Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Aces.com Hosts Hollywood Movie Premiere

Tournament & contest winners to get all-expense-paid trips to star-studded L.A. gala

Culminating a summer of special tournaments, prizes and parties, Aces.com will host a gala Movie Premiere Party in Hollywood October 7th to celebrate the release of ACES the Movie, the sexy new poker movie sponsored by the retro-Vegas-style online casino. Tournament and contest winners will win all-expense-paid trips to the party, and hundreds of L.A. area Aces.com players will be invited to join the director and cast at Vanguard Hollywood, one of the biggest dance clubs in Los Angeles. Organized by Hollywood party producer Alex Quinn, this Aces party is sure to be an A-list crowd.

ACES the Movie, from Rolling Stones video director Daniel Zirilli, is the story of three sexy college girls that take a high tech cheating scheme to the underground card rooms of Las Vegas. It will be released on DVD by Warner Brothers October 3rd but new players registering at Aces.com will receive a free copy.

In all, five lucky players will win an all-expense paid trip to the gala movie premiere. Two party prize packages were awarded to Wednesday Night Free Roll Tournament winners in July and another two will be awarded September 13th and 20th. The winner of the Three-Card Poker Tournament September 11 – 18 will also win airfare and accommodation to attend the event.

“It’s an incredible time for Aces.com – with the movie and the new re-designed site, we’re really in the mood to celebrate!” said Rene Quesada Manager of the long-established site that recently underwent a total makeover. “We’ve had a lot of fun with the girls from the movie – hosting our online tournaments and making special appearances at the WSOP last month. It’ll be great to have them all together again in Hollywood!”

Alex Quinn, son of Oscar-winner Anthony Quinn, is known for throwing exclusive invitation-only Hollywood parties.

"What Alex Quinn has done so far is beyond FAB,” says Courtenay Semel, daughter of Yahoo CEO Terry Semel and Quinn’s cohort on the E! reality show ‘Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive’. “His parties are glam and chic, not to mention filled with hotness. They're only going to become more exclusive and the talk of the town. AQ Presents = tres sass to the millionth degree."

The cavernous 20,000 square foot Vanguard Hollywood is one of L.A.’s biggest, trendiest dance clubs – the most technologically advanced and sophisticatedly designed venue in the United States. One Hollywood party-scene blogger says it has a “…frightening mofo light and FX rig on ceiling! Massive sound system that will actually compress your brain with avalanches of bass!”

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

New Season of Reality TV Betting

Fall is here and with the new reality TV season getting into full swing, bettors are salivating at the chance to place their bets on their favorite stars and shows. Whether it’s Rock Star: SUPERNOVA, Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, Amazing Race or American Idol, everybody bets on reality TV – from the producers and networks, hoping their show is a ratings hit, to the fans who phone in their votes and wager on the outcome. Sportsbook.com, the world’s largest online sportsbook and casino and the online pioneer in offering odds on reality TV, has this season’s slate of shows covered.

“Everyone thought reality TV was just an annoying fad when the original Survivor launched years ago, but the shows keep getting better, audiences larger and the concepts more entertaining,” said Alex Czajkowski, Sportsbook.com. “Reality TV is huge business for the networks, advertisers, sponsors and for the betting industry as well. It’s possible that we’ll take in more bets this year on television shows than we have in all previous years combined.”

Rock Star: SUPERNOVA

Lukas Rossi is the front runner to become the front man for SUPERNOVA. The punk rocker is a 10-11 bet to capture the coveted role of leading a band that includes legends Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted and Gilby Clarke. Despite a luke-warm fan response and a bottom three finish last week, Toby Rand remains a strong contender to get behind the mic and sits at 7-5 odds. Controversial Dilana Robichaux continues to get under the skin of her peers – and is starting to aggravate the judges… but so far the leading female is still in the good books with voters and is a 3-1 bet.

Rock Star: SUPERNOVA - Odds to win

Lukas Rossi 10-11
Toby Rand 7-5
Dilana Robichaux 3-1
Magni Asgeirsson 3-1
Ryan Star 4-1
Storm Large 10-1

Dancing with the Stars

The stars are about to take the stage! Professional dancers are going to be tasked with helping footwork challenged musicians, actors, talk show hosts and former professional athletes become proficient ballroom performance dancers. The season three line-up features 11 dancers, more than ever before.

