutshot Poker Club was back in court this week to appeal against the previous decision that they were operating illegally by profiting from hosting poker games without a casino license. In January 2007 Derek Kelly was found to be in violation of the 1968 Gaming Act despite his defence that the club should not require a casino license on the grounds that poker is a game of skill. Although the advantage an experienced and skilled poker player has over a novice is obvious, for the purposes of this case the law is quite clear on the matter. The 1968 act states that for a game in which skill and chance are combined, the possibility of superlative skill eliminating the element of chance shall be disregarded and the game is still to be classified as one of chance. For all the value of calculating implied odds etc, the possibility that you are going to get two outed on the river means that there is still a fair element of luck associated with poker. After all the world champion for many years has been someone that most in the poker scene have never previously heard of and can have no real claim to being the best player in the world.

One year on from that decision, the original verdict was upheld as being sound and the future of the Gutshot is once again in the balance. It seems that the Dusk Till Dawn model may have to be the way forward for UK poker clubs in future, although nobody could be blamed for not wanting to go through the ordeal faced by Rob Yong in getting his club open. Which is of course just how the big casino chains want it.

The poker brat

Undecuple WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth is in London at the moment for the Party Poker Premier League but seems unable to do anything right so far. In fairness he has been unlucky (see above) on several occasions, but Hellmuth is not someone who can meet both triumph and disaster quite how Kipling suggests, which is perhaps what led to his hissy fit at The Dorchester. After another unsuccessful day at the tables Hellmuth decided to go for dinner with Annie Duke at the Grill restaurant within the The Dorchester. After being asked to remove his baseball cap, for some reason he refused until the management had him escorted from the premises whereupon photographers waiting outside on the pavement were able to capture the incident on camera. A more cynical view of this episode might be that the whole thing was merely a publicity stunt to promote the new range of clothing and hats he has just released including the very same cap he was wearing when he had his photo taken.

Men Nguyen

In a relatively quiet week for tournament news, Men Nguyen has been tearing it up at the Commerce Casino in the LA Poker Classic. This festival concludes with a $10,000 WPT event but for a whole month prior to that there are preliminary tournaments for smaller buy ins. Nguyen has impressively picked up wins in three events so far - $300 stud, $1500 no limit hold’em and $2500 limit hold’em. The prize money was not huge by today’s standards at around $140,000 for all three combined but is enough to see him move up to eighth place above Jerry Yang on the all time money list.

Meanwhile the two men making big progress up the England all time money list both looked like they might be adding another nice pay day to their record at the European Deepstack Poker Championship in Drogheda. With 140 entrants to the main event the generous structure of the tournament meant that after two full days of play until 5am the money had not yet been reached, but Julian Thew and Joe Beevers were both well placed. Day three did not go so well for Thew who busted just short of the money, and whilst Joe was on the wrong end of a two outer that would have given him the chip lead he did hold his nerve to finish in sixth place. Irishman Dara O’Kearney eventually claimed first place worth €47,200 after a deal was struck between the final five.

Leg two of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour is underway in Walsall and day 1a saw an understandably low turnout as it was Valentine’s Day. Fortunately those in a relationship need not incur the wrath of their partners as there is a day 1b which should prove to be more popular. Full details of the main event will follow next week.

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