2012 World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has come a long way since its humble beginnings, and this year’s iteration of the world’s biggest and most televised series of poker tournaments is proving to be even more exciting than last year. Few would imagine that what started with only six players back in 1970 would lead up to where we are today. Over 75,000 players from around the world are participating in the event, all vying to win a small slice of the prize pool valued at over $192,000,000, which is a new record, making this the largest WSOP yet.

The 43rd annual WSOP began on May 27 and will last until July 16. Just as it has been for the past seven years, the 2012 WSOP is being held at the massive 125,000 square foot convention hall of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in none other than Las Vegas, Nevada. Players from around the world will be accommodated at an unprecedented 480 poker tables. And these players will be testing their skill in 61 poker tournaments for every kind of player and every size bankroll, with buy-ins as low as $500 and as high as $1,000,000. Even if $500 seems a bit too pricy, there are small No Limit Hold’em tournaments held three times every day during the entire WSOP, with buy-ins setting you back only $135 at some tables.

At the same time, players can hit up the 24-hour cash game tables, single-table, and mega-satellite daily tournaments so you can get as much side action during the WSOP as you want.

But the main event that everyone is interested in, of course, is the last tournament in the WSOP, the No-Limit Hold’em Championship on July 7, where the winner will take home almost $9,000,000 and take home the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet.

2012 WSOP Events and Event Registration

This year’s World Series of Poker is proving to be the most eventful series yet, with a total of 61 bracelet poker tournaments taking place from May 27 to July 16, which are more events than have ever been had at the WSOP. It’s definitely not too late to do the WSOP.

What kind of events are taking place at the 2012 WSOP?

As mentioned, there are 61 bracelet events, encompassing nearly all table poker games. Pot-Limit Omaha, Pot-Limit Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Stud, and of course No-Limit Texas Hold’em, to name a few. Although the No-Limit Hold’em Championship with a $10,000 buy-in is on July 7, don’t miss out on other events coming up soon, like the No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball on July 5, also with a $10,000 buy-in. And even if you can’t afford to The Big One for One Drop No-Limit Hold’em event, it’s well worth sticking around and watching this $1,000,000 buy-in tournament, starting on July 1 and going for three days.

In addition, there are also smaller non-bracelet tournaments and cash games going on constantly throughout the WSOP. You don’t need to be a high roller to get into some action.

Is participation in the World Series of Poker open to the public?

Absolutely. Everybody can participate and buy in, and it’s very straightforward to register for an event at the WSOP. The simplest way is to just show up at the WSOP at the Rio Convention Center registration desk and register in person. If you do this, make sure to come well ahead of time, preferably within a few days or hours before the tournament you’re interested in starts. You can buy in using cash or live casino chips, but note that credit cards are not accepted. If you show up in person, make sure to bring valid government-issued photo ID and your Caesars Entertainment Total Rewards Card (easily acquired at the next counter) in order to sign up for a tournament.

The registration service is available 24/7 up until July 10. If you find the registration desk is closed, you can register for WSOP events at the Rio Main Cage inside the casino. If you want to guarantee a seat at a bracelet event tournament, you can pre-register up to 14 days before the event begins. In this case, you can buy in via bank wire transfer and cashiers checks.

March 1st, 2012 – The tournament start date is March 4^th and the satellites are being offered to players as of few days. CarbonPoker poker tournament offers a reload using bonus code POKERMAXIMUS, plus with a big series of big money guaranteed tournaments you definitely do not want to miss out on this.

CarbonPoker has decided to offer their players a unbelievable real money reload offer up to 70% up to $375, and it comes along with a $2.20 free coupon added to your account until March 15^th. To receive such offer, enter the promo code POKERMAXIMUS in the cashier, and take advantage of such great offer.

List of the Poker Maximus Tournaments:

• The Main Event – March 25^th, 2012 Sunday at 4pm. Buy-in $530 No Limit Hold’em tournament. CarbonPoker’s Main Event prize pool started at $150,000, then $175,000 and now they are at $200,000 guaranteed. Check out what the guaranteed prize is possible now.
• $11 Mini Main Event – March 25th Sunday at 3pm.  A huge value tournament of $10,000 guaranteed this tournament is going to be very exciting.