Saved By the Bell beefcake Mario Lopez is the current leader to get his steps down with odds of 3-1. Hollywood siren Vivica Fox will channel her choreography skills from Kill Bill to get in time with partner Nick Kosovich. Fox is currently Lopez’s biggest challenger at 4-1. Pulling up the rear is Jerrry Springer. Running out of the way of chair wielding guests didn’t earn him much credibility as a dancer, the former talk show host is a 30-1 bet to win the competition.

Beginning September 12th, Dancing with the Stars will air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.

Dancing With The Stars 3 - Odds to Win

Mario Lopez 3-1
Vivica Fox 4-1
Monique Coleman 11-2
Joey Lawrence 6-1
Harry Hamlin 6-1
Willa Ford 8-1
Sara Evans 8-1
Emmitt Smith 15-1
Shanna Moakler 15-1
Tucker Carlson 18-1
Jerry Springer 30-1

Survivor Cook Islands

Jeff Probst is ready to snuff out some more torches. The eleventh season of Survivor is about to get underway. Sportsbook.com is offering odds of whether the sole survivor will be a man or a woman and bets for each currently sit at 5-6. In the past ten Survivor seasons five women and five men have won the competition. The rubber match begins Thursday, September 14th in the Cook Islands and can be seen on CBS at 8pm ET.

Survivor – Odds to Win

Male 5-6
Female 5-6

Amazing Race

Ready for your pit stop? The Emmy Award winning Amazing Race is in its ninth season and odds makers at Sportsbook.com have betting options ready. Past winners include three married couples and four sets of best friends who are male. Currently a male/female pair is a 13-10 bet and a male team is 11-10. The current long shot is a female team at 3-2.

The season will launch with a special 90-minute premiere on September 17, 2006 at 8:30pm ET on CBS.

Amazing Race – Odds to Win

Male/Male Team 11-10
Male/Female Team 13-10
Female/Female Team 3-2

American Idol

Contestants are lining up to take a tongue lashing from Simon Cowell for the season six instalment of American Idol. Kelly Clarkson was the first songstress to win the hearts of American voters. She was followed by Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Hicks. The odds for a male or female winning the top spot each stand at 10-11.

American Idol – Odds to win

Male 10-11
Female 10-11

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Hip Hop Star Domino Makes Cameo Appearance in Aces.com’s Sexy New Poker Movie

Domino was one of several hip-hop celebrities to sit down at the final table in ACES, the new poker movie sponsored by online casino Aces.com. Hollywood director Daniel Zirilli brought in old pal and platinum recording artist Domino for the roll. Scott Kusmirek, drummer for the platinum-selling rock group, the Gin Blossoms, also played a cameo role in the sexy poker movie.

Aces.com is no stranger to the music industry. Snoop Dog and other stars at the Radio Music Awards in Vegas hung out at Aces.com’s backstage poker table. One of them even ended up winning $32K playing cards with the free money Aces.com had put in their account.

“This movie is full of great music,” said Rene Quesada, Aces.com’s Manager. “It’s cool they got these hip hop stars to play in the high stakes game in Rio at the end. Talk about poker faces…”

Domino's Sweet Potatoe Pie was a pop and R&B hit from his self-titled 1993 debut LP. Three years later, Domino delivered his less successful second album, Physical Funk. Dominology followed in 1997. D-Freaked It marked his long-awaited follow-up in summer 2001.

Zirilli has directed three music videos for Domino including Money is Everything, Long Beach Thing and his first number one platinum hit Ghetto Jam which quickly became the number one MTV music video in the world at the time.

Zirilli founded PopArt Film Factory in 1990, and has directed and produced over two hundred music videos for artists including The Rolling Stones, Redman, Scarface, Master P, Najee, Cypress Hill, and recent Oscar winners Three 6 Mafia.

What happens in Vegas, happens at Aces.com where online gamblers can find ALL the gambling options they enjoy in Las Vegas: casino games, poker, sports betting and horses. New players each receive a free copy of the ACES the Movie DVD.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Venerable Vegas Site Gets New Games & Poker School in Makeover

After millions of games and billions in wagers, Aