To say that it has been an eventful week for the internet gambling and online poker industries would be an enormous understatement. A three judge Court of Appeals panel overturned a lower court decision on Tuesday, preserving 141 of the world’s largest internet gambling domain names for the foreseeable future. On Wednesday, the Commonwealth of Kentucky appealed to its Supreme Court. Poker News Daily took the pulse of the online poker industry to gauge its reaction to the recent events.

The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative (SSIGI) has been at the forefront of the fight for the industry on both Capitol Hill and in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The SSIGI has focused its efforts on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and is endorsed by groups such as eCOGRA and the Remote Gambling Association. On this week’s victory in Kentucky, SSIGI spokesperson Michael Waxman told Poker News Daily, “We are pleased that the Court has decided not to interfere with the freedom of the internet. Now, we need to bring change to our country by allowing Americans the freedom to gamble online in an environment where they are protected.” The SSIGI and the rest of the industry now await word on whether the Kentucky Supreme Court will hear the case involving the seizure and potential forfeiture of 141 of its largest domain names, including those belonging to PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

The proceedings in the Court of Appeals, which occurred in Louisville, have been followed by online poker rooms around the world, as the domain names of many of them were singled out in the case. Paul Leggett, Chief Operating Officer of Tokwiro Enterprises, which owns and operates Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, told Poker News Daily what his reaction was to Tuesday’s successful Court of Appeals ruling: “We really hope that this case brings more serious attention to the complete legalization of online poker in the United States. Online poker is enjoyed recreationally by so many people, and taxing it will only benefit states financially and provide a better experience and security to their players.”

The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA), whose lawyers have argued in front of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and Circuit Court, learned with the rest of the industry that the Commonwealth would appeal the case to its Supreme Court. Joe Brennan, Chairman of iMEGA, told Poker News Daily, “We’re not surprised that Governor Beshear and Secretary J. Michael Brown are appealing our win in the Kentucky Court of Appeals. They’ve put a lot of political capital into this and they’ve called us just about every name in the book. Given that, it’s likely they feel they can’t back down now and let the Court of Appeals decision stand, regardless.”

Brennan also described how the Commonwealth’s lawyers are allegedly being paid. He explained to Poker News Daily, “The Commonwealth’s attorneys have a vested interest in taking this to the next level, too. They’ve reported spent millions of their own money in preparing this suit and ones like it in other states. Without a win in Kentucky, where they took this suit on a contingency basis, it is likely those other suits won’t get off the ground, and they’ll have lost their own big bet.” Taking a case on contingency typically means that lawyers are only paid in the case of a successful ruling. Then, a portion of damages and other monetary gains are given as compensation for their work.

Other organizations in the industry have also weighed in after Tuesday’s successful ruling. Jeremiah Johnston, the President of the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) told the Associated Press that the issue of whether states can seize international property in cyberspace remains unsettled despite the Court of Appeals’ decision: “That wild card is still out there. In the end, it’s a positive ruling, so we’ll take it.” On the organization’s website, Johnston added, “The Concurring Opinion also agreed with the ICA’s point that the court lacked authority to proceed in rem against a domain name. This detail, in the long term, may turn out [to be] the more important result for ICA members.” Sponsors of the ICA include DigiMedia, Sedo, and Domainer’s Magazine.

There has been no timetable given as to when the Kentucky Supreme Court will announce whether it will take on the case. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest reactions to the Kentucky internet gambling ruling and appeal.

Source: http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/industry-reacts-to-kentucky-internet-gambling-ruling-and-appeal-959/

Online poker, or poker for that matter, is a challenging game. It is a game of skill; from knowing what to with his cards down to controlling one's facial reactions - these are just among the abilities that a good poker player must exhibit. It the absence mental discipline, the online poker player is prone to make mistakes.

In this post, we will be discussing the mistakes that can be calamitously costly. In order to avoid such mistakes, we of course need to know what these are.  So below are some of the common mistakes that both landbased and online poker players commit during a loose-agreesive game.

• Trying to figure out what the opponents are thinking - Altough it is necessary to study one's opponents and in turn predict what they will do, in loose-aggressive games, this aspect of playing poker takes a back seat. There is one sweeping motivation in loose-aggressive games, and this is called competition. Thus, the poker player should not waste time trying to guess and second guess what his opponents are thinking.

• Being on a tilt - A poker player, in aggressive games may find himself to be on a tilt or basing his decisions on his emotions. And such often happens because in a loose-aggressive game, the player will experience extreme swings in his bankroll. That is, if the player loses, he loses big. And if he wins, he also wins big. When a player is losing, he will not want to leave because he wanted to recover the money that he lost. But when the player is winning, he will also want to stay because he wants to win more.

• Not considering the size of the pot - When the poker player just calls, bets, or raises, without considering whether the pot is large or small, then this player is simply wasting money. When the pot is small, it may not be a good idea to stay in the game. Staying will be costly. But when the pot is large, it betting will be a good idea, especially when a lot of players have remained in the game.

