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Florida's Recent Poker Casino Expansion Worries MississippiWed, Apr 2nd, 2008 @ 12:00am Seminole casino expansion and recent bills expanding poker and greyhound racetracks that won approval from a Florida Senate committee Tuesday are causing Gulf Coast neighbor Mississippi to consider competitive measures and tax breaks for casinos in order to retain Florida gamblers that represented nearly a quarter of the casino's visitors during 2007. Last November, Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed a gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida giving the tribe the right to operate gaming facilities at seven locations across Florida, and to hold six no-limit poker tournaments per year. The tribe will pay the state at least $2.5 billion over the next 25 years as a share of the revenue (click here for related article). FLORIDA'S POKER EXPANSION BILL This week, Florida's poker expansion bill, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, passed the Florida Senate committee with an 8-2 vote. It paves the way for high-stakes and celebrity tournaments at parimutuels. It would also expand gaming to 18 hours a day on weekdays and 24 hours a day on weekends, reports the Miami Herald. Current law allows card rooms to operate for no more than 12 hours a day. The bill would also allow parimutuels to host and broadcast celebrity or charity poker tournaments like the ones that have become television mainstays in recent years. They could also have high-stakes tournaments in which up to 1,000 players each pay up to $10,000 in entry fees. ''You have tournaments that are spread across the world, in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, but currently those tournaments are illegal in Florida,'' said Geller, a Hallandale Beach Democrat. "We think this is a great way of generating free publicity for the state.'' The high-stakes tournaments would be allowed twice a year, and the charity or celebrity tournaments would be allowed six times a year under Geller's bill. The legislation requires parimutuel facilities to give at least 70 percent of proceeds from the celebrity events to qualified charities. The Senate Regulated Industries Committee voted 8-2 in favor of the bill, but Geller knows it's still an uphill battle. He unsuccessfullly tried to pass similar legislation about expanding card room hours last year but the measure failed in the House. This year's bill faces two more committees before coming up for a full Senate vote. A House companion has not yet been heard by any panels in that chamber. MISSISSIPPI'S CONTINGENCY MEASURES Floridians represented 21.2 percent of visitors to Mississippi's 29 casinos in 2007, according to a memo issued by the Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review. And if half the Florida market decides to stay in that state to gamble at expanded casinos and poker tournaments, Mississippi could lose $254 million in gaming and tax revenue and 3,191 direct jobs, the memo notes. More conservative numbers show that if 25 percent of the Florida market is lost, Mississippi could lose $75.7 million in gaming and tax revenue and 1,595 direct jobs. PEER Executive Director Max Arinder told the Clarion Ledger that his staff used information from the state Gaming Commission, the gaming industry and the state of Florida to form a "best guess" of the potential impact. He said Mississippi "would be wise to do a little contingency planning." "I don't think anybody's saying the sky's falling, but we certainly want to be aware," he said. "These will be very attractive venues, very competitive. Anytime you create a choice (for customers), there's the potential for loss." So some Mississippi lawmakers are pushing a bill that would give tax breaks for casinos that want to build tourist attractions to woo non-gamers to the state. House Bill 1196 proposes to allow Mississippi casinos to "diversify in other areas of the state," said House Tourism Committee Chairwoman Diane Peranich, D-Pass Christian. As an example, she cited a Tunica casino that wants to invest in a public-private project to build a sports arena. The bill would allow tax breaks for casino companies that invest at least $10 million in non-gaming attractions such as theme and water parks, motor speedways and museums. The bill would also offer incentives to high-end hotel and golf course projects. She warned that legislation similar to the tax-break bill has failed repeatedly in the past. Peranich said the bill will likely head to negotiations between House and Senate leaders. Read Related Article:
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World Series of Poker: Ante Up for Africa The Ante Up for Africa Charity Tournament is one of the biggest poker charity events of the year. This charity tournament supports the refugees from the Sudan region of Darfur. After nine hours of play, Alexander (Alex) Bolotin was crowned the champion of the Ante Up for Africa tournament and won $177,730 for his first place finish.
World Series of Poker Event 56: Matt Hawrilenko Takes Down Bracelet and $1 Million The $5,000 Six Handed No Limit Hold'em event was the last event to be held at the World Series of Poker 2009 before the famous Main Event starts. Event number 56 saw 928 players register for their chance to win the last bracelet to be offered this summer. The next bracelet of the Series will not be awarded until November when the Main Event final table wraps up. Adding to the excitement of this event, there was a total prize pool of over $4.3 million, and the winner of the event was guaranteed to come out a millionaire.
World Series of Poker Event 54: Tony Veckey Wins Event 54 sold out in a hurry as 2,818 people gobbled up all of the seats for the last low buy-in No Limit Hold''m tournament of the World Series of Poker. This was a new event added to satisfy the enormous public demand for this level of event. $1,500 from each of the entrants produced a prize pool of $3,846,570, with payouts down to 297.
