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SPORTACCORD MEMBERSHIP IS PRIORITY

In an interview with insidethegames, President of the International Federation of Poker Anthony Holden outlined IFP’s plans to formally seek membership of SportAccord. Holden was speaking at the SportAccord Convention in Québec City earlier this month, where the chiefs of world sport were gathered.

Describing membership of SportAccord as “our first goal”, Holden went on to say that a formal application will be made in the coming months.”We are hoping and planning to apply for St Petersburg next year,” he said. “We came this year to make our case to people.”

As the article details there was some cause for optimism. Holden found those he was speaking to in Quebec were themselves poker players, part of the 300 million players worldwide that make poker the world’s second most popular sport behind football.

Thanks to the efforts of the IFP, poker is already a provisional member of the International Mind Sport Association (IMSA), a ground breaking step for poker which has for years struggled with the outdated image of smoke-filled back rooms and gambling.

“We adhere to our view that it is a mind sport of strategic skill,” said Holden. “No IFP event will have anything to do with money; it is just for the love of the game. Tens of millions of people out there love playing poker just for poker. There are plenty of people who love playing it for money as well but our demographic is people in it for the love of the game.”

While discussion with SportAccord will come in 2013, the next highlight on the IFP calendar will be the second IFP World Championships in London, with details of the event to take place to be released soon.

Read the full article on the insidethegames website.

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OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM AT PPA MEETING

The Poker Players Alliance staged a Town Hall meeting at the Rio hotel last weekend, updating members and players of the current status of online poker across the United States.

Among those addressing the audience was Congressman Joe Barton (R-Texas), a sponsor of H.R.2366, the Bill considered to be the best hope for a change to the law on a federal level.Known as the Online Poker Act, the Bill could, in Barton’s words, pass very quickly or not at all, such is the unpredictability of the political system.
“It’s all about timing in Washington,” said Barton. “We have the bill in place. It’s just a matter of getting it on the agenda by July. It’s imperative we do that.”

The July deadline is crucial, otherwise various obstacles will appear, not least a Presidential election in November.

Despite obvious impediments the PPA remains the most effective lobby group for players in the US, gradually turning the political tide in favour of their aims. Executive Director of the PPA John Pappas was optimistic about the organisation’s progress.

“Back in 2006 when Black Friday occurred, the vote was a 3-to-1 margin against,” said Pappas. “In the five to six years we’ve pushed for this bill, we have come close to reversing that opinion. It may not be a 3-to-1 ratio, but we have more than enough votes to get it passed.”

Despite glimmers of hope, including the steps taken in Nevada and Delaware, many attendees were still angered by the status quo.

“This is prohibition all over again,” said one member of the audience. “It’s just so stupid not to be allowed to play poker online in the privacy of your home. I’m just plain sick of the way our government is run.”

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HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS BENEFIT FROM POKER AS A MIND SPORT

Poker can prove an invaluable learning tool was the sentiment raised in an article in the Wall Street Journal this week, which detailed the experience of a Lower East Side high school in Manhattan which stages a weekly poker tournament, one that has since impressed both education staff and poker advocates across the country.

As the article by Sophia Hollander reports, the Henry Street School for International Studies holds a weekly poker club for students, held in the office of the school guidance counsellor. The rules are simple: No cursing. No money exchanged. No innuendo.The club was founded in 2007 by Maurice Engler, a former guidance counsellor. Engler intended the club to reach out to children using math and psychology and create a network of teams, not unlike those that exist for chess.

So far the Henry Street team’s ten members are the only sanctioned high school poker club in New York, but they have become a team of skilled players.

In 2008 the team travelled to Harvard to compete against (and beat) the Law School. In 2011 they were invited to play the Oxford Cup in the United Kingdom, but were unable to raise funds in time.

One poker advocate who found inspiration from the school is Amy Handelsman, Executive Director of the United States Poker Federation as well as the US Mind Sport Association, whose aim is to steer connotations of poker away from stereotypical connotations, towards its’ more accurate Mind Sport status.

“Poker has been lumped in with some nefarious behaviour because of the way it’s been played,” said Handelsman, speaking to the WSJ.