• $4,000 No Limit Hold’em Rebuy Frenzy Turbo – March 9^th Friday at 6:25pm. This poker tournament is for smaller $1.10 re-buy players and for a $4,000 guaranteed prize.

Visit Carbon Poker promotion page to read more about this poker tournament and make sure to bookmark this  page for future, to receive other 2012 monthly promotions or bonus codes, like the one from this blog, the CarbonPoker’s huge reload bonus of 70% up to $375 monthly promotion. Safe and secure deposit and payout options for US players, depending on a state you live in.

Late December rulings marked a paramount change in the status of land-based and online poker in the state of Nevada. Officials legalized online Poker in the state of Nevada after a vote of 4 to 0 at the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This means that patrons will be legally able to play poker online in Nevada. Officials will also regulate online poker for the players’ protection. The unanimous vote was a huge step for Nevada gaming institutions and patrons. The only drawback to this situation is the lack of establishments who have gained proper licensing to practice. Currently there are no licensed poker rooms.

In order to provide gaming opportunity to the customers, all Nevada poker rooms have to acquire the appropriate licensing. Officials expect that the first online poker rooms will open on or about February 1, 2012. Initially, these poker rooms will only be able to operate in the state of Nevada. Eventually, when the government regulates online poker, the licensed rooms will have the opportunity to make gaming available online to people in other states. Hopefully the federal government will approve such legalities so that gaming institutions can capitalize off the many people in the world who would like to enjoy the online experience.

No official reports have been released on how many establishments will gain licensing for online operations. Six organizations have applied for licenses to operate in Nevada so far. Such companies include 888 Holdings, South Point Poker, Shuffle Master, Bally Technologies, International Game Technology, and Cantor Gaming. The only company that applied to operate in an online atmosphere was 888 Holdings. If that company can obtain licensing to operate online, they will have the ability to earn just as much as the other companies if not more. They may actually be able to get a financial gain on other online gaming companies.

Customers must fit a certain criteria in order to play in Nevada Poker rooms. They must provide identification to verify they are 21 years of age or older. Online Poker will follow suit and should be available for patrons some time in 2012. Once online Poker is available and other states can see its success, more states will most likely take steps to also have it regulated and legalized. Eventually, customers from all over the country will have access to gaming opportunities. Soon organizations will make online Poker gaming available at a national level.

Legal Poker News – Thirty one year old Brent Beckley, the co-owner of Absolute Poker faced criminal charges from Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday; he was pleaded guilty of breaking laws and duping U.S.
banks over the processing of gambling proceed.

In the above case 12 people have been found guilty; this number includes the 11 people who were convicted in the month of April in reference to the U.S. Government’s seizure of domain names of Absolute Poker, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker, the popular Internet poker companies. The owners of this 3 company namely Raymond Bitar (Full Tilt Poker), Isai Scheinberg (PokerStars), and Brent Beckley and Scott Tom (the two owners of Absolute Poker) were found guilty of breaking Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act apart from some more laws on online gaming.

Beckley confessed before Ronald Ellis, U.S. Magistrate Judge that he accepted credit cards and illegally deceived the bank by disguising the purpose of the payments. He took help from Central America man Ira Rubin (guilty of telemarketing fraud charge) to bypass U.S. gambling laws and process e-checks in the guise of payroll processing, online electronics merchants, and affiliate marketing. The company enhanced revenue by charging “rakes” when a bettor indulged in online poker play.

Robert Cleary, the lawyer to Beckley refused to comment over the prison sentence that is likely to be handed to Absolute Pokers co-owner Bentley. The maximum prison sentence of 30 years can be reduced to 12 months to 18 months in reference to a plea agreement in the court.

Besides Absolute Pokers guilt, the Government has also filed a civil lawsuit against the Full Tilt Poker website. Accusation went against “Poker Professor” Howard Lederer and professional poker champion Christopher Ferguson along with some more people who themselves paid over $440 million while defrauding other players in the online poking game.

December 21st, 2011 – One of the most prominent poker companies where American poker players would go to, Bodog, decided to close up shop to U.S. Players and focus only on players from other countries. This comes after more than 10 years as the first name in USA gaming.

Why did this happen? In July of 2011, Bodog acquired a license to do business in the United Kingdom. Because of this, they focused their market to UK and Overseas players and decided to comply with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 and ceased operations to US players by failing to renew its contract with a company called the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, who has held the right to use the name Bodog in the United States.

