Free casino tips » texas holdem http://www.freetipscasino.com for a lucky online experience Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:28:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Online Poker http://www.freetipscasino.com/online-poker-2.html http://www.freetipscasino.com/online-poker-2.html#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:12:11 +0000 admin http://www.freetipscasino.com/?p=408 What I have compiled is a collection of the best information I can find on the subject of “Is Online Poker legal?”.

Several recent events in congress has brought attention to the legal standing of online wagering in general. The first thing to understand is the skill game of poker is not the same as sports betting nor even “random chance” casino games like craps and roulette. It may be treated the same eventually, or it may not. Legal precedent for a lot of this simply does not exist. As of this article, no person has been charged, brought to trial, convicted, or sentenced for playing online poker. But this does not guarantee that if will not happen in the future.

In my research I found that Professor I. Nelson Rose, Professor of Law, Whittier Law School Costa Mesa, Ca, is one of the world’s leading authorities on gambling law. He states that “no United States federal statute or regulation explicitly prohibits Internet gambling, either domestically or abroad.” Still, the US government has taken the position that certain things are illegal, and more importantly, certain things are worthy of prosecution. The Wire Act is the statute most often cited as making on-line gambling a federal offense. He notes that the operative subsection reads: “Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

Rose goes on to say: “The first element of the Wire Act, says that the statute applies only to an individual involved in the ‘business of betting or wagering’ (not to a common player).”

The question of whether Internet sportsbetting is covered by the Wire Act seems to have been answered by the US Supreme Court’s refusal to review the conviction of Jay Cohen. Whether online casinos and online poker cardrooms are covered under the aimed-at-sportsbetting Wire Act is a different question. In February 2001, Judge Stanwood Duval of the US District Court in New Orleans ruled that it did not: “‘in plain language’ [the Wire Act] does not prohibit Internet gambling ‘on a game of chance.’”

On November 21, 2002, the US Fifth Circuit Federal Appeals Court upheld Duval’s ruling, stating: “The district court concluded that the Wire Act concerns gambling on sporting events or contests… We agree with the district court’s statutory interpretation, its reading of the relevant case law, its summary of the relevant legislative history, and its conclusion.”

The Appeals Court further states: “Because we find neither the Wire Act nor the mail and wire fraud statutes may serve as predicates here, we need not consider the other federal statutes identified by the Plaintiffs… As the district court correctly explained, these sections may not serve as predicates here because the Defendants did not violate any applicable federal or state law.”

The Appeals Court specifically cites Duval’s statement: “[A] plain reading of the statutory language [of the Wire Act] clearly requires that the object of the gambling be a sporting event or contest.” This is very explicit language. You would have to jump through a lot of mental hoops to consider the playing of online poker to be “a sporting event”.

So, while the US Justice Department recently stated that the Wire Act covers casino games in addition to sports wagering, the Federal Appeals Court has directly ruled that that interpretation is not correct. This is not a small disagreement. It is a direct contradiction that could well spur the creation of new, 21st Century Federal legislation that actually deals with these issues. One bill introduced by James Leach of Iowa, aims to inhibit the ability of citizens to gamble online. It however does nothing to criminalize actual gambling online. But other bills may be introduced in the future with that goal.

Gambling regulation traditionally has been the responsibility of individual states. For instance, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer reached a settlement with Citibank and PayPal regarding their involvement with online gaming. Some individual states have laws prohibiting any form of gambling online (or any gambling for that matter). That is a different issue from whether it is legal on a US Federal level.

A key distinction exists on a Federal level between bettors and those operators whose business is to benefit from the actual making of wagers: “engaged in the business of betting or wagering… which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers…” As long as players stay in the “players” category and not in the in-the-business-of-wagering owners/bookies/runners/agents categories, a significant difference in status exists.

There are many ways to read the Wire Act, but only under the broadest interpretation could playing online poker be deemed illegal in terms of the Wire Act. In my opinion (which isn’t worth a hill of beans… only the US Supreme Court’s view will matter unless new legislation passes) playing online poker is not illegal for US citizens, in regards to Federal Law — unless it is a crime in an individual state, in which case the Federal Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 may apply. The Act makes it a federal crime for five or more persons to engage in a gambling business illegal under state law. Gambling online is definitely illegal in some states, but the Crime Control Act of 1970 does not apply to players. In addition, since the Crime Control Act does not refer to foreign commerce, it is hard to see how a case could be made that it applies to Internet gaming across multiple international borders.

