Press Release: The Venetian to become new “Home” of the NPL

“The National Poker League, an international poker organization, announced that they have joined forces with The Venetian Resort~Hotel~Casino in Las Vegas to host the 2007 Vegas Open, scheduled November 24th – 30th, and the World Championship Tournament on December 3rd. The Venetian Poker Room will also serve as the home base for the NPL Broadcast Center for all 26-episodes of the NPL television series airing nationally and internationally to more than a projected 100-million viewers.

Technology: Social Networking + Poker = K9Poker.com

“Social networking is the new hot web concept. Mainstream successes like MySpace and Facebook have brought on a deluge of social networking sites based around a simple idea: Get people together, and people with similar interests will find each other and create something cool.

I’ve long thought that poker was ripe for such a site. Poker networking can help you schedule home games, coordinate trips to Vegas, find people to talk about hands with, and more. You can show off your tournament successes on your profile page, post photos of yourself or friends, or tell bad beat stories on your blog. Poker and social networking are both hot, so they seem like a good match.”

Noted Poker Authority (08/10/07)

Technology: Jeff Haney hears the pitch for a new digital poker table that takes the cards, chips – and dealers – out of the game

“Kenny Rosenblatt recently placed his company’s automated digital poker table in the Hustler Casino, one of Southern California’s temples of poker.

His next goal entails extending the reach of his product to the poker rooms of the Las Vegas Strip.

“We’re planning an expansion into Las Vegas and Atlantic City in the next couple of years,” said Rosenblatt, chief executive of Arkadium Inc., a New York City-based game software company and co-creator of the “FastDeal” computerized poker table.

Event: Bodog Punk-Poker Tournament Returns (Camden, NJ)

“Bodog Entertainment will bring its unique, high-class brand of gaming entertainment to the Warped Tour again this year, when international record label Bodog Music hosts its annual poker tournament at the Tweeter Center in Camden, New Jersey on August 3.

“We are excited to bring our poker tourney back to the Warped Tour this year. By all accounts it was a highlight of last year’s run,” said Calvin Ayre, founder of Bodog Entertainment.

Technology: Buzztime Launches New Upgrades to Their Popular Texas Hold’em Game

“NTN Buzztime, Inc. , a leading developer and distributor of Play Along TV(R) entertainment and technology, today unveiled the newly enhanced edition of its most popular game, Buzztime Texas Hold’em Poker. The Buzztime network, consisting of nearly 4,000 bars and restaurants across North America and the UK, features trivia, sports, casual and casino games played on televisions within each location.

Technology: Nineteen PokerPro Tables Go Live at Four Winds Casino Resort (New Buffalo, MI)

“Four Winds Casino Resort, in New Buffalo, Michigan, opened the world’s largest automated poker room today, running exclusively on PokerTek (NASDAQ: PTEK) poker tables. The Four Winds Poker Room features fifteen PokerPro 10-seat tables and four PokerPro Heads-Up tables.

The Four Winds property, which opened on August 2^nd, is owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and managed by Lakes Entertainment. Four Winds has over 3,000 slot machines, 100 table games, 6 restaurants, 5 bars and 165 hotel rooms in addition to the 19-table poker room.

League: TV drives Heartland Poker Tour

“The World Series of Poker has ended, and there are still several World Poker Tour events remaining. So let us take a look at a poker tournament alternative.

The Heartland Poker Tour will start a league in September.

According to HPT publicity releases, the league will be designed to “bring more poker to the people.”

Women: Card Player and LIPS Partner for Women’s Poker

“The time has come to give the woman poker player one single place to find everything poker, including information regarding the whereabouts of ladies only tournaments.  That place is right here at CardPlayer.com.

I am excited to announce that Card Player and LIPS have partnered in order to bring our readers information specifically geared toward woman poker players.  Together we have created a portal for women’s poker with a variety of new and exciting programs.

Poker draws big crowds, big business (Wilmington, DE)

“It could be argued that Ace Henley’s high school friends saw decades into the future.

“I was the morning [disc jockey] for my high school, and everyone teased me that I needed a nickname,” said Henley, owner of Texas Hold’em Rentals. After a friend randomly suggested Ace, it stuck.

Henley, whose real name is Shannon Michael Haney, is trying to capitalize on the popularity of Texas hold ’em poker.

He travels from bar to bar nearly every night of the week hosting poker games in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Unusual: State Police bust high-tech casino poker scam at Borgata in A.C.

“It was a high-tech variation on one of the oldest tricks in the book, dating back to the Wild West saloon days … cheating unsuspecting poker players by rigging the game.

But the tools in a scam broken up by New Jersey State Police were decidedly 21st century, including tiny video cameras and earpiece radio receivers designed to be undetectable, and laptop computers.

One of the four men arrested is a well-known consultant who charges people for advice on how to detect and thwart casino cheaters.”

Ocean County Observer (07/25/07)