Inside Straight -- News

Online Satellites for 40th World Series of Poker Under Way
Thousands of Main-Event Seats Will Be Awarded
By Stephen A. Murphy

Online satellites to the World Series of Poker have begun.

PokerStars has an incredible number of options for players looking to win a seat into the big show. It is running daily satellites at a variety of different levels and formats. It is hosting several rebuy events (at the $2, $3, $8.80, $11, $16, $27, $33, and $55 levels), double-to-triple-to-quadruple shootouts (for $4.40, $11, $16, $24, $55, and $216), and even weekly multitable tournaments for $650.

Players can also win seats to the main event through steps tourneys, in which you move up or down a step based on how you finish in a single-table tournament. There are six steps in all, the most affordable starting at $7.50.
While PokerStars might offer the most options, Full Tilt isn’t far behind. The popular poker site is also offering daily satellites, to the tune of $216 double shootouts with 81 players. Full Tilt will also be hosting a massive 150-seats-guaranteed satellite on June 21 at 6 p.m. EDT for $535. Players can satellite into that tournament for as little as $1.

Full Tilt will once again offer its enticing incentive to try to win a seat on its site — an additional $10 million to any online qualifier who wins the main event.

Full Tilt will host five regular weekly cash qualifiers for the main event — including a $322 satellite on Monday at 9 p.m. EDT (two seats guaranteed), a $216 satellite on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. EDT (one seat guaranteed), a $1,060 satellite on Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT (five seats guaranteed), a $322 satellite on Saturday at 9 p.m. EDT (two seats guaranteed), and a $535 satellite on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. EDT (two seats guaranteed).

Full Tilt will also be giving away an astounding 100 seats to freeroll winners. Freerolls are running all day, every day.

Both the PokerStars and Full Tilt main-event prize packages are worth $12,000. However, Full Tilt is also running special satellites into the World Series “Stimulus Special” event, and providing $2,000 prize packages that can be used for any of the WSOP smaller buy-in events.

Bodog has been running a series of tournaments with guaranteed entries into the main event through its Flight Club online qualifier tournaments.
Main-event seats will be awarded to the winners of semifinal qualifying tournaments on May 17, May 31, and June 14 (with four seats guaranteed in each). Those tournaments cost $270 to enter, but players can qualify for them for as little as $1. Other satellites are offered for $1.50, $5.50, $15, $29, and $56.

While most sites will give you just a main-event seat and money to get to Las Vegas, DoylesRoom is offering a more desirable $13,000 package, which, besides the $10,000 seat and $3,000 in spending money, includes dinner with Doyle Brunson himself and other Team Brunson VIPs. Qualifiers will also receive strategy sessions with Brunson and the pros, as well as autographed books and gear.

DoylesRoom and Cake Poker, both part of the Cake Poker network, are running satellites into the main event every Sunday at 4 p.m. EDT for $455. Players can win entry into that satellite through $22 or $5.50 rebuy events, a $75 Sunday tournament, a steps series, or even with their Gold Chips.

The network will also be offering $2,500 prize packages for event No. 54 — the last $1,500 event of the Series (with $1,000 in spending money). Those seats can be won via $22 rebuy events, on either Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. EDT or Saturday at 5 p.m. EDT.

Full Tilt isn’t the only site offering extra cash to its qualifiers if they do the unthinkable and win the main event. UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, both part of the Cereus network, will pay $10 million to any online qualifier from their sites who takes down the grand prize.

Qualifiers are running every day on the Cereus network in the form of steps tourneys. Players can begin at Step 1 for as little as 10 cents and climb the ladder all the way to a main-event seat. The Cereus network will also run a weekly $530 event on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. EDT with at least one guaranteed prize package worth $12,000.

There will also be several rebuy tournaments on both sites for players looking to access the $530 tourney on the cheap.

Florida Debates Possibility of High-Stakes Poker
Current Laws Restrict Maximum Buy-in to $100
By Stephen A. Murphy

Another year, another attempt to change Florida’s ever-evolving poker laws.

