Casino City has reported that Sen. Robert Menendez introduced legislation earlier this week that is to legally define poker as a skill game. The move would create a regulatory environment for the game to be offered over the Internet in the United States but no specific mention was made where overseas Poker sites were concerned.

The bill is the first piece of legislation concerning online gambling that has been introduced to the Senate since the passage of the UIGEA. Similar legislation and attempts to either repeal or better-define the UIGEA have already been introduced in the House of Representatives.

Menendez’s “Internet Skill Game Licensing and Control Act” calls on the U.S. Treasury Department to set up a licensing framework for games that use “simulated cards, dice, or tiles in which success is predominantly determined by the skill of the players.” The parameters would make games such as poker, bridge and mahjong as those types of games. The bill also defines permitted bets as wagers “made with respect to the outcome of an Internet skill game that is a non-housed bank game.”

It is interesting to note that the U.S. Treasury Department licensing framework would make it illegal for U.S. players to play these same games over the internet on sites owned by non-US companies and hosted overseas if such sites do not pay an annual licensing fee - mentioned as a condition for U.S. Poker web sites to provide Poker games to U.S. players.

It also wouldn’t surprise us at all if the same U.S. legislation attempts to exclude the possibility that such foreign-based sites even have options to license themselves for U.S. players, and if allowed, would not have to pay such exorbitant fees as to make the deal non-lucrative for such site owners.

As usual, such bills seem to want to restrict any foreign concerns from gaining any gambling profit share in the U.S. market which yet again, is technically a blatant refusal to conform to any international free trade agreements to which the U.S. is also party.

What’s more ludicrous about this, is that if Poker is to be legally regarded as a Skill game, then legislation would actually be forbidding American players from playing a ‘legal’ game at any online sites that do not pay them an annual licensing fee! The thought of the meaning of such restrictions on American people, disguised as legalising games of skill and yet making it illegal to play them anywhere other than in the accepted jurisdictions of the U.S. is simply appalling, has exceeded the limits of fair conduct and common sense and is simply just plain erroneous.

That’s like telling the American people that Tiramisu will be recognized as a non-alcoholic food even though it has some alcohol in it and yet still insisting Tiramisu is illegal in some local jurisdictions because it contains alcohol, and even if regarded as non-alcoholic in any jurisdictions, a jurisdiction may just have to pay exorbitant taxes for having the right to offer Tiramisu to Americans!

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The MotionX Poker 1.12 software is free to download at CNet.com and costs $4.99. Players can test their Poker skills, challenge the casino, win and even shake their iPhone to roll the dice. In classic card Poker a full house beats a straight, but in dice Poker (because there are only 5 dice) the odds of getting a straight are lower after one roll making it a stronger hand.

The game features include the ability to unlock several sets of dice, an achievement system based on specific winning conditions, and realistic dice that roll when you shake your iPhone.

Jim Tabilio, whose Poker Voters of America is pushing, has written a bill (AB 2026) sponsored by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine aimed at legalizing online poker in California, and elsewhere.

For the time being, Tabilio has instructed Levine to put the bill on hold until next year when he expects to meet with a variety of special interests, including the Indian gamers, to lobby this bill and move it forward.

The raid marked the second time in less than a month that CBI had cited Wittman for operating the game. According to District Attorney Bill Thiebaut, less than 10 players were present during the raid. Each player received misdemeanor gambling tickets.

Law enforcement first became aware of Wittman’s game in October 2004, when masked gunmen had barged in, pistol-whipped card players and stole several thousand dollars in cash at the game venue located at 3102 S. Prairie Ave.

Since then, Wittman’s game was moved to 2309 S. Prairie Ave., the site that was raided last week. Two other suspected illegal poker operations previously were raided by the CBI. The CBI began receiving complaints that Wittman was operating an illegal card room last year, according to a search warrant affidavit by CBI agent Timothy Martinez and in July 2008, a confidential informant wearing a wire attended two card games at Wittman’s establishment, known as Larry’s All In Poker Club.

On both occasions, Larry’s All charged a $5-an-hour which is known in poker as a “rake” and is illegal in Colorado, except at where casinos own a license to charge rakes. Yet another criteria for illegal gambling in the state is that those who charge rakes do not socialize outside of gambling and Whitman had previously admitted to a player that he did not socialize with his gamblers.