World Series of Poker Event 52: German Jorg Peisert Wins Jorg Peisert from Dusseldorf, Germany won the inaugural Triple Chance No Limit Hold'em event at this year's World Series of Poker. Peisert outlasted 853 other players who put up $3000 to play in this No Limit Hold'em event. The total prize pool was $2,357,040 and 81 players took home a cut. 81st place took home $5,892, but the lion's share, $506,800, went to Peisert. On the final day, Peisert started in 6th chip position and worked his way up to a chip juggernaut, eliminating players and collecting chips along the way. Notable players who cashed in this tournament include, Eric 'Rizen' Lynch (12th), An 'The Boss' Tran, Mike 'The Mad Genius of Poker' Caro (23rd), and Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari (24th).
World Series of Poker Event 53: New Orleans Resident David Halpern Wins David Halpern from New Orleans, LA won the $1500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or Better Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Halpern outlasted 467 other players to win $159,048 for winning the tournament. Halpern has already cashed once this year (Pot Limit Omaha), but this is his first WSOP bracelet. The $657,455 prize pool was spread out amongst 48 players who cashed. Halpern battled William Kohler for over three hour heads-up. Battled is a strong word, as both players seemed enamored of each other and even went to dinner together during the break. They traded the chip lead back and forth until Kohler seized it for good. Other notable players who cashed includes Chad Brown (4th), Matt Savage (5th), Andy Bloch (23rd), and Norman Chad (32rd).
World Series of Poker event 49: David Bach Wins $50K HORSE Event The 2009 $50,000 HORSE event attracted 95 of the world's best poker players. The number of entrants decreased from the previous year which attracted 148 entrants. As play began, player's speculated as to the reason why the numbers decreased so dramatically. Was it the economy? Was it Scotty Nguyen's drunken tirade last year? Many believed that it was ESPN's unfortunate decision to not televise this year's final table. Even though the field decreased, the players still had a full five days of play. 87 players would be eliminated on the way to a star studded final table. After 20 hours of play, David Bach was proclaimed the winner of the 2009 $50,000 HORSE event. He took home the bracelet, the Chip Reese Memorial trophy, and the $1,276,806 first place prize.
World Series of Poker Event 55: Abe Mosseri Wins First WSOP Bracelet Abraham Mosseri from New York City won the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Lowball (Limit) event at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Mosseri outlasted 257 other players to win $165,513 and the accompanying gold bracelet. This is Mosseri's first WSOP bracelet and third cash. This was his 2nd final table of this year's Series. Mosseri and others amassed a prize pool of $593,400. Only 24 players got a piece of it though. Mosseri ended Day 1 in 13th place with 39,100 in chips. By the end of Day 2, Mosseri was the chip leader with 447,000. Mosseri maintained his chip lead through most of the day. It would come down to him and Masayoshi Tanaka, who started the day with second most chips. Tanaka had the lead as heads up began, but it was meant to be for Mosseri who played aggressively and caught cards at the right time to eventually eliminate Tanaka. Notables at today's final table included three time bracelet winner John Juanda (4th), Blair Rodman (5th) and Nam Le (9th). Daniel Negreanu cashed in 16th and Hasan Habib finished in 18th.
World Series of Poker Event 51: Carsten Joh Wins Sold Out NLHE Event Carsten Joh defeated a sellout crowd to win his first bracelet in the penultimate $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event of 2009. Joh beat Andrew Chen heads up to bring home Germany's first bracelet of the Series. The event began with a largely amateur crowd, and the big names that made it to Day 2 quickly found themselves on the sidelines. Men Nguyen, Tony Cousineau, and Matt Brady outlasted most of the field but failed to make it to Day 3.
World Series of Poker Event 50: Greg 'FBT' Mueller Wins 2nd '09 Bracelet The $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout should put to rest any questions about the skill required to play Limit. By the time the event was down to two players, it was a heads up match between the owners of the last two Limit bracelets awarded at the WSOP. Greg 'FBT' Mueller defeated Marc Naalden to win his second bracelet of the year, making him the fourth person to claim more than one in 2009. Naalden now has 1st and 2nd place finishes in Limit tournaments this year. He also cashed in a Mixed Hold'em event.
World Series of Poker Event 48: Brandon 'any2cantu' Cantu Wins After finishing runner-up at a final table a week ago, Brandon Cantu got a second chance to win a second bracelet in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Split event. This time, Cantu closed the deal in a tough heads up match with Lee Watkinson and picked up the WSOP gold. Brandon 'any2cantu', known for his creative and sometimes loose style of play, was as shocked as everyone else when he turned over Aces more than ten times on Day 2. "This is the hottest streak I've ever been on in my life," he told Phil Hellmuth, who was eliminated in 14th place. By the time the field was narrowed to 25 players, Brandon had nearly 25% of the chips in play. |
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