But the good news is that the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group decided not to alienate the United States Gaming Market. Realizing there was still a market for American poker players, they needed a new site name, and found it with a site called Bovada.lv, which was opened this week. Bovada was probably chosen because of its similarity to the name Bodog, as well as the extension lv, which technically is the country code from the country of Latvia, but most Americans might think of a correlation with the city of Las Vegas.
In addition, the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group wanted to ensure that Americans who had money invested in the Bodog web site to have as easy of a time being able to transfer all the money over to the new Bovada web site, and they made a public announcement that gamers from the United States of America would have no problem during the adjustment to the new site.

The Bovada site is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, located in Canada, and they have assured that all American players who had account balances with Bodog had no trouble retaining their account balances and information during the transition to the new Bovada site, and everything should run as smoothly as it did with the former Bodog site that American players had been so accustomed to over the past decade.

December 11th, 2011 – Because of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, many online poker sites were closed to United States members. Quite a few of the poker rooms were involved in legal proceedings regarding their legitimacy in operating with US citizens. Because of the severity of the charges, many online poker rooms decided that they would bar US citizens from gambling on their sites. This was more for protection than as a punishment, but many US citizens were disgruntled as they had no place to play. Fortunately, there are still some Open USA Poker Rooms available so that Americans can enjoy playing what is still one of the most popular casino games.

BetOnline poker rooms are one of the most popular open USA Poker Rooms. At BetOnline Poker, US players are allowed to play all variations of poker games. They can also enter tournaments, such as Sit and Go’s, guaranteed prize tournaments and many satellite tournaments. Tournaments take place every day, and the customer can enter them from the minute he or she registers to be a member.

BetOnline Poker offers an assortment of promotions that are sure to make the customer’s experience very pleasurable. Each month the poker room offers 150 thousand in guaranteed tournaments plus they give you 25% in free play money each time you deposit.
Another great new promotion is the POP2Cash tourney which is for $500 prize and by playing in the tourney you have to accumulate the POP points and turning them into the tournament entry.

America’s Cardroom is one of those open USA poker rooms that does not need much of an introduction. The name says it all. It welcomes American players to share in the excitement of tournaments, bonus cash, and live events. Since it is the holidays, this site is offering free chances for its customers to win seats to the biggest tournaments. US players should be delighted.

Take advantage of the fantastic promotion of 100% of your initial deposit up to $1,000 and also receive a seat in a $25 freeroll tournament, only for making a simple deposit. Click on this link to take on this offer.

Linesmaker Poker offers the newest and moves advanced technologies to its US players. Users can enjoy smooth, fast, and sharp action as they compete to win the big pot. Linesmaker Poker offers a wide variety of poker variations such as Texas Hold “Em, 5 Card Draw, 5 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, 7 Card Stud, H.O.R.S.E., Omaha, Razz, and many more. US players can also join tournaments at any time. You will receive an entry into a free $500 freeroll tournament by signing up using the poker bonus cod: FREE150PK and making the first deposit to receive 150% of the deposit amount up to $750.

US players also have the option of playing poker over the phone in USA poker rooms. Many of the US poker rooms can be accessed from the user’s cellular phone or mobile device. That makes gambling possible for people who do not own a desktop or laptop unit but still want to have some honest fun.

How often does a $10,000 investment earn a cool $8.7 million dollars in just a few months? It happened in 2011, to a young man from Germany, Pius Heinz. At the start of the 2011 World Series of Poker, predictions were made. By July 20, only nine remained, leaving the world holding its breath until those nine met again at the Rio in Las Vegas on November 6 to finish the battle. How did the World Series of Poker final table preview predictions hold up?

Final table chip position at the start of the day ranked the players Martin Staszko, Eoghan O’Dea, Matt Giannetti, Phil Collins, Ben Lamb, Badih Bounahra, Pius Heinz, Anton Makiievskyi, and Sam Holden. As of November 4, Vegas odds agreed roughly with the chip leaders, ranking Martin Staszko, Eoghan O’Dea, Ben Lamb, Matt Gianetti, Phil Collins, Anton Makiievskyi, Pius Heinz, Bhadi Bounahra, and Sam Holden in order by odds. Experts weighed in by predicting Ben Lamb as a favorite, along with Phil Collins and Matt Giannetti.

