Austin Slot meetup next tuesdayThe next Austin Slot meetup is going to be at Rounders Pizzeria,
On November 1 in Dallas, there's a "Dallas Lawyers' Charitable Texas Hold'Em Poker Tournament" benefitting the SPCA. (Via The Scrolldown)
Yawpta
Yet another World Slot Tour article. This one focuses on how the WPT has driven popularity of poker among amateurs.
wpt dvd's
The World Poker Tour has released their series on DVD. It's $199.99 for all 15 episodes, whic includes no real extras. Link
austin Slot meetup next tuesday
The next Austin Slot meetup is going to be at Rounders Pizzeria, 1203 West 6th St., on Tuesday, September 16 at 7pm. The last one was the best one so far, with about 14 people showing up. I'll be there.
For those of you who don't know what a meetup is, you come, meet up with other players, talk poker, eat pizza and find games to go to.
Casual games
There's an article at the Chicago Tribune about "casual games" -- computer games like word games, puzzle games, and checkers which attract a mainstream, less-hardcore gaming crowd. Think housemoms and lawyers rather than post-adolescent programmers.
It's a topic that computer game guru Greg Costikyan has mentioned numerous times -- that the number of people playing small, trivial games like Snood outnumber most "heavier" games.
What's interesting is that this article includes Texas Hold'Em (online, for play money) as the prime example of one of these "casual games."
Suncruz adds sports and horse betting
SunCruz Casinos, the Florida gambling cruise operator, is adding sports and horse betting to its Port Canaveral cruise. It will be the second Florida gambling ship to offer sports and horse betting.
Cocks on film
Stephanie Castillo, a Hawaiian filmmaker, has released an 8-hour documentary on cockfighting in Hawaii and elsewhere that has earned some acclaim.
¿San antonio slots?
The SAPD knows about many illegal slot machine establishments in San Antonio -- they estimate there are over 80 in the city -- but after confiscating 199 machines earlier this year, they've stopped busting illegal slot establishments. ¿Why? Because they've run out of warehouse space.
Betonsports ads
BetOnSports.com has been running a very aggressive ad campaign on local sports radio here in Austin and in a bunch of other markets. The ads tout it as Judi Slot Online the world's "largest legal sportsbook" -- of course neglecting to mention that just because the company is legal (in Antigua) doesn't make it legal in the US.
This article quotes the SC Attorney General as saying that the services they offer are illegal in South Carolina but implies that authorities' hands are tied since the websites are not illegal.
Nevertheless, I have to believe that it's only a matter of time before these ads are banned outright in at least some states.
Play-for-money computer game sites
Last week the New York Times ran an article on on sites where players can play first-person shooter games for money.
"Playing on the site can definitely be more exciting once you get over the fear of losing a few bucks a match," said Vadim Zingman, 25, of Trumbull, Conn., who said he had won about $1,800 at Ultimate Arena by playing about 10 matches a week since the site started up last spring.
video Slot case gets settled
Three video Slot players have reached a final out-of-court settlement after a six-year saga where they filed a lawsuit to recoup their gambling losses from 48 Florida video poker operators. The operators had been allegedly offering payouts greater than the $125 per day allowed by Florida law. After 6 years the 48th operator finally agreed to settle for an unnamed amount. Link
The settlement ends a six-year lawsuit that began as a class-action case filed against 48 video poker operators by former gamblers who claimed video gambling operators fed their addictions by offering illegal payouts.
All of the operators but Collins and his firm settled. Seven gamblers initially were named in Collins' suit but four had dropped out since the first trial, which ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to agree on a verdict. Collins' second trial started last week.
The real question here is, ¿were the settlements enough to give their video poker sessions a positive expectation? :)
Fibonacci straights
Marty has a little flight of fancy about introducing Fibonacci straights into poker.(Thanks, Marc!)
A Fibonacci straight is a hand of 5 cards forming a subsequence of the Fibonacci sequence. So, in poker there would be three such straights: A, A, 2, 3, 5; A, 2, 3, 5, 8; 2, 3, 5, 8, K. The latter two can occur in flush form too.
Based on my quick calculations, the 5-card odds of getting dealt a non-flush fibonacci straight are 925:1, and the odds of getting dealt a fibonacci straight flush are 324,869:1.
