August 15 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

A winner was crowned at UKIPT Edinburgh over the weekend. If you were wondering who can add “champion” to their name, we’ve got those results for you. On top of that, we’re going to tell you what Harry Reid and Gary Loveman recently said about online poker legislation. Keep reading for all of the top poker news stories of the day.

In Case You Missed It

Over the weekend, Kristy Arnett went over to the Palms Casino to check out the inaugural Epic Poker League event. She caught up with Matt Savage and some players to get their thoughts on the event for the latest edition of the Sin City Series.

The biggest online poker tournaments of the week are played on Sunday and this week, four players pocketed over $100,000. The Sunday Briefing has the results, including a look at Owen Crowe’s Sunday Warm-Up win.

Last week, NBC aired the second week of Poker After Dark’s $100,000 Cash Game. If you missed it, check out the recap of all the high-stakes action.

The inaugural Epic Poker League Main Event crowned a champion over the weekend. With the event coming to a close, we decided to get players’ reactions and their thoughts on EPL’s future.

UKIPT Edinburgh

Last week, the seventh stop on PokerStars’ UK & Ireland Poker Tour rolled into Edinburgh, Scotland. The £500 + £60 buy-in event attracted 519 players, creating a £251,715 prize pool, breaking the £200,000 guarantee.

Chris Moneymaker made it across the pond to Scotland for the event, and joined Liv Boeree, David Vamplew, Neil Channing, Jesse May, Jude Ainsworth, and JP Kelly on the felts at The Corn Exchange.

Vamplew is the only one of the above who finished in the top 63, taking home a payday. He finished 34th, good for £1,120.

Fintan Gavin bested the field to take home the UKIPT trophy and £61,500 first-place prize. He took on Andrew Hawksby and about two hours into heads-up play, the winner was crowned.

According to the PokerStars Blog, in the final hand, Gavin called a 160,000 raise from Hawksby and the flop fell . Gavin check-raised all-in with and was called by Hawksby with . The turn and river both blanked for Hawksby, eliminating him in second place.

UKIPT Edinburgh Final Table Results

You can find a full report from UKIPT Edinburgh at PokerStarsBlog.com.

Online Poker Legislation

Howard Stutz, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, tweeted over the weekend, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tells R-J staff Internet poker legislation ‘will get done.’ Reid: ‘I-poker ‘will be good for Nevada.’”

In addition to this, the Financial Times spoke with Gary Loveman, chief executive of Caesars Entertainment.

“The authorities cracked down on the illegal offshore providers, but that’s left a vacuum for people like us to be able to legally offer this service.

“I do believe there is a will in Congress to correct this …. we ought to clean up the regulatory and policing environment and that’s what we’re seeking.

“First, it creates the appropriate legal and enforcement environment where the game is being provided fairly by regulated entities that are known to the American authorities.

“Second, there’s a lot of job creation associated with this; we could provide thousands of American jobs if given the right to do so and there [also] would be the benefit of tax revenues,” Loveman told FT.com.

The Financial Times has a video interview with Loveman at FT.com.

Bad Beat on Hunger

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City teamed up with Cabot Creamery Cooperative to host the “Put a Bad Beat on Hunger” charity poker tournament. The event benefits the Community FoodBank in New Jersey.

The $260 + $40 buy-in event, hosted by Bernard Lee, kicks off on August 21 with the goal of raising funds and generating awareness for the FoodBank. Players who are eliminated in the first eight levels of the event are allowed to re-enter. The winner of the event will receive a seat to the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship, which begins Sept. 18.

Find tournament details at TheBorgata.com.

Guinness Time

The Delaware Park Poker Room wants to set a Guiness World Record. Sponsored by Red Bull, WIP Sports Radio, and Mobius New Media, the poker room is attempting to hold the longest continuous poker tournament. It gets under way August 20 at noon and is supposed to run for over 36 hours.

The $500 buy-in poker tournament has a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000 and will be broadcast live online. It has a 350-player cap on it, but alternates will be seated as seats become available. The player who outlasts the field will take home at least $24,000. Not too shabby for a bit of sleep deprivation.

Read the press release for more.

Hey Kid!

How long can you keep “kid” in your nickname? Until your 30? 50? Until you quit feeling like a kid? ESPN set out to answer the question, “How long can Kid Poker be Kid Poker?” Find out what Daniel Negreanu himself, Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari, and more had to say about Kid Poker’s nickname.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Wed, 08/10/2011 – 00:42 – PokerPages Staff

Online poker tools are a great way to play over the Internet. Whether you’re just starting out or a professional poker player, read on to find out which tools you should be using to help improve your game and achieve higher winnings.

Hold’em Indicator
This is one of the most established poker odds calculators around. In fact, it’s renowned as being the best on the market. It consists of a wide range of prominent features and is easy to use. As well as being able to collect hand histories efficiently it also lets you see your opponent’s mucked hands.

Poker-Edge
With this poker tool you can access a huge database of online games. Poker Edge is constantly taking in new data and, by allowing you to track your opponent’s stats and game, you can easily increase your chances of winning.

Poker Calculator Pro
This Texas Hold’em odds calculator lets you gain access to player information, stats and odds and outs all in real-time. You can change the settings to suit your style of gaming and it’s a vital addition to cash games and tournaments.

Poker Crusher
Poker Crusher can be used in more than a 100 poker rooms and is capable of tracking over one million hands at once. Players can gain access to a wide range of information in real-time, including stats and detailed analysis, to greatly improve their poker game.

Calculat’em Pro
This poker tool is considered one of the most advanced poker odds calculators to be found on the internet. Developed by Texas Calculat’em, it’s used by more then 25,000 players and provides a number of great features, for example it shows the odds calculations for pots, your hand odds and outs as well as a wide range of betting tips.

Wed, 08/03/2011 – 01:44 – PokerPages Staff

The internet is an ideal way to play poker.  However, in order to truly appreciate it, you need to find a good poker site.  This can appear a daunting prospect but the following poker information should help you to pick the best one.

Player quantity: As a beginner poker player it is best to choose a less crowded site.  You can learn while you play and increase your chances of winning.  

Tournaments and events offered: As you up your game so then you can then move onto more popular sites that offer more tournaments and events as well as bigger challenges.

Number of betting games provided: The more games offered by a site the better it is.  Leading poker sites will provide you with a wide variety of games in order to appeal to a wide skill set.

Read reviews: Reviews are a great way to figure out the real reputation of a poker betting site.  They also provide poker information on how the sites are set up and the games offered.

Awards and bonuses: Many of the better sites will have a wide range of special offers and incentive schemes. Some will concentrate on providing deposit bonuses, points for entering tournaments or frequent player points and others will offer all three plus additional options for free tournament entries, freeroll competitions and others. As online sites go, PokerStars is hard to beat.

PokerStars.net is a great site to choose in order to try out your poker skills.  If you feel that you need to improve why not learn some essential skills on PokerSchoolOnline?