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In a surprise move it has been revealed that Gala have cancelled their popular poker tour of the UK in exchange for an increased emphasis towards their online operations. The move has been particularly surprising for many because the tour is widely recognised as one of the more popular in the UK attracting the vast majority of UK professional poker players as well as those looking to make a name for themselves.

The announcement that the company wishes to concentrate on its online operations does make sense in the current economic climate but many believe they is still demand for a live poker tour throughout the UK. The company will now hold a series of Jackpot games with guaranteed prize money approaching $14 million, something which is sure to catch the eye of poker players around the world. The company will also be launching a number of satellite games for entry into some of Europe’s largest poker tournaments.

One major concern going forward is the fact that many of the competing UK poker tours have been significantly less successful than the Gala tour which does not bode well for the future. If Gala does not believe that a tour of the UK is financially sensible then where does this leave the other UK poker tour operators.  Too bad to hear this, I hope this won’t be a trend for 2009.

As reported by the Marshall News Messenger: “A three-month investigation culminated in the recent arrests of two individuals on gambling-related charges, according to Harrison County District Attorney Joe Black.

“Black said deputies with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office arrested the owner and the manager of a business known as ‘Lucky’s’ located on U.S. Highway 80 between Hallsville and Longview on Dec. 21.

“Bruce Scott, 36, of Longview, the owner of the business, faces charges of keeping a gambling place, gambling promotion and possession of a gambling device or equipment.

“Judy Dorris, 44, the manager, faces similar charges, Black said.

“According to the district attorney, officers seized more than 40 machines during the 9:30 a.m. raid at the business. In addition, proceeds of the business as well as vehicles and trailers used in the operation of the business were seized…”  I doubt this will lead the authorities to anyone higher up the food-chain.

Effective from 1 pm on 28th November 2008, Cantor Casino will cease to accept new customers and will take no further wagers.

Lots of rumors have been floating about but none are confirmed.  There might even be a sellout in progress.

‘From now on, Cantor’s gaming interests will focus on wholesale markets with the licensing of its proprietary technology, software, content, intellectual property and data to online casino operators and resort-based casino operators, the latter following extensive trials and the authorities’ approval of its eDeck™ mobile gaming device in Nevada. As such, a decision has been taken to scale back the retail-oriented gaming businesses in the United Kingdom and focus on core wholesale market operations around the world.”

I have never heard much about this casino but I am a proud supporter of the industry as a whole so it hurts to see anyone go down and out.

Henry Orenstein is set to be honoured at the upcoming World Series of Poker main event final table and while many would be scratching their heads wondering what he has done, he is the inventor of the now famous card cam which is a vital element of TV poker throughout the world.

As we all know TV poker has become something of an unexpected hit on the worldwide stage and events such as WSOP 2008 are set to bring in yet more new viewers to the game. The card cam allows viewers at home to see what cards each player has, calculate the risks they are taking and predict who has a stronger hand. Thankfully precautions have been taken to ensure that no player at the table can receive any sort of information provided by the card cam which would effectively void any game.

This years WSOP event will also see Duane “Dewey” Tomko honoured for his unbelievable 35 year participation record in the Texas Hold ‘em main event. This 35 year association with WSOP has netted “Dewey” over $2.5 million in winnings.  It is funny how this idea took so long to come to fruitition.  Now if someone can just invent something spectacular like this for online poker games.

Long-time established online gambling software provider, Cryptologic (TSX:CRY) , has been anticipating operating losses of $1 million to $1.5 million in the current quarter, the foreign exchange loss was expected to bring that number to $3.6 million due to what it called “the rapid and unexpected appreciation of the U.S. dollar against U.K. sterling and the euro in recent weeks and a delay in converting the funds into U.S. dollars.”

The Dublin Ireland-based company has moved most of its cash and marketable securities into U.S. dollars, its reporting currency, to minimize the impact of further currency market volatility.

“While it is disappointing that financial market volatility will affect our third-quarter results, CryptoLogic has made good progress operationally with the launch of new products, improvements to our technology platform and seven new customer wins so far this year,” stated CEO Brian Hadfield.

We will look hopefully forward to a strong fourth quarter with revenue increasing.

American football stars organised a blackjack event to help raise money for ex-NFL players. Wbay reports that various pro football stars from the popular US sport got involved in the traditional casino table game in New Buffalo, Indiana. Money raised was earmarked for former professionals who did not earn as much as today’s stars and need money for surgery or day-to-day living costs.

There was some $20,000 raised in total for the this cause. Ex-Green Bay Packers halfback Paul Hornung was one of the former greats involved in the blackjack activity. “I get $900 (£490) a month. Players of today and 15 years back, if they played 11 years and get early retirement, get $8,000,” he claimed, adding that says to people like him “‘you’re not important’”.

This comes after hip hop star Jay-Z recently revealed to Time Out magazine that he enjoys playing blackjack when he heads to London, although he did not reveal which gambling venues he favours.  It is rumored that Jay-Z plays $50k per hand!!  Wow that is my yearly salary!!

The tile really says it all, if you love poker and you have played Omaha before you know how frustrating it is to see three villians chase you to the river and then watch the nuts evaporate into thin-air.

This happened to me on two huge hands in a live $2/4 game this past Friday night.  The first hand I flopped the nut straight and the turn made me the nuts one higher but then the river paired the board up and a boat creamed me.  Then latter on someone scored a royal flush on the river to kill my house.

Those two hands alone cost me around $300 and eventhough I was fairly lucky on some other hands I still left in the negative.  That is Omaha for you!

Life doesn’t always deal you a great hand but sometimes being lucky at gambling comes to those of us that have learned about life at the school-of-hard-knocks.  I started gambling semi-professionally around 2 years ago and have cashed in over $96k in small poker tourneys.  I am now tring to establish myself in online poker.