College: Poker at Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO

“With the start of the new school year, excitement is in the air as the poker scenes on campuses across the nation are set to pick up once again. The beginning of summer meant the end for most poker events on and off campus, but with the new school year on the horizon, college poker life is set to bloom.

Student poker players in the small Missouri college town of Columbia can travel on and off the University of Missouri campus to find many different options to satisfy their poker appetites. No matter the size of the bankroll, Columbia offers ideal poker settings for students.

Education: Hoping to draw full house for a Texas Hold’em class (Pennsylvania)

“The Trumbull County Career & Technical Center is willing to teach you when to hold’em and when to fold’em — for a $30 fee.That’s the cost of a No Limit Texas Hold’em Poker course being offered this month at the TCTC Adult Training Center at 528 Educational Highway.

It’s designed for people with little or no experience with the popular card game that has been sweeping the nation for the past couple of years.

League: Riverchasers Poker Tour a win-win proposition (Pennsylvania)

“Poker players over the age of 21 in Schuylkill County have a venue that creates all the excitement, camaraderie and competition of a live game in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

Riverchasers Poker Tour is an amateur Texas Hold ‘Em league whose popularity is growing with young and old throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Texas Hold ‘Em is a form of seven-card draw poker.

Currently, 12 venues in the Schuylkill County area hold Riverchasers tournaments each week.

Player: Blind Poker Player Being Featured on ESPN (Las Vegas, NV)

“It was only about three years ago when Hal Lubarsky’s failing eyesight made it impossible for him to play poker. Thanks to a disease called retinitis pigmentosa, the darkness slowly closed onto the center of his eye, and it led him to a point he knew was coming – his eyesight had been deteriorating basically since he was born. He would soon be blind, and one day Lubarsky said to himself that he couldn’t play poker anymore, something he’d done since he was a boy in Brooklyn. It was a sad day among sad days when he decided to give it up.

Event: The First Annual California Poker Players Conference To be Held at Hollywood Park

“The First Annual California Poker Players Conference — CPPC — will be held on Saturday, October 20, and Sunday, October 21 at the Hollywood Park Casino, Inglewood, California, in conjunction with the twelve-day National Championship of Poker Tournament. The theme for the two-day Conference is Gain a POSITIVE EXPECTATION! Learn to be a WINNING Poker player

According to Phyllis Caro, Director of Poker Operations at the Hollywood Park Casino: “Attendees will gain more solid information about winning poker during this two-day conference than they could ever hope for!” Helping to organize the event are Robert Turner, Poker Manager of the Normandie Casino, and George “The Engineer” Epstein, columnist for Poker Player newspaper, poker lecturer, and teacher of poker classes for senior citizens.

Television: Jean-Robert Bellande a “Survivor”

“CBS officially announced the cast of Survivor: China, yesterday and professional poker player Jean-Roberts Bellande was on the list.

There were rumors Bellande would star in the reality television show, which has contestants duke it out for more than 30 days in a remote location, for months but this is the first official confirmation.

Politics: Schipske ups ante on city casinos (Long Beach, CA)

“Schipske could not be reached for comment on Sunday, but said on her blog at schipskedistrict5journal.com that recent mainstream coverage of gambling has caused her to change her mind on the subject.

“I would not have proposed this several years ago …,” she wrote. “The reason I have changed my mind about pursing this avenue is that poker has become mainstream through the televised games of the World Poker Tour (WPT) – which is based in Culver City and should be lured away to set up shop in Long Beach.”

Media: ESPN, poker make a fine pair

“There’s one way to gauge how much more room the World Series of Poker has left to expand on ESPN. It hasn’t gotten big enough to where Chris Berman has demanded a part of the show.

But who’s to say that’s not in the cards.

The network that since 1988 has given credibility and visibility to the pursuit of a royal flush as a sports-slash-entertainment spectacle launches a new round of WSOP Main Event shows Tuesday, starting with back-to-back hour-long episodes at (5 and 6 p.m., followed by dozens of repeats for the next eight weeks.

Tournament: Jeff Haney runs down the main events of the National Poker League, which has just gained a base at the Venetian (Las Vegas, NV)

“The National Poker League, which despite its name is actually pound-for-pound the most international of the major poker circuits, has found a new home base at the Venetian. The Venetian poker room will host two of the league’s five events this year including its world championship event, a three-day, $15,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament scheduled for Dec. 3-5.

Press Release: I-play goes all in as ‘Win at Texas Hold Em’ mobile video launches!

“I-play, the mobile entertainment company, today announced the launch of another trail blazing offering with the first ever ‘made for mobile’ video on how to ‘Win at Texas Hold Em’, presented by Daniel Negreanu, arguably the most successful tournament player in poker history. The Win at Texas Hold Em video is now live on Sprint and Cingular and will be rolled out across other major North American carriers over the next few months. I-play’s diversification into mobile video capitalizes on the huge opportunity this space presents while leveraging the company’s partnerships and proprietary technology strengths.