In the early 1990s, several years before the internet revolution which brought online poker to our computer screens two brothers, Ross and Barny Boatman played poker against each other in Ross’s flat in Archway, North London.  Not long afterwards they joined another local game in nearby Hendon, befriending Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani.

As their poker skills improved the four players began to travel to tournaments in London and beyond, their distinctive dress of dark suits and sunglasses marking them out for attention.  It was this style of clothing and their constant appearance as a group which saw them known as the Hendon Mob and the name stuck.

As their reputations increased they began to travel to European tournaments with no little success and as the internet began to revolutionise poker and provide it with an explosion of popularity, the Mob found themselves ideally place to take advantage.  In 1999, British television began producing Late Night Poker, a televised poker tournament and the first of its kind.  As poker ambassadors, the gents from Hendon were invited to appear and this brought them to the attention of an even wider audience.

In 2001 they wisely started up their own website and what was originally meant to be a guide to poker with articles about tips and other information, eventually morphed into the largest online poker database.

One of their most notable innovations was the creation of an international heads up tournament and the team arranged challenges with Australia, France, Ireland and the USA, beating all-comers until a strong USA team put an end to their winning run.  All four players maintain considerable tournament successes, online and offline and their career winnings are as follows:

• Ross Boatman – $1.85million
• Barny Boatman – $1.7 million
• Joe Beevers – $2.5 million
• Ram Vaswani – $3.5 million

In tougher days....

States in the 19th century, it had developed in Europe prior to that and worked its way across the Atlantic with the movements of immigrants and other settlers.  Probably correct anecdotes relate that Five Card Stud was played by civil war soldiers, gold rush miners and assorted cowboys.

It was a real man’s game then and until the 1920s the most popular variant was played only with Tens, Jack, Queens, Kings and Aces.  When the full pack was introduced and the rules tweaked, the game became what we know today.  Texas Hold’em has replaced Five and Seven Card Stud as the most popular game but the availability of these games online has given them a new lease of life.

The basic rules are as follows:

Five Card Stud is usually played with a bring in, a mandatory bet at a pre-set level.  The dealership usually rotates amongst the players.

The dealer deals each player one card face up and one card face down. The player with the lowest ranked face up card bets the bring in.

A round of betting now follows in which each player can fold, raise, check or call.  If two or more players remain in the game, remaining players are dealt a third card face up – third street.

A second round of betting now follows in which each player can fold, raise, check or call.  If two or more players remain in the game, remaining players are dealt a fourth card face up – fourth street.

A third round of betting now follows in which each player can fold, raise, check or call.  If two or more players remain in the game, remaining players are dealt a fifth card face up – fifth street.

There is now one more round of betting and in the unlikely event that two players till remain, the showdown occurs, hands are disclosed and a winner is revealed.

Not too demanding and a good way to learn the poker basics of bluffing and hand rankings.

That’s a a slightly odd title so let’s just briefly have a look at how gambling works in Singapore.  Back in 2005, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loone passed a somewhat controversial law to allow the development of two casino resorts, or integrated resorts as they were described at the time.  There’s more detail here.  The new law legalised gambling but the Prime Minister was obliged to put in place various measures to ‘protect’ locals and foreign workers alike from the evils of gambling.

Really targeted at tourists and foreign residents the casinos were made deliberately expensive for local Singaporeans and self-exclusion was one of the policies out in place.  For Singaporeans it allowed family members to apply to have the person concerned banned from either casino.  The same rule also applied to foreign residents.

The situation now appears to be that these foreign residents – mostly low-wage construction

Access Denied!

workers from China and India – are being asked or sometimes required to agree to self-exclusion as part of their employment agreements.  Eng Lee Engineering, which employs around 400 foreign workers, said that any of their workers who did not comply with the self-exclusion would lose their work permits.

Other companies may not take such a hard line but do encourage their workers to take part. HEC Electrical and Construction, in a surprisingly honest statement said: “Their pay is not high, so we don’t want them to waste their hard-earned money,”

Others still are happy for their employees to gamble but will act if it looks like becoming a problem.  So it’s hardly self-exclusion, more like large companies enforcing their will on poorly paid employees, threatening them with the loss of their work permit if they fail to comply.  The percentage of exclusions for foreigners has risen to 70% of the 18,000 total so far (since the casinos 2010 opening).  There has been no significant rise in the number of local Singaporeans applying for self-exclusion of being excluded by their families.

In 2010, Germany announced its intention to dismantle the state run monopoly on gaming.  This was an attempt not only to privatise the industry with the hope of raising more tax revenue but also to bring online gaming regulations more into line with other European countries.

Its proposals are almost complete but it is still falling foul of EU rules on state protectionism.  Betfair have been one of the main complainants regarding the German proposals, arguing that opportunities for foreign companies will be limited.  It is these limitations which are currently the stumbling block for the proposals.  One would imagine Germany would like to favour its own operators when issuing the limited number of licenses but if you’re part of the European Union, that is not possible.

