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Match Poker comes to Israel

The Israeli Poker Union had organized its first-ever legal Match Poker tournament in Israel. The tournament was held in the center of Israel, and 6 teams of 6 players participated in this unique event.

Before the event was carried out, the Israeli Union had send an official letter to the Head of the Israeli Police, stating that the tournament will have no entry fee, and no cash-prizes in the end, which makes the tournament legal according to the Israeli law. The Israeli news-papers quickly posted about the “gamble” of the Israeli Poker Union, little do they know/understand about the difference between gambling & taking well-thought risks.

2 sessions, each combined of 30 Match Poker hands, were played. The Israeli team tried some mixed strategies in the 1st session in order to prepare itself for the Nations Cup Finals, and found itself behind the Women Team in that session, a gap that could not be closed until the end of the competition!

Many Israeli celebrities came to play including comedians, sports reporters and many more. The beer was for free, the environment was very happy & friendly and everybody was extremely excited about this new and promising format of poker.

The tournament was televised and will be broadcasted in the biggest TV channel in Israel, Channel 2 News, alongside with a big story about the Israeli Poker Union and its quest for promoting Poker as a game of skill.

Stas Tishkevich, the head of the Israeli Poker Union seemed very happy during the event, bringing “poker trash talk” to the table, exposing his opponents’ leaks and player types. Stas said that this is only the first tourney, and that there will be many more tournaments to come, among which is Israel’s Woman Championship.

A player from the Stock Exchange Team was quoted saying:

“When I play poker I compete, when I work I gamble on money”.

Hadas Wilf, the female representative of Team Israel said:

“The women team took 1st place because asides from being very good players, we also have a strong & healthy intuition”.

Check out their official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ILPokerIL/

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IF POKER DE ESPANA and MARCA launch a poker league in Spain

IFP’s Spanish member nation, IF Poker de Espana (IFPE), has partnered with Marca to launch a poker league across Spain.

Along with Marca, a Spanish national daily sport newspaper owned by Unidad Editorial, IF Poker de Espana launches the ‘LIGAPOKERMARCA’ or Marca Poker League. This poker league will consist of two phases – the first will be played online and serve as qualifiers with the second phase involving live poker being played in casinos across the country.

The Poker La Liga will have 12 stages of online play held from 7 to 22 April 2014. On qualifying through the online league phase, live events will be held from April 26 to June 1. There will also be a period of online playoffs from April 28 to June 1 for those that missed out on participating the first time.

Qualify via the online events to play live satellites that will lead to the final, to be played at the Casino Gran Madrid on 7 and 8 June, where the top eight ranked fight over the following big prizes:

  • WINNER: Package to the main event of the WORLD SERIES OF POKER (WSOP) 2014.
  • SECOND: Stay and entry to the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona 2014.
  • THIRD: Stay and tickets for three tournaments (including the main event the ESPT) of EPT Poker Festival of Barcelona celebrated after mid August 2014.
  • FOURTH: Stay and tickets for two tournaments (including the ESPT) of EPT Poker Festival of Barcelona 2014 .
  • FIFTH: Stay and entry to the STAR POKER TOUR (ESPT) of Barcelona 2014.
  • SIXTH: Stay and entry to the ESPT of Barcelona 2014.
  • SEVENTH: Entry to the ESPT of Barcelona 2014.
  • EIGHTH: Entry to the ESPT of Barcelona 2014.

Official website of the Poker La Liga – http://poker.marca.com/

 

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EVOLUTION OF BRAZILIAN POKER

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Below is an update from the Confederacao Brasileira de Texas Hold’em (CBTH), IFP’s Brazilian member nation:

The latest year for Brazilian Poker was of great advances, government assistance and support from well-known brands such as SKY TV and DUCATI, hitting new records.

The Brazilian Poker Championship – (Brazilian Series of Poker – BSOP), recognized as the largest and most important series of poker tournaments in Brazil and Latin America, in its 8th season had another year of growth and record players and awards , mirroring the success of the sport in our country.

In Brazil today it is estimated that there are about 4 million people that have some contact with Poker and this volume can be noticedin the final step of the Championship that took place in December 2013.

BSOP Millions (Final Step) had 2400 registered participants for its main event, with a total of 6889 entries in the entire event. With these numbers we had a new Brazilian and Latin American record, also giving BSOP the status of second largest national series of poker tournaments in the world.

In this event we had numerous celebrities participating as Ronaldo “Fenomeno”, and we also had the Minister of Sports in Brazil, the most important member of the government related to the sport in the country, attend the official opening ceremony, supporting, congratulating growth and all the good deeds that sport has generated for the country.

www.cbth.org.br

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APSA president Martin Sturc speaks at Austrian Gaming & Betting Conference

The seventh edition of the conference took place on May 14th & 15th, was hosted by the Institute for International Research and had the entire industry’s big players in attendance.

Poker was discussed alongside topics such as change in legal framework, the government gaming agenda or social media games.

This year marked the first time that the Austrian Pokersport Association (APSA) was invited to the conference and President Martin Sturc took the chance to hold a guest lecture titled Poker: “if in need of luck, you play bad” speaking about pokers right to exist as a sport.

His annotations, accompanied by scientific data, backed up once more the fact that poker is a skill game and should be acknowledged as a mind sport.

In his 25 minutes on stage Martin Sturc also showcased excerpts of his still unpublished master thesis “skill beats luck – the skillfactor in poker”. On the basis of this thesis and game-theory analysis he pointed out weaknesses in the present definition of gambling and presented a new method on how to classify skill games.

It is one mayor objective of the APSA for Poker to be an acknowledged and accepted skill game in Austria. The appearance at the 7th Gaming & Betting Conference was yet another step in the right direction.

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Romanian Poker Federation officially launched!

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FEDERATIA SPORTIVA NATIONALA DE POKER/ROMANIAN NATIONAL SPORTIVE POKER FEDERATION was founded on 09/03/2009.

The Romanian Sportive National Poker Federation has changed its name and is now fully formed and will function from now on as the ROMANIAN POKER FEDERATION.

The court in Bucharest has officially classified the Romanian Poker Federation as a national sports association at the same level as all other national sports governing bodies in Romania.

Poker has also been classified as a sport and game of skill.

The Bucharest court’s decision is final and was issued on 27.11.2013.