Wittman also admitted to loaning money to players at the table, putting on a dice game and using proceeds of the gambling operation to pay his bills, although he denied “pocketing” any funds. Therein, he further implicated himself for illegal gambling.

On Aug. 21, a confidential informant played at his card room and paid a rake whilst observing a slot machine in the building, which is illegal. On that basis, the CBI raided Wittman - both Wittman and his players all received summonses to appear in court.

Written by: Dave Colclough (2004-08-19 17:52:28)

Patience is the hurdle most beginners struggle with. The biggest mistake is usually playing too many hands. If they have not seen a hand for 20 minutes, all of a sudden A4 looks like a monster in any position. Don’t do it. Patience is everything.

Secondly, watch! Watch how many hands someone plays and how they play them. Make mental notes. Watch. Ask how you can take advantage of what they are doing. Watch. Ask yourself are they doing something worth copying. Watch and keep thinking about it. Most experienced players don’t! That’s why you can catch up and pass them. Put the effort into the thought process and you will be rewarded.

Respect a re-raise. If you have raised with AJ, and someone has re-raised, then they probably have you well beat. Learn to swallow. Pass. (The exception to this, is in major championships. Good players will re-raise with anything in a major event. You need to know which will though, and which won’t.)

When you reach a reasonable standard and start playing with better players, mix it up. When the whole table knows you are passing A4 in early position and raising AQ in late position. Try mixing it up. Raise with suited connectors occasionally. This can have several benefits. You can often steal when the flop comes high. Secondly, you often get called when you hit the flop.

Now we are majoring in contradictions, let’s contradict the patience argument. Be aware of your chip stack compared to the Blinds. Don’t let yourself get too low. A lot of good cash players can’t win tournaments because they blind themselves to death. If you have less than 3 times the big blind, you are in trouble. Make a move before this happens. Even with A4 when needs must.

Miami, FL (PRWeb) July 24, 2008 – Today, Chipleader management of both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet announced the upcoming launch of CEREUS: a NEW POKER PLATFORM that will integrate the customers and features from both poker rooms, instantly making CEREUS the third largest online poker network.

CEREUS is the result of more than 12 months innovation and development. Absolute Poker and UltimateBet will retain their unique assets.

John Adams, Chipleader’s VP, said:

“I am so excited to announce the launch of our new poker network CEREUS. This is going to be huge for … online poker. … CEREUS not only delivers the best online poker experience; it enables our company to improve our operations and deliver significantly better value and service to our customers … “

“Our company’s goal is to provide affiliate’s poker players with the ultimate online experience. The launch of CEREUS is a major step for us in achieving our goal and we look forward to making many more exciting announcements very soon.”

More information about Absolute Poker, or UltimateBet.

The following table refers to the number of outs, and the probability of one of these outs appearing. If you have an open ended straight draw, you have 8 outs.

You hold 10,J on a three-suited flop of 2,8,9. You know that you can win the pot with the four 7s or the four Qs. In Omaha, you may hold 7,10,J,Q so have 16 outs to give you the nuts : four 6s, three 7s, three 10s, three Js and three Qs. You are a favourite! Should there be two hearts on the flop, and you have 10,J of hearts in your hand, then you can also add the A,K,3,4 and 5 of hearts, making 21 outs. The danger here though, is that an opponent may have a nut flush draw, which changes the hand from being a favourite, to an underdog. So be careful when counting outs. Don’t get carried away. Many of them may not be sure winners. Paying for a draw in poker, that turns out to be a losing draw, is possibly the biggest crime you can commit. Don’t do it.

The table shows the percentage chances of improvement after the flop has been dealt in a Hold ‘em game. The first column shows the chances of improving with the next ‘turn’ card. The second column shows the chances of improving in the final two cards. Column 3 indicates the chances of improvement after 4 communal cards have been dealt, and only the final ‘river’ card is to come. There are slight differences between the first and last columns because the number of unknown cards in the pack is one less (you can see four on the flop as opposed to three). In Hold ‘em should you have a flush draw, you have 9 winners from 47 cards in the pack after the flop. You have 9 winners out of 46 after the ‘turn’ card.

