Better Concerts and Music

The World Series Of Poker had a second record breaking year and stays the market standard, In 2011, there was a record 75,672 entries in comparison to last year’s record of 72,966. This year is up three.7% of last year. Also, the prize pool set a record in this year with a whooping $191,999,010 dollars compared to last year’s high of $187,109,850. This was a slight increase of 2.6 percent. These numbers cause you to think everything is fine and dandy in the poker world.

By taking a look a little deeper you can see many predictions of the turn out for this year were deeply understated. The fact is they broke records as mentioned above. So Black Friday did not have the results some thought it would. Despite so many players angry after three of the four sites failed to repay them after the government allowed them to do so. Many thought the WSOP buy-ins might be hard to come up with due to the online poker crackdown. We think the predictions are a year early. With sponsorship waning and less rookies playing online poker these days the sharks will not make much cash for buy ins. It could just have not been long enough for the losses to kick in.

The tv part of the tournament has definitely taken a commercial hit. It’s no surprise the people who own these websites are huge sponsors like Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker. If you have been watching the tournament on television you will see their logos are missing on the players. Even the UFC events don’t have these sponsors anymore. If the ratings dip this year they can lose even more sponsors. A good thing is Godaddy signed on this year to be a sponsor and maybe that is a good sign.

The truth is next year is when we should worry. If poker players cant find online poker sites that accept US players, then they could lose interest and take up start hobbies. Even if their desire is to play, but there is no place online, they may get frustrated. Either way the lack of US poker sites is an issue and the fact these players have never had there funds returned to them is another. The atmosphere over the next year can be bad.

So how do we fix it and maintain the the interest in best tournament in the world? That certainly will not be an easy one. Here are a few thoughts. First, if the government is prosecuting the operators of these poker sites criminally, then they should also pursue the funds being returned to the players just as vigorously. The poker players were not breaking any laws and their funds should be returned. Second, there needs to be a law that legalizes online poker at the very least if not all of gambling. The law makers should’nt play politics with the situation. It’s time to get stop the Indian gaming lobby and help players. Until we get US poker sites again the sport is in trouble and so is the tournament.

The Irish Lotto was launched in 1986 to replace another numbers game in the form of the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes. Thanks to the explosion in usage of the World Wide Web, Irish Lotto Tickets are now for sale online all over the world.

Originally created to raise money for good causes (Irish ones, obviously), it has grown from one large draw to multiple daily and weekly prize drawings, scratch tickets, and of course to involvement with the Euromillions Lottery. Irish Lotto Tickets can be purchased to play in the main draw which takes place every Wednesday and Saturday night, with a percentage of the ticket sales going back into the prize pool, and the rest going to good causes such as Irish Heritage and the arts, sports, health and welfare, and public recreational facilities.

Players can fill out their own Irish Lotto Tickets by choosing six numbers from one to forty five, or a quick pick option is also available where their numbers are automatically generated for them. In the lottery itself, seven numbers are drawn. This means that six main numbers and then one bonus will be drawn. If the player chooses all six main numbers in one game, they can win the jackpot prize.

After the top prize category, there follows a number of divisions to distribute prizes. These include different combinations of the main numbers and the extra bonus number. The second prize division will be awarded to the person who can match five of the main numbers and then the bonus number as well. A minimum payment of a set amount will be awarded to the holder of a winning ticket in either of these prize categories, no matter how many tickets have been sold for that draw. A rollover jackpot will also generate higher payouts if no one wins the big prize that week.

The third division is allocated to the person or persons who can match five of the six main numbers, but don’t have the bonus number. The fourth division can be won by matching four main numbers and the bonus number. The fifth division is won with four main numbers. The sixth division is won by matching three main numbers and the bonus number. The seventh and final division is won by matching three of the main numbers only.

When a prize is won in any of these divisions apart from the first and second, it will be paid out as a percentage of the money raised through ticket sales. All prizes will be paid out in one lump sum. A winning ticket in the seventh division will see you getting five Euros non dependant on ticket sales, if you have matched three of the main numbers.

Unfortunately the increasing popularity of internet sales of Irish Lotto Tickets has also let to the evolution of lottery scams, which become more sophisticated and numerous every day. Scammers may send out an email telling consumers that they have won a prize, and in order to release this prize they must pay some fee or commission. The opportunists can quite clever, writing slick and convincing email messages to try and get you to pay the fee for the non existent cash prize that you won by supposedly buying Irish Lotto Tickets without even knowing that you did.

Austria hosted its largest casino poker in Vienna. The name of the event is called EPT Vienna. The event organisers are also going to host online poker tournament not so far away so keep tuned in for that. 587 players participated in the even with 5,300 Euros buy into the event. From this the prize pool of the tournament is 2,935,000 euros or 4,087,868 US dollars, that is a lot of money. The winner of the tournament walked away with 700,000 Euros. I enjoy visiting PKR poker and absolute poker sites on a regular basis. I just go there for time waste and enjoy a game or two, I am not a professional.

In the tournament we have now got 278 players remaining on the table from 309 and the event only started at the beginning of the month. This event looks like it will go on for couple of weeks. From London, UK Laurence Houghton is the current leader with 190,000 poker chips. Laurence started his poker career few years ago and has a career winning of 144,948 US dollars so far. His highest finish in the tournament till date has been in 2009 World Heads Up Championship where he finished fourth.

There are also several top players who are in the hunt of wining the tournament. Players such as Daniel Negreanu, Pascal Parrault and Tom Dwan are some of the biggest names in the tournament. Daniel Negreanu is many people’s favorite to win the championship because he already has two World Poker Tour Champinship titles along with four World Series of Poker bracelets. From Paris, France Pascal Parrault is the defending champion, so don’t count him out. His total winning of his career is 1,435,442 US dollars and he has ten first place finishes. His recent first position finish was in Rendez vous a Paris in May 2009. Tom Dwan is an American professional poker player who plays online regularly. He dropped out of college at Boston University to persue a career in poker. He was majoring in engineering at Boston.

My best wishes to all the players in the tournament.