On November 6, the first players to be ousted were, predictably, Sam Holden and Anton Makiievskyi, with short stacks and few plays. Badih Bounahra, too was eliminated on this day as a conservative player short on chips and winning only one showdown. Eoghan O’Dea mixed styles, sometimes being the aggressor with pre-flop raises, and sometimes allowing the other players to do the betting. Neither style worked for him today, as he won no pots, and went home in sixth place.

Martin Staszko played somewhat conservatively until the number of players dwindled. Ben Lamb, too, waited until the play was down to four players before challenging the pot. Pius Heinz, being short-stacked. aggressive, and lucky, won pots to end the day with a very large chip lead over his two remaining opponents, Ben Lamb and Martin Staszko. By the end of the day, the World Series of Poker Final Table Preview predictions appeared deceptively simpler.

November 9, the final day of the main event found the World Series of Poker Final Table Preview to be wildly unpredictable, as Martin Staszko quickly became the chip leader, eliminating Ben Lamb in hand 182 of the final table. Pius Heinz watched his chips whittle away until hand 293, when he started a comback. It was complete. With the ups and downs over the two days, Pius Heinz emerged the mostly unpredicted winner of the 2011 World Series of Poker, walking away with 8.7 million dollars.

October 25th, 2011 – No issue can be best resolved without conducting a strategic dialogue between the two parties involved. This holds true even for the debate surrounding the online gambling in the USA. The Federal government is battling it out with the huge lacunae in the tax revenues and the ways through which they can make more money and increase their revenue by levying more taxes on the already burdened taxpayers or the working group of America.

According to the lobbyists who are vying for positive change, proclaim that online gambling if legalized can raise a substantial amount of revenue for the government and can create jobs. There has been a ray of hope as the hearing on the online gambling is being tabled before the House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on October 25, 2011.

The lobbying endeavors of the millions of Poker player’s alliance has been regular and has come at a cost. There is an invitation for Chairman, Alfonse D’Amato to serve as a witness in front of the Subcommittee and convey the message of the organization to the delegates who will look to highlight the skills versus the chance of the poker debate.

On reacting to the invitation, John Pappas, PPA’s executive director said that, “Given the committee’s interest in player protections, I think it is appropriate that someone from the PPA testifies,” “It’s certainly a big moment for the organization and we’re very excited that D’Amato has been invited”.

Initially, it was predicted that the proposed bill by Congressman Joe Barton would end the debate over the online gambling in the country after the Congressman decided to make existing laws related to gambling more stringent. However, it has now become conspicuous that the Subcommittee’s investigations would be considered as a safe factor for online gambling.

Signup today at Poker Player Alliance to become a member.

October 23rd, 2011 – There is still time to take advantage of the fabulous online poker room promotion offered by Americas Cardroom. The buy-in into this tournament is $100+9 or satellites start from as low as $4.40 to join. The tourney will be held on October 24th, at 8pm EST and it includes the prizes for top 3 players, no matter if you finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, you will receive a package worth $3,500 which will include a 5 night stay, the main even buy-in, unlimited alcohol and food, you will be treated like a rock star.

Take advantage of this monthly promotion by the most popular online poker room the Americas Cardroom and check out more of theirs weekly or daily promotions and bonuses.

One of the most popular online poker room, Carbon Poker, is proud to present to all poker players that they will be sponsoring a huge $15,000 Carbon Poker League. The CP league is continuous tournament series, where players collect points to be qualified for the added $10,200. The big final, which will be the final showdown, will take place on January 8th at 1pm, EST. The poker league starts October 11th running until the Big Final tournament on Jan. 8th.

Carbon Poker will also contribute a weekly cash buy-in to tournaments every Tuesday and Friday at 1pm EST. The better you finish in the tournament the more points you will receive towards the main event. CP will also offer three freerolls for 50 Carbon Poker VIP points as the entry fee, playing for the league points and free added $1,000 prize. The freerolls will take place on Nov 3rd, Dec 1st and Dec 29th.

Top 30 players who will finish in the Carbon Poker League will qualify for the Big Final event on Jan. 8th, to where 15 of those 30 players are automatically quaranteed $100, to where the first place will take the main prize pool of $2,250.