Outs Improve On Turn Improve In 2 Cards Improve On River

• 2.1% 4.3% 2.2%
• 4.2% 8.4% 4.3%
• 6.4% 12.5% 6.5%
• 8.5% 16.5% 8.7%
• 10.7% 20.3% 10.9%
• 12.8% 24.1% 13.0%
• 14.9% 27.8% 15.2%
• 17.0% 31.5% 17.4%
• 19.1% 35.0% 19.6%
• 21.2% 38.4% 21.7%
• 23.4% 41.7% 24.0%
• 25.6% 45.0% 26.1%
• 27.7% 48.1% 28.3%
• 29.8% 51.2% 30.4%
• 31.9% 54.1% 32.6%
• 34.0% 57.0% 34.8%
• 36.2% 59.8% 37.0%
• 38.3% 62.4% 39.1%
• 40.4% 65.0% 41.3%
• 42.6% 67.5% 43.5%

I would suggest that it may be worth printing this odds sheet and sticking it on your computer desk next to your screen.

Note that these are Hold ‘em percentages. When playing Omaha the odds are different because you have 4 cards in your hand. The number of unknowns after the flop is no longer 47 cards, but 45. In Omaha, it is also much easier to put opponents on exact hands. For example some opponents will only ever raise with top set. Therefore, you know two more cards, and can discount them from the 45 unknowns. So now your flush draw is 9 out of 43, but not all 9 are winners.

Finally, just to re-iterate the above warning. These are odds on ‘improvement’. They are not necessarily odds on winning the pot. Should your opponent have ‘a set’ (three of a kind) on the flop when you are chasing your flush draw, you are in bad shape. At least 1 of your flush draw cards also gives your opponent a full house. So you don’t actually have 9 ‘winners’. Secondly, once you have hit your flush on the turn, your opponent will have 10 cards to improve (a 21.7% chance) of making a bigger hand on the river. So in reality, your flush draw will not win 35% of the time, and not even 25% of the time, in this case!

The last couple of articles concerned pre-flop probabilities. These are most relevant to NLH tournament play. This is because most chip movement occurs pre-flop in NLH tourneys, whereas, with Limit Hold ‘em and Pot Limit Omaha, most of the action takes place post flop. The next couple of articles discuss post flop odds and probabilities. These are equally interesting to the NLH player, but they will have less opportunity and situations to take advantage of this knowledge.

Possibly the most useful probabilities are those surrounding a flush draw. If you hold two cards of the same suit, you will flop a made flush slightly less than 1% of the time. If you are all-in before the flop, the chances of completing your flush with all five cards are somewhere around 6%. More useful though is the situation when you flop four to your flush: two hearts in your hand with two hearts on the flop, or one heart in your hand with three on the flop.

Many NLH players will commit their whole stack heads up in this situation, but the odds say that really you shouldn’t. You will only complete the flush around 35% of the time. So if a player has moved all-in, in front of you, for a large bet of greater than pot size, the correct play is probably to pass. You are not getting good pot odds. You will often see players making bad calls in this situation. It is of course different if you move all-in first to speak. You may only win the pot a third of the time if someone calls, but of course you may win the pot 50% of the time, uncontested, if everyone should pass.

In Limit Hold ‘em of course, you will rarely win the pot uncontested, but the pot odds will be different. In many ways Limit Hold ‘em is much more complicated here. In a $2/$4 game, four players may have seen the flop. The player in front of you bets $2 on the flop, and you can easily justify the pot odds as you are now calling $2 against a $10 pot. However, there are variables to consider: how much more you may have to call to see the final two cards, and how much more can you win if you hit the flush. Firstly, a player may raise behind you and the original bettor may re-raise. Now you are risking $6 against $20. The odds aren’t as good but are still favourable. But of course, the flush may not arrive on the turn, and you may have to call another $4. Now the risk is $10 against $28, or possibly $10 against $24 if play becomes heads up. You are in fact still getting pot odds, but only just. The second variable is of course when you hit the flush, how much will you get paid? If the player will call a $4 bet on the end, or better still, a two bet situation may emerge, then you are of course reaping the real benefits of your draw. Flush draw flops are usually a profitable venture in Limit Hold ‘em.

Remembering all these situations and odds isn’t as hard as it initially looks. You will constantly hear players refer to ‘outs’. A flush draw is 9 outs. If you have an open ended straight draw, you have 8 outs. Most top players just count their outs, and know the probabilities of hitting these outs. Next weeks article will include the ‘outs’ table and further explanation.

As stated in the previous article, the following are suggested guidelines for an average 9 handed $2/$4 Limit Hold ‘em table, where it is neither an aggressive or very tight line up. Slight adjustments would have to be made if the game became too tight, and likewise if the game became a little wild.

Pocket Pairs were discussed in the previous article.

The following is advice for ’suited’ starting hands, i.e. both cards are of the same suit:

• AK - Play and raise at every opportunity in any position, only put the brakes on against tight opponents
• AQ - Play and raise in any position. Don’t re-raise
• AJ, A10, KQ - Play in any position. Raise in late position. Raise in the blinds heads up
• A9, A8, A7, KJ - Call in un-raised pots. Preferably in mid or late position. Only raise in the blinds heads up against weak opponents
• A5, A4, A3, A2, K10, K9, QJ, Q10, J10 - Only call in late position in un-raised pots. Pass in raised pots or in bad position. Only raise in the blinds heads up against weak opponents
• K8, K7, K6, K5, K4, K3, K2, Q9, Q8, J9, J8, T9, T8, T7, 98, 97 87, 86, 76, 75, 65, 64, 54 - Only call in late position in un-raised pots. Pass in raised pots or in bad position.
• Q7, Q6, Q5, Q4, Q3, Q2, J7, J6, J5, J4, J3, J2, T6, T5, T4, T3, T2, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 85, 84, 83, 82, 74, 73, 72, 63, 62, 53, 52, 43, 42, 32 - Pass these hands. They are unprofitable.

The following is advice for un-suited starting hands, i.e. both cards are of a different suit:

• AK, AQ - Play and raise in any position. Re-raise in late position.
• AJ, A10, KQ - Call in any position. Raise in late position if the pot is un-raised.
• KJ, A9, A8 - Call in any position in un-raised pots. Raise in the blinds heads up
• A7, A6, A5, A4, A3, A2, K10 - Pass in early and mid position. Call in late position. Raise in the blinds heads up
• QJ, Q10, Q9 ,J10 ,J9, T9, 98, 87 - Pass in early and mid position. Call in late position.
• K9, K8, K7, K6, K5, K4, K3, K2, Q8, Q7, Q6, Q5, Q4, Q3, Q2, J8, J7, J6, J5, J4, J3, J2, T8, T7, T6, T5, T4, T3, T2, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 86, 85, 84, 83, 82, 76, 75, 74, 73, 72, 63, 62, 53, 52, 43, 42, 32 - Pass these hands. They are unprofitable.

In an earlier article I suggested the sort of hands that you should, or should not be playing. In the next couple of articles I will deal with starting hands more specifically. As with all aspects of poker there really aren’t any specific rules, so the following is only a suggested guide. It is also more relevant to Limit Hold’em, where playing the correct cards will grind out a winning strategy most of the time, if your discipline can outlast the ‘luck rollercoaster’. In No Limit Hold’em it could be argued that you can play any cards if the position, state of the game, and depth of chips is great enough. Even in NLH though, it is probably best not to waiver too far from the following… unless your name is Gus Hansen or David Ulliot.

I’ll split the hand types into three: pocket pairs, suited cards and unsuited cards. The following suggestions are probably most suited to an average 9 handed $2/$4 table, where it is neither an aggressive, or very tight line up. Slight adjustments would have to be made if the game became too tight, and likewise if the game became a little wild.

Pocket Pairs and Limit Hold em.

• Aces, Kings, Queens - Play, raise and re-raise at every opportunity in any position, any amount of players. Don’t 4-bet Queens against very tight opponents
• Jacks, Tens, Nines - Play and raise in any position. Only re-raise in late position against 1 opponent. If there are three or four opponents after the flop, you will need to be holding an overpair or a set.
• Eights, Sevens - Play in un-raised pots. Only raise in heads up situations such as the blinds. Heads up, you are likely to win with just the pair of eights. Against two opponents or more, you need help on the flop.
• Sixes, Fives - Pass in early position to a raise. Pass in early position if there is likely to be a raise behind you. Call in late position, preferably against several opponents where you are getting a good return should you flop a set. Only raise in the blinds heads up against weak opponents.
• Fours, Threes and Twos - Pass in early position. Only play in pots where there are at least three opponents (e.g.two limpers and a big blind). Always try and avoid playing these hands unless you are last to act after the flop.