With just weeks remaining in the state’s legislative session, the Florida Senate has been pushing hard to expand gaming laws in an effort to generate additional revenue. With a $3 billion budget deficit in the state, some Florida legislators believe that a relaxation on the Sunshine State’s gambling laws could produce a wealth of new revenue that could be used for education.

Although estimates vary widely because it is impossible to determine just how popular gaming would become in the state if Florida changes its gambling laws, economists believe a new bill proposed in the Senate could bring in anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion in additional state revenue annually. In 2007, the state’s Indian casinos generated $1.6 billion in revenue, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Poker, specifically, could see a major transformation if these talks result in new laws. Currently, the maximum buy-in for all no-limit hold’em cash games in the state is $100, and the maximum bet in any limit game is restricted to $5. Tournament buy-ins can be in the hundreds of dollars, but not much beyond that. The Senate bill would remove these caps to allow for high-stakes action.

Poker is just one small part of the Senate’s new plan on gaming. The chamber also wants to allow the Seminole tribe to offer a host of other games, including roulette and craps, to generate additional state revenue. The Seminole tribe is the largest of any Florida tribe authorized to conduct gaming, operating seven casinos in the state.

The Florida House, however, wants no part of the Senate bill. While both chambers in the state are Republican-led, the House has a different plan when it comes to gaming.

“There is absolutely no chance, whatsoever, that the Senate bill will pass [in the House],” Democratic state Sen. Steve Geller told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently.

Although the more conservative House has been hesitant in the past to expand gaming in any form, the chamber has produced its own gaming bill that would also represent progress in the state’s poker laws, albeit much milder in scope. In the House bill, the maximum buy-in for no-limit hold’em cash games would be raised from $100 to $1,000, and the maximum limit bet would be raised from $5 to $50.

The poker discrepancies in the two versions of the bill, while not insignificant, are not the major stumbling blocks when it comes to forming a compromise on gaming legislation. At the heart of the issue is the state’s 2007 gambling deal with the Seminoles, which gave the tribe the ability to offer blackjack.

While the Senate’s current bill wants to further expand gaming in the Seminole casinos for a price — reportedly an additional $400 million a year — the House bill instead looks to reduce the tax rates for local horse tracks and casinos while expanding the hours of operation for poker rooms there from 12 hours a day to 24 hours a day. Currently, only Seminole poker rooms are allowed to be open 24 hours a day.

The House plan would raise much less for education — between $140 million and $260 million — compared to the Senate bill, which also includes an expansion of gaming for the tracks.

This would not be the first time that poker laws were adjusted in Florida. The current $100 max buy-in for no-limit games was established in 2007. This came after 2003 legislation, which allowed a maximum bet of $2 per betting round, replacing a 1996 law that allowed poker in Florida, provided the pot didn’t exceed $10.

Schedule Set for 2009 World Series of Poker Europe
£2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha Mixed Event Added
By Stephen A. Murphy

Harrah’s Entertainment and the World Series of Poker Europe announced the schedule for the 2009 WSOPE recently. The tournament series will feature four bracelet events, Sept. 18-Oct. 1.

The schedule for the 2009 WSOPE is as follows:

The pot-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha mixed event is new this year.
The WSOPE, presented by Betfair, will take place at the Casino at the Empire in the middle of Leicester Square in London.

“The World Series of Poker Europe has quickly established itself as the most prestigious tournament outside the United States,” said WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. “Winning a gold bracelet is recognized globally as the top prize in the sport, and we look forward to awarding four more bracelets in 2009 at the Casino at the Empire in London.”

The main event of the WSOPE has seen its share of thrills in its first two years. Annette Obrestad, at just 18 years of age, won the inaugural event in 2007, and John Juanda overcame a stacked final table last year that included Daniel Negreanu, Scott Fischman, and Ivan Demidov.

The inaugural Series in 2007 awarded three bracelets, while last year’s WSOPE also featured four tournaments.

Players can register for the WSOPE at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, or at any London Clubs International venue in the UK.