joe

THE SKILL OF THE IRISH

Irish Flag SmallDublin is the centre of the poker world this week as the Irish Poker Open gets underway at the Burlington Hotel in the Irish capital, one of the premier events on the European Poker Calendar.

There is something about Ireland that links it to poker’s history, an unswerving appeal that ensures this week’s field of hundreds will boast players from Ireland, the UK, Europe, North America and beyond.

Various books about poker have elegantly linked Ireland to our great game, with Irish players being among the first foreign raiders to take on the home town Las Vegas crowd at the World Series of Poker, and in 1999 Noel Furlong became the first of them to win the main event.

Now, despite poker initially turning its back on Ireland with an absence of European Poker Tour events, the country remains a hotbed for poker talent with two legs of the United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour practically sold out each year, and the WPT in Dublin later this year.

All of whom will likely be taking part in the Irish Open this week, competing for a share of the prize pool which last year was worth nearly €2,000,000 for an event broadcast live on television and won by Niall Smyth.

Check back to the IFP news section for results of the event after the final table on Monday.

joe

MONEY TALKS IN CORRIDORS OF POWER

Internet Poker Blog 2mar12The news on poker’s political front dominated this week. First the State government in Iowa was looking at developing online poker for state residents, then California was headed in the same direction, with state senators drawn to the projected injection of hundreds of millions of dollars into the State economy.

It brings up the question as to what approach campaigners, and indeed operators, should take towards changing the online gaming laws, particularly in the United States, still reeling from the events of Black Friday.

The logic argument is frustrating enough. Poker is a skill game, something proven with ease at the tables and off it (as a browse through the IFP library will prove), but it has proven ineffective as a tool to convince non-believers.

But is there a more direct approach to change? Will convincing governments, on a state or national level, come down to money?

Both Iowa and California senators were motivated by increased revenue, with the prohibition of online poker costing millions in a time where revenue is plummeting.

With the major operators currently banned (from processing payments to players, not technically from offering online poker) will the argument be won in the accounts departments, rather than the corridors, of power?

joe

VANESSA SELBST AND THE PROBLEMS OF LUCK

Vanessa Selbst Blog 27feb12

Vanessa Selbst taking part in the Nations Cup last November

The skill versus luck argument, with a little help from Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst…

Selbst was lucky to win her first tournament in 2008, after two years of learning how to be a solid tournament poker player by scoring four cashes (including two final tables) at the World Series of Poker.

Selbst was lucky when, using this experience, she won her first WSOP bracelet in a pot-limit Omaha event, less than six months later.

Selbst was lucky when, just days later, she finished third in the WSOP heads-up championship.

Selbst was lucky when, before the year was out, she’d won the World Poker Finals event in Mashantucket, a tournament she was lucky to win again a year later.

Selbst was lucky when, in 2010, she won the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) main event at the Mohegan Sun, not far from Yale University where she studies law.

Selbst was lucky when, five months later, she flew to the south of France to win the Partouche Poker Tour main event.

Selbst was lucky when, a year later almost to the day, she won the NAPT Mohegan Sun main event again, the first player to win two NAPT main events.

Selbst was lucky when, in December 2011, she came third in the prestigious World Poker Tour Five Diamond Poker Classic.

Selbst was lucky most recently last week, when she won the Los Angeles Poker Classic.

In fact the only way Selbst is unlucky is that, while being one of the best poker players in the world, people still think her game is all about luck.

At the IFP we’re not so sure that “luck” is going to run out.

joe

DANISH PLAYERS LEAD THE WORLD

Danish FlagFrederik Jensen’s win in the PokerStars European Poker Tour main event in Madrid over the weekend was the fifth for Danish players on the tour, a country that has consistently produced some of the best players in the world.

From a population of only five and a half million, Denmark has produced a World Series of Poker Main Event winner, five European Poker Tour winners, five World Poker Tour winners (combining for seven titles) and countless other champions around the world.

Gus Hansen is perhaps the most well-known.

The “Great Dane” won the first ever World Poker Tour event — the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas — before adding the Los Angeles Poker Classic title in the same season. Hansen then added the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure title a year later (then a WPT event) and has since claimed the Aussie Millions to his list of victories, famously writing a book detailing every hand played on his way to the win, appropriately titled, “Every Hand Revealed.”

Joining Hansen on the WPT roll call are the likes of Theo Jorgensen, Caspar Hansen, Christian Grundtvig and Rehne Pederesen, winners of some of poker’s richest prizes, with Sander Lyloff, Peter Jepsen, Allan Baekke, Mickey Petersen and now Frederik Jensen added their names to the list of European champions.

In 2008 Peter Eastgate became the youngest World Series of Poker main event champion in history. Some suggested Eastgate was the new Gus Hansen, something that countryman Jacob Rasmussen replied: “It’s more like Gus Hansen is the first Peter Eastgate.”

Frederik Jensen’s win is just the latest Danish triumph. Read more about the Danish Poker Federation on their website.

joe

THE IFP WEBSITE TWO YEARS ON

Ifp WebsiteA modest but cheerful celebration took place in the offices of the IFP website on Monday, which marked the second anniversary of the IFP website, which first took to cyberspace in April 2010.

Back then IFPs reach was small. Established only a year after the formation of IFP itself in Lausanne, Switzerland, the website was the first port of call for people curious about this new organisation that was beginning to get talked about at the poker tables, headed by Anthony Holden and known as IFP.

Two years later and IFP has reached some significant landmarks.

First came the expansion of IFP membership, which now stands at more than 40. The inaugural IFP World Championships followed in November of last year, where the Nations Cup and The Table, put IFP on the international poker calendar and crowned Spanish pro Raul Mestre the game’s first official World Champion.

Now, two years on from those early days, IFP website has a different look and different format, and reports on a very different organisation now going through its most important period yet; one that will feature great changes across the poker world by the time we celebrate the third anniversary.