Greece, a country desperate for additional revenue of any kind, has also published draft laws which have fallen foul of EU regulations regarding the “……..freedom of establishment and the unhindered provision of services in the EU.”

Greece’s draft law includes the qualification that potential operators must have a bricks and mortar office in the country and to guarantee their financial undertakings with deposits in Greek banks.  As well as contravening EU regulations, it seems unlikely that any online gaming operators will be that keen on depositing large amounts of money in a Greek bank.

Wynn Resorts Posts Profits – Looks Forward To Singapore

Gaming coming soon....

So now we know that Washington D.C. will be the first state to offer legal, intra-state, online gaming.  Amidst the fallout from Black Friday and Blue Monday, the state has been quietly refining and improving its plans and it’s now set to go ahead.

Late July will see the site open up for play money demonstration games and there won’t be too many to start with, just Texas Hold’em and Blackjack.  Once this beta testing phase is over and any issues have been ironed out, the service is due to go live on September 7th.  Only residents of the state will be able to register for the service and if all goes smoothly it may serve as a template for other states looking for a legalisation compromise.

In recent months New Jersey, Nevada, Iowa and Florida have all toyed with the idea of intra-state, online legislation but for various reasons have put their plans on hold.  New Jersey wanted a review and more time while Nevada opted to prepare a bill which would be conditional on federal legislation.

U.K. Considering Online Reform

Following the farcical events that have surrounded Full Tilt Poker since Black Friday, the U.K. government has announced it will be looking into how gaming licenses are awarded with particular reference to the protection of U.K. customers.

There are still hundreds of U.K. customers awaiting refunds from Full Tilt after it shut its doors in America.  As has been reported, the regulatory authority of Alderney then withdrew it’s operating license, meaning Full Tilt’s websites were shut down completely.

The British government has previously relied upon trusted regulatory authorities in other territories but following the Full Tilt debacle it may well decide that it needs its own regulatory authority to administer fit and proper tests.

As far as Full Tilt is concerned, it may well be back on its feet soon, and with enough money to pay all the players who are still owed money.  The next step will be to regain its license before once again attempting to earning its place at the top of the online poker tree.

A matter of a few days ago, Full Tilt Poker had its license suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.  The suspension was largely due to ongoing investigations in the United States following the events of Black Friday – April 15th.  The license suspension effectively shut the door on Full Tilt, which until that point had only ceased its U.S. operations.

By this time most sources were already explaining that a group of European investors were in talks with Full Tilt (and the parent company Pocket Kings Ltd) and the federal and financial authorities in the U.S. regarding a takeover of some description.  Details are still a little vague, especially as to the identities of the new owners, but it looks as if, for $150 million, they will acquire a controlling stake in the parent company with the funds then being set aside to refund all the players who are still awaiting repayment.

In another, though probably irrelevant twist, the French gaming regulator ARJEL then suspended Full Tilt’s license to operate in France, precisely because the website was no longer operational after Alderney regulators forced it to close.  The past three months have clearly been the worst in Full Tilt’s history – this is a company which once ran the second biggest online poker operation on the planet, with a cast of hundreds of poker pros.  Perhaps when the takeover is confirmed and the licenses reissued, Full Tilt can work its way back up the tree.

PPA Fully Behind Barton’s Bill

Recently we reported on Congreeman Joe Barton’s bill to push for online poker legalisation in the U.S.  The full title of the bill is the Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2011.  The plan is to obtain a full hearing for the bill by the end of the summer and the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) are not surprisingly supporting the effort.

They are urging all members and poker players to get in touch with their various political representatives in whichever way they wish to keep the momentum for the bill going.  Supporters can leave messages on representatives Facebook pages, call their telephones to leave messages or simply write supportive letters.

Joe Barton

Two different attempts are now under way to try and rectify this situation are both from the Republican and the Democrat camps, suggesting that the original legislation hastily pushed through in 2006 to criminalise payment processing was not universally supported.  But we knew that anyway.

Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is the first to formulate a bill which would legalise online poker and also create a regulatory agency to oversee the industry.  Barton’s bill would only legalise online poker and no other forms of online gambling.  Online sites would be allowed to start up only in states where gambling is already licensed and that would mean the state regulator would oversee the sites at a local level.

Jim McDermott

The other effort under way is a combined one from Democrats Jim McDermott and Barney Frank.  There are two separate bills here, one to tax legalised gaming (from McDermott) and one to legislate for and regulate online gaming (from Frank).  All three recognise the need for legalisation and regulation of some sort and are quite aware of the enormous tax revenues lost overseas.  A virtually useless prohibition law just adds to the mess, ensuring that normally law abiding citizens who just want a game of poker in the comfort of their own home become criminals.

McDermott echoed the point, saying:

“Legalizing, regulating and taxing Internet gambling just makes sense,” McDermott said. “Right now, the U.S. loses billion of dollars to off-shore gambling and illegal gambling rings because of an unrealistic and virtually unenforceable policy.”