“But if you take money out of it and look at it on a skill level, what makes somebody a good poker player we think can translate to other areas of cognitive learning.”

The school’s principle Eric McMahon was won over by the effects the weekly games were having on her pupils, and was not the only one to find encouragement from the club.

Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson, whose team was on the losing end of the match against Henry Street High School, and who is planning to teach a class that combined poker training with case law, was also full of praise.

“Poker’s all about who your adversary is and how much of your credibility you risk,” said Nesson, who gave the keynote speech at the 2011 International Federation of Poker Congress. “The metaphors of poker are vibrant in the context of legal adversarial action.”

Read the full article on the Wall Street Journal website.

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IFP CELEBRATES ITS THIRD YEAR ANNIVERSARY

With the work of IFP gaining momentum in leaps and bounds, with new initiatives and progress being made almost on a daily basis, it’s sometimes easy to miss the landmarks worth celebrating, like that of yesterday, when the International Federation of Poker celebrated its third year anniversary, following its formation in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2009.

_MG_9762From 12 original members, IFP is now an organisation of more than 40 national federations, led by President Anthony Holden who has been instrumental in IFPs formation, as well as in creating the first IFP World Championships, played in London in 2011.So much has been achieved already but it’s what we have to look forward to that excites us most.In the coming months they’ll be a new look website. Not only that but soon you will be able to sign up for IFP membership and take advantage of a broad range of benefits aimed at dramatically enhancing your poker playing experience. Most significantly, IFP membership will allow you the chance to qualify for events, such as the 2012 The Table and the Nations Cup, played using Duplicate Poker.

Those familiar with IFPs work will know that duplicate poker, a form of the game in which players at different tables each receive the same cards, is a poker variant that dramatically reduces the element of variance in poker, leaving room for more skill.

IFP is collaborating with the Computer Poker Research Group at the University of Alberta, looking into variants of duplicate poker and exploring the notion of Duplicate Poker Ratings, something which could give members a true measure of a player’s poker skill.

In addition IFP membership will include a ranking system that will use a unique formula that will enable you to compare your progress alongside everyone family and friends, as well as other members across the world.

The IFP is also developing ideas to host duplicate poker online, incorporating the use of Artificial Intelligence, and is in the process of building state-of-the-art poker training tools for all IFP members to enjoy.

Finally, we’d like to thank everyone who sent messages this weekend supporting the work of the IFP, which were gratefully received. IFPs online community grows day by day. We hope you’ll agree that after three great years there is much more to come and we look forward to having you on board as we reach our fourth birthday.

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AMARILLO SLIM PRESTON DIES AGED 83

News spread across the poker world at the weekend that “Amarillo Slim” Preston had died after a long illness, at the age of 83.

Born Thomas Austin Preston Jr, “Amarillo Slim” was one of the early pioneers of the game, long before the internet turned the game into a mainstream activity.Excelling in cash games across the United States, Preston, who was rarely seen without his Stetson and ostrich skin boots, won the World Series of Poker in 1972 and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992, two years after winning his fourth bracelet.

Preston had been unwell for some time and lately had been in a hospice. The Preston’s family released a statement yesterday that was posted on the World Series of Poker website.

“We hope everyone will remember our beloved Amarillo Slim for all the positive things he did for poker and to popularize his favourite game, Texas Hold’em,” the family said.

As the Las Vegas Review Journal reported, Preston had faced a rocky last few years.

“In August 2003, a Texas grand jury indicted Preston on multiple counts of indecency with a child. The felony charges were later dropped, but Preston eventually agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanour assault charges to protect his family, he claimed, and avoid the embarrassment of a public trial.”

Years later Preston told author Nolan Dalla that the charges had split the family, but that they had since been re-united.

“Yes, that was right at one time,” Preston told Dalla. “But that’s not true anymore. All of them have since written letters about these charges saying it was a big mistake and the sexual abuse never happened.”

Dalla himself commented:

“While other less deserving poker players got rich and famous in recent years, Slim missed the poker boom entirely.”

Read the full article on the Las Vegas Review Journal website.