• Hoping for the improbable - In Texas Hold'em, the player who has folded will still see the last community card or the river card. And sometimes, when the last card is revealed, the player who folded could have formed a winning hand, if only he has not folded. If the poker player has experienced this many times, he may forget about playing good strategy and will play even the flimsy hands, hoping that the cards will be improved when the river card is opened. But such is a mistake. Because, as time moves on, the good strategy will bring in the profits.

There is a fierce competition among online gambling sites, and as way of attracting more customers, online casinos offer "fun play" or more commonly known as "free play". - CyberArts

If you are very new to online gambling, it is best that you start with free plays before wagering any of your money to  online casinos. This way you'd get to try out the game, get to know the process and essentially get to know the online casino firsthand, without the need to reach our for that credit card.

There are a lot of online gambling sites that offer free play and OnlineCasinoTopic is one of them. OnlineCasinoTopic offers free online games such Video Slots, online Blackjack and a game of free online Roulette. The games are all powered by Java so make sure that you have a plug-in installed in order to run the game properly.

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In general what I like about onlinecasinotopic's games is that it download fasts and the graphics are good. However at some point, I grow tired after several (let's say 5) rounds, a pop-up window appears and ask me to play for money. You can always say no but then you'd be redirected to another site even if you decline the offer which is a bit of hassle since I'd have to press "Back" each time, to return to the free game. Nonetheless, their strategy is a good way of reeling in players who are interested in wagering some of their money. Other than the OnlineCasinoTopics, there are a lot of online gambling sites that offer free plays such as Pure Play and among others.

"PokerOffice is much more than just a poker odds calculator and online poker software. It is the most sophisticated online poker software tool on the market for Online Texas Hold'em Poker. PokerOffice allows you to track all of your opponent's actions as well as your own poker game while you are playing, without any need for hand histories or user input."

PokerOffice is a real time online poker odds calculator that allows you to model your opponents and calculate probabilities of future hands, while playing. PokerOffice is an online poker software that shows you pot odds, outs, draw odds, and a host of other statistics right there on the table, it will give you accurate and detailed information on your opponents.  With a quick glance at the screen you can view how often your opponents raise pre-flop, the percentage of flops they've seen, and even the current pot odds (including many more statistics).  It also auto rates your opponents play, adjusting in real time to show how much of a threat they are including providing such statistics as aggression, BB/100 hands, how often they defend their blinds, pre/post flop stats, and much more.  The in-game overlay is a great help in identifying fish and strong players.  You can even have it watch a table in order to record the play there before joining yourself.  Some people record play at several tables for a half hour before joining in order to choose the juiciest tables.

The favorite addition of PokerOffice is it's ability to view the opponent's mucked hands. This will double any player's in-game note taking and is very useful in helping players categorize other players, especially at the low limit tables where many players are pretty predictable.

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Read more about PokerOffice here: www.pokeroffice.com

I recently learned how to play Big 2 and I have been quite interested about it. If you are not quite familiar with Big 2, it is basically a card game wherein the objective of the player is to discard all of his cards. Two, three or four players can play this game although it is often mistaken as Chinese poker, Big 2 is actually a different game with a different nature.

The game originated from Hong Kong and it spread as Chinese families decided to migrate in different parts of the world. This card game has many names, including Big Deuce, Big Two, Thirteen (Names used mainly in Australia and USA), Top Dog (Used mainly with Vietnamese Americans), Da Lao Er (Mandarin Chinese), Choh Dai Di, Dai Di (both Hokkien), and Pusoy Dos (a Philippine variant of the game). 

This card game is called Big two since the number 2 is considered as the highest card number while the highest card suit is Spades (Technically 2 Spades is the highest card in this game). In decending order, the rank of the card number is 2, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4  and 3. In decending order also the cards suits are ranked from spades as the highest, followed by hearts, then clubs (or clovers) and lastly diamonds.

The player who holds the 3 Diamonds (the lowest valued card) will lay his cards down first, in an effort to get rid of low value cards. Since Big 2 is a climbing game, the lay downs are in ascending value according to the hand-ranking scheme similarly used in Poker. The game ends when a player has disposed all of his cards and the other players are penalized according to their remaining cards.

Cyber Art's Online Big Two Gaming Platform

Online gaming has many comforts as you see that's why I have been trying to search for online casinos that offer online Big 2. I saw that Cyber Arts, an online poker software developer, has already created an online gaming platform for Big 2; however this online game has yet begun an online gambling frenzy... I'm sure that pretty soon the online gaming industry catch on. To mention an online online gambling site that offers Big two, Tiger Gaming is one although there are others but I'm not fully satisfied with their website. TigerGaming is owned and operated by Ecom Enterprises, a fully owned subsidiary of Playsafe Holding AS, a publicly listed company in Norway (OTC).