“The current prohibition of online gambling has failed and made countless American vulnerable to fraud, identity theft and money laundering,” said McDermott, who first introduced his legislation in 2009.

Watch this space over the coming weeks for any updates.

Jake Cody started the run off with a victory in the $25,000 Heads Up Hold’em event.  That netted him a bracelet and $850,000.  Next to win was Matt Perrins whose win in the $1500 2-7 Lowball event is worth an article in itself.  Never having played the game before he made it to the end of the first day in a relatively strong position and took the opportunity to research Lowball strategy on the internet before returning to pick up the bracelet and just over $100,000 in prize money.  Second place also went to another Brit, Chris Bjorin.

The third winner was Darren Woods from Lincolnshire who swept to victory in the $2500

Darren Woods

Limit Hold’em Six Hander.  He beat of a field of 354 players to grab the bracelet and a bit more than $200,000.  An impressive number of final table places have also been filled by British players.

Perhaps the American’s are a bit demotivated this year.  Online poker players have been hammered for weeks now following Black Friday, Blue Monday and the closing down of many U.S. facing online poker sites.  One of the quirks of playing an international poker event in the States is that while American citizens cannot retire from the live tables to play and practice online, non-Americans can log-in to their respective poker sites to their hearts content and continue the winning (or losing) streaks as long as they want.

The British players have also brought with them the usual contingent of vociferous supporters more normally associated with the boxing crowds who visit Vegas.  Their footie style chanting and professional level beer drinking have certainly brought an element of ‘liveliness’ to the proceedings.

Watch this space for a full WSOP results round up next week.

Nick 'The Greek' Dandolos

in the traditional sense but did participate in one of the most famous games of high stakes, heads up poker ever witnessed.  Did it really happen?  That’s another story, which you can read about here.

Dandolos was born on the Mediterranean island of Crete in 1883, making him a Greek citizen.  His parents were wealthy and at the age of 18 Dandolos was sent of to the United States with a weekly allowance of $150.  Bear in mind that at the turn of the century, $150 would be the equivalent of around $4000 now.

He lived initially in Chicago but soon relocated to Montreal where he began to bet successfully on horse racing.  Having accumulated around $500,000 he then moved back to Chicago where he turned his attention to card and dice games.  Although he was later known for his skill in these games, at this point he lost almost all his Montreal winnings to more experienced players.  He took the opportunity however to learn from his mistakes and was soon winning money at dice and poker.

The aforementioned famous poker match between Dandolos and Johnny Moss (widely regarded at the time as the best all-round poker player of the time), supposedly took place over several months in 1951.  It was a marathon match, consisting of pretty much every poker variation known at the time and the much younger Moss eventually ground Dandalos down to the tune of between $2 – $4 million.  Dandolos is eventually alleged to have said to Moss, “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”

The match is said to have been a marketing ploy by Benny Binion – the best poker player vs the biggest gambler – to raise awareness of his casino, Binion’s Horseshoe and if you read this link you will see why some are sceptical it ever took place.  Good story though.

Nick Dandolos died in 1966, still playing poker but without much money to his name.  By his own estimation he won and lost a fortune 73 times.  He also donated as much as $20 million to various charitable causes.

Phil Ivey

world right now and asked the question “Who is the best all-round poker player?”, Phil Ivey would almost certainly come out with the most votes.  He has been prominent in the news recently because of the legal action he has taken against Full Tilt Poker (he is on the team there) and the fallout from Black Friday.

Ivey appears to be a principled operator but he has his detractors also, although why he does is something of a mystery.  He is not appearing in this years WSOP as a protest against Full Tilt and the manner in which it has held on to player’s money, depriving quite a number of the funds necessary to compete in Las Vegas.

Back to the beginning then and Phil Ivey was born in California in 1976 but spent most of his life in New Jersey.  He is thought to have learned various card playing skills from his grandfather and to a lesser extent his father.  It appears that from quite an early age that he wanted to become a professional gambler and his first big win was against his father’s friends when he was sixteen.

Living in New Jersey and with access to a fake I.D, Atlantic City was an obvious destination for Ivey to hone his skills on the poker table.  This was not an overwhelmingly successful period but Ivey seems to have treated it as a learning process and as we now know, it worked.

He entered his first WSOP in 2000 and made it onto two final tables, winning a bracelet at Pot Limit Omaha and beating Dave Ulliot, Phil Hellmuth and Amarillo Slim in the process.  This was the first of an incredible eight WSOP bracelets and they’re not all for Omaha or Texas Hold’em – Ivey has proved his all round poker skill by winning bracelts at H.O.R.S.E, Seven Card Stud and 2-7 Lowball among others.  He has also won WPT titles to go with the WSOP ones.

He finances several charities, mostly to do with under-privileged children and the poor and his this to say of his full time job:

“A lot of people who play professionally don’t enjoy what they’re doing, and you can tell, and it makes a difference. I love poker. I love everything about it. It’s the greatest game in the world. I’m always trying to improve and always thinking about getting better. Some people I play against are just playing because that’s their job, and that’s a big advantage I have over them.”