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The 2008 World Series of Poker is officially the largest and richest in the event’s 39-year history. Tournament officials just released final figures for the 55-event, 47-day poker extravaganza held annually each summer in Las Vegas. Both total player entries (58,720) and payouts ($180,676,248) reached all-time highs, as did the number of countries and territories represented by the participants (118 different nationalities).

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LAS VEGAS – The movement to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act(UIGEA) and create a regulated online gambling industry suffered a setback last month when a bill that would have prevented UIGEA regulations from being implemented until the definition of illegal Internet gambling was clarified, failed to pass a House Financial Services Committee vote.

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American flags bobbed in the sea of sunglasses and green felt at the World Series of Poker’s main event Friday. Independence Day brought fans and players sporting their country’s colors, and a few mused on whether poker is a quintessentially American game.

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Stetson-wearing Las Vegas pros who like his belief in the freedom to gamble are putting their chips on Mr Obama, who is himself a skilled player of Texas Hold’Em and Seven Card Stud.

Doyle Brunson, America’s greatest living player and formerly a life-long Republican, has come out for Obama.

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The State Doesn’t Even Have a Law Against ‘Gambling’ on the Books

Old and archaic can be used to describe most state laws pertaining to the game of poker in the United States, and Massachusetts is no different. Massachusetts is the second state to go under CardPlayer.com’s home-poker legal examination, and Patrick Fleming — New Hampshire attorney, poker rights advocate, state director of the Poker Players Alliance, and the frontman and lead organizer for the PPA’s litigation network — put it this way when opening the conversation about Massachusetts:

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EDMONTON – A computer created by a group of U of A programmers changed the face of poker on Sunday night, when it defeated some of the best players in the world.

In the second man-versus-machine competition held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas over the weekend, Polaris II narrowly defeated seven players from the online poker training site stoxpoker.com.

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It’s always an honor to give the “Shuffle Up and Deal” command at the World Series of Poker. It’s a right that is usually reserved for a past champion or a dignitary of an enormous caliber. On Sunday, which was Day 1D of the 2008 WSOP Main Event, six-time Democratic Congressman from Florida Robert Wexler spoke the traditional words. Wexler was at the Rio in Las Vegas in conjunction with the Poker Players Alliance, the leading lobbying group for the online poker industry in the United States.

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H.R. 5767 Dies in Committee

A bill that would have forced Federal officials to decide if online poker should be considered gambling failed to make it past the House Financial Services Committee in June. Instead, Barney Frank and Ron Paul’s H.R. 5767 “Payment Systems Protection Act,” which would have stopped the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) until the federal government defined exactly what constitutes online gambling, was met with a 32-32 vote that broke along party lines, with a few notable exceptions.

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It may not be Las Vegas, but Texas Hold’em fans can be high rollers right here in Lawrence every Wednesday and Sunday nights at The Pool Room, 925 Iowa St.

Lawrence-based entertainment company, Poker Pub Inc., hosts no limit Texas Hold’Em tournaments at local bars around the region for anyone to play. With no entry fee and no pre-registration, anyone from those as experienced as two-time World Series of Poker Champion Doyle Brunson to someone who doesn’t know their “pocket rockets” can sit down to play at the same table.

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