Finally, in November 2004, the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda won a World Trade Organization ruling that United States legislation criminalizing online betting violates global laws. In April 2005, the WTO Appellate Body affirmed the principal conclusions involved.

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]]> http://www.freetipscasino.com/online-poker-2.html/feed 0 Hold’em Poker http://www.freetipscasino.com/holdem-poker.html http://www.freetipscasino.com/holdem-poker.html#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:03:57 +0000 admin http://www.freetipscasino.com/?p=402 The reasons for Holdem’s success as a game are numerous, including it’s easy to learn rules, complex advanced strategies, quickness of play and well proportioned balance between luck and skill. It’s inherent properties seem to offer something for all types of poker players. Action junkies will love the quickness play and sophisticated bettors can enjoy learning the endlessly debated advanced strategies possible. Another big part of the games growth comes from the actuality that the cards and odds often allow for rookie players to win a session or tournament against practiced players. Achieving results, even just occasionally, always encourages new hobbyists to continue playing without intimidation.

Will Holdem always be the poker game of choice, or is it possible another game will become the new favorite? Older poker games like Stud and Draw could possibly regain some momentum however this is an unlikely scenario as these games are currently being shunned by many new action players for their naturally slow pace of play. Other known games like Guts (3 card poker) seem a little too wild and precarious for most players and Pan (a form of chinese poker) is immediately seen as being just too complicated.

It is more likely that a newer game like Crazy Pineapple or Badugi would take over as the number one. Pineapple is essentially a spin-off from Holdem and Badugi is a fun new form of 4-card poker that is played triple-draw for low. These new games can be exciting poker alternatives when a bit of variety is needed in our playing sessions.

Regardless of these tendencies, it’s certain that the Holdem craze is not going to end anytime soon since it has been the introductory game for the biggest wave of new players in history.

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]]> http://www.freetipscasino.com/holdem-poker.html/feed 0 Poker Tournaments http://www.freetipscasino.com/poker-tournaments.html http://www.freetipscasino.com/poker-tournaments.html#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:34:41 +0000 admin http://www.freetipscasino.com/?p=359 When a poker tournament begins, each player usually starts with a healthy stack of chips that are the lowest denomination. After all, you’ll need them to pay the blinds, and probably for all of the betting during the first few blind levels.

But, as time passes and the blinds increase, these smaller chips eventually are more bothersome than helpful. With blinds at $75 and $150, putting up fifteen $10 chips to pay a big blind is not convenient.

So, once a chip value is no longer needed to pay any of the remaining blinds on the schedule, those chips are removed from play. When possible, they are cashed in at face value for a higher denomination chip. But, someone is bound to have the odd chip or two, and that brings us to the question of how to remove those odd chips from play as well.

The first way to deal with this situation is to ignore it. It won’t go away, but those leftover $10 chips will only be put into play when a player is going all-in. At that time you can sort out any situations as they occur. Eventually one player will gather enough of the small chips to cash them in.

Or, you can race off the smallest chips of the smallest value. A chip race begins with the player in the dealer’s position. For each odd chip they have, they receive one card, face up. So, if the dealer has three odd chips, he will receive three cards face up.

This continues around the table until all the players have given their odd chips in exchange for cards.

At that point, the collected chips are totalled and a pile of the same value is made using the next higher chip denomination. So, if $100 worth of $10 was collected, $100 of the next highest chip value (perhaps $25′s) would be set aside to award in the race.

If the numbers do not match, they are rounded up. So, if $120 worth of $10 chips were collected, $125 worth of $25 chips would be awarded in the race.

Now, the awarding of the chips. The player with the highest card receives one chip. Then the player with the second highest card. And so on. Each player may only receive one chip, so once a player is awarded a chip in the race, all of his cards are taken from him.

It is important to note that a chip race cannot eliminate anyone from a tournament. If a player has only one small chip left when the race begins, that chip is traded in for a card as usual. Should he lose in the chip race, and additional chip of the new value is given to him so that he may keep his place in the tournament.

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