The folks at online poker room Paddy Power Poker are the sponsors of the upcoming European poker festival, the Irish Poker Open, taking place in Dublin over Easter of next year. The site has sent out announcements about their schedule of side games taking place in addition to the three million Euro guaranteed main event, and included on the list is the first ever Ladies Only poker tournament to be played at the Irish Poker Open. This event will be women only, giving the ladies a chance to play without the pressure of having to "beat the guys" at what has long been considered their own game.
Source: Launchpoker.com
donderdag 15 november 2007
The Magician in the World of Poker Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio Esfandiari has earned himself the nickname of The Magician in the world of poker playing professionals. Antonio Esfandiari was born in Iran in 1978 and later moved to California at the age of nine with his family. When Antonio was a teenager, he had a job as a waiter. While Antonio Esfandiari work, the bartender working at the same restaurant where Antonio was employed, introduced him to card tricks. Antonio fell in love with stage magic and began teaching himself tricks. Once he became proficiently skilled, Antonio Esfandiari began to host private parties where he provided magic tricks as entertainment. The former magician, Antonio Esfandiari attended a poker game after an extended invitation. Once he played Texas Holdem, Antonio Esfandiari’s path was set. You to can set your path to poker greatness by starting at Ultimatebet.com .
Antonio Esfandiari studied poker with as much enthusiasm as he studied stage magic. In very little time, Antonio developed enough skills to start bringing home some winnings at the tables. Of course, not every game has proved entirely fruitful for this enthusiastic card player – Antonio has lost a significant amount of cash in more than one game. Antonio Esfandiari has had a total of four money finishes in the World Series of Poker and one World Series of Poker tournament earned him his gold WSOP bracelet. The year 2004 was a significantly successful year for Antonio Esfandiari were he won more than a million dollars at the Commerce Casino. To date, Antonio Esfandiari has managed to win more than 2.5 million dollars in cash.
Source: Points-spreads.com
Antonio Esfandiari studied poker with as much enthusiasm as he studied stage magic. In very little time, Antonio developed enough skills to start bringing home some winnings at the tables. Of course, not every game has proved entirely fruitful for this enthusiastic card player – Antonio has lost a significant amount of cash in more than one game. Antonio Esfandiari has had a total of four money finishes in the World Series of Poker and one World Series of Poker tournament earned him his gold WSOP bracelet. The year 2004 was a significantly successful year for Antonio Esfandiari were he won more than a million dollars at the Commerce Casino. To date, Antonio Esfandiari has managed to win more than 2.5 million dollars in cash.
Source: Points-spreads.com
G2E: Shuffle Master's Five Card Omaha Poker
I'm still here at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas, and I just came across Shuffle Master's (Nasdaq: SHFL) Five Card Omaha Poker.
The product may very well be the stepping stone to the table game to end all carnival table games ... yet it will probably end up being the most overlooked product of the entire show.
Now, as I'm sure you are aware, poker-based table games -- particularly those based on Texas Hold 'Em -- have done exceptionally well in recent years on the strength of the poker boom.
Of course, you can only have so many hold 'em games, and Shuffle Master has two successful ones: Ultimate Texas Hold'em and Texas Hold'em Bonus. The latter was recently acquired from Progressive Gaming (Nasdaq: PGIC). However, Shuffle Master has even unveiled more poker table games, including Three Card Draw Poker, Four Card Draw Poker, and Five Card Omaha Poker.
Shuffle Master's appeal
One of the things that all three games have going for them is that they're easy to learn, as the three games are essentially variations of existing games. The draw games are identical to the highly successful Three Card Poker and Four Card Poker games, except that you drop a card and receive a new one in its place. Five Card Omaha is a variation of the Ultimate Texas Hold'em game with an identical betting structure.
But the real key to these games is that they appeal to the casual nickel-and-dime gambler for the same reason that people use wild cards in their home poker games: People like big hands and multiway prospects for bigger hands. Moreover, the anticipation is a big part of the appeal of gambling.
For example, in Four Card Draw Poker, where the object is to make the best four-card hand out of five cards, instead of just getting dealt five cards (as in Four Card Poker) and that's it, you get dealt five cards and get to drop one and receive another one in its place. In contrast, in standard Four Card Poker you would just have the bare pair whatever you got dealt the first time.
Clearly, Four Card Draw Poker is a bit more exciting, which brings us to Omaha.
