Monday's Poker Water Cooler - Sept. 13

by Bodog Poker | Sep 13 2010

London

The English Poker Open started this weekend, featuring a lineup of some of the top UK talent competing in a £3,750 buy-in tournament.  This has been a really active time for British poker players, with Toby Lewis taking the top spot in the European Poker Tour's stop in Portugal, Jake Cody winning the World Poker Tour London Classic and Sam Trickett walking away with the grand prize in one of the largest online poker tournaments.  Throw in the recent Poker In The Park event and it looks like England and its neighbors are stepping up in a big way.  

This weekend's event saw pros like James Akenhead, Neil Channing, Joe Beevers and Annette Obrestad competing, and we'll have a report for you when it's all wrapped up in a nice bow.

Atlantic City

The World Poker Tour Borgata Open also kicked off this weekend. The 22-event series is one of the biggest stops on the World Poker Tour and the championship event is going to be filmed for Fox Sports Net.  The WPT event runs from 18023 and boasts a guaranteed $2,000,000 prize pool with a buy in of $3,500.

"The Borgata Poker Open provides an incredible opportunity for amateurs as well as poker pros to participate in a unique tournament series, unmatched anywhere on the East Coast," said the Borgata Hotel and Casino's Senior Vice President of Operations, Joe Lupo. "With a $3,500 buy-in, anyone has the chance to take home the trophy, championship money and become a star."
 
Olivier Busquet won last year's event, joining Vivike Rajkumar, Roy Winston, Mark Newhouse, Al Ardebili, Daniel Negreanu and Noil Francisco as champions since the  first event, back in 2003.

Portsmouth, Virginia

Charles Daniels, owner of The Poker Palace, has filed a legal challenge over the ban on the game that was handed down by Commonwealth Attorney Earle C. Mobley.  Portsmouth had become a haven for poker players over the last few years after Mobley had ruled that poker was in a gray area of the state's laws against gaming for money.  However, he flipped his decision in July, stating that the game was analogous to all over forms of gambling that are illegal in Virginia.

Daniels opened the Poker Palace in 2006 on Airline Boulevard and was just the first in a series of venues that opened in the city. The poker halls gave a significant portion of their revenue to charities. According to documents submitted as part of his challenge, Daniels' poker room alone generated more than $700,000 for nonprofits and community service oriented groups, including The Greater Hampton Roads Division of the March of Dimes, the Fraternal Order of Police and the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office Charities.

In his petition, Daniels also states that he spent about $66,000 to renovate and lease a site for his poker operation.  Barry Taylor, Daniels' attorney, stated that the case could have implications far beyond Portsmouth. He and his client intend to prove that Texas Hold ‘Em is a game of skill, not chance, and thus should be considered legal under the state's current gambling law.

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