Omaha
In real-life poker, Omaha is not actually a new game -- it's been around for maybe a few decades. But basically, Omaha is identical to hold 'em except that every player gets dealt four cards and must play two cards from his or her hand and three cards from the board. We end up with some interesting new possibilities, a situation that would be impossible in regular hold 'em. With these possibilities, you can get an idea of what the attraction to Omaha is.
Stepping stone
Now, the reason I said that Five Card Omaha may be a "stepping stone" rather than the actual end game is that in Shuffle Master's version, you only get three total board cards -- a two-card flop and one more "river" card -- rather than the normal three-card flop, turn, and river.
The truth is that hold 'em appeals to tourists because it's easy to learn and it makes for good TV. It's not really a coincidence that the regular Omaha Hi/Lo games on the Strip -- Wynn Resorts' (Nasdaq: WYNN) Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Mirage's (NYSE: MGM) Bellagio, and The Mirage -- consist almost entirely of locals: People who play a lot of poker more naturally find their way to Omaha games. But as the new generation of poker players continues to mature and more and more players start to look beyond hold 'em, I believe that Omaha will play out as poker's next big trend.
At this point, Shuffle Master's Five Card Omaha puts the company well ahead of that trend. And when the company (or somebody else) gets around to mimicking the full Omaha game with five board cards rather than three, we might just have the game to end all carnival games.
The product may very well be the stepping stone to the table game to end all carnival table games ... yet it will probably end up being the most overlooked product of the entire show.
Now, as I'm sure you are aware, poker-based table games -- particularly those based on Texas Hold 'Em -- have done exceptionally well in recent years on the strength of the poker boom.
Of course, you can only have so many hold 'em games, and Shuffle Master has two successful ones: Ultimate Texas Hold'em and Texas Hold'em Bonus. The latter was recently acquired from Progressive Gaming (Nasdaq: PGIC). However, Shuffle Master has even unveiled more poker table games, including Three Card Draw Poker, Four Card Draw Poker, and Five Card Omaha Poker.
Shuffle Master's appeal
One of the things that all three games have going for them is that they're easy to learn, as the three games are essentially variations of existing games. The draw games are identical to the highly successful Three Card Poker and Four Card Poker games, except that you drop a card and receive a new one in its place. Five Card Omaha is a variation of the Ultimate Texas Hold'em game with an identical betting structure.
But the real key to these games is that they appeal to the casual nickel-and-dime gambler for the same reason that people use wild cards in their home poker games: People like big hands and multiway prospects for bigger hands. Moreover, the anticipation is a big part of the appeal of gambling.
For example, in Four Card Draw Poker, where the object is to make the best four-card hand out of five cards, instead of just getting dealt five cards (as in Four Card Poker) and that's it, you get dealt five cards and get to drop one and receive another one in its place. In contrast, in standard Four Card Poker you would just have the bare pair whatever you got dealt the first time.
Clearly, Four Card Draw Poker is a bit more exciting, which brings us to Omaha.
Omaha
In real-life poker, Omaha is not actually a new game -- it's been around for maybe a few decades. But basically, Omaha is identical to hold 'em except that every player gets dealt four cards and must play two cards from his or her hand and three cards from the board. We end up with some interesting new possibilities, a situation that would be impossible in regular hold 'em. With these possibilities, you can get an idea of what the attraction to Omaha is.
Stepping stone
Now, the reason I said that Five Card Omaha may be a "stepping stone" rather than the actual end game is that in Shuffle Master's version, you only get three total board cards -- a two-card flop and one more "river" card -- rather than the normal three-card flop, turn, and river.
The truth is that hold 'em appeals to tourists because it's easy to learn and it makes for good TV. It's not really a coincidence that the regular Omaha Hi/Lo games on the Strip -- Wynn Resorts' (Nasdaq: WYNN) Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Mirage's (NYSE: MGM) Bellagio, and The Mirage -- consist almost entirely of locals: People who play a lot of poker more naturally find their way to Omaha games. But as the new generation of poker players continues to mature and more and more players start to look beyond hold 'em, I believe that Omaha will play out as poker's next big trend.
At this point, Shuffle Master's Five Card Omaha puts the company well ahead of that trend. And when the company (or somebody else) gets around to mimicking the full Omaha game with five board cards rather than three, we might just have the game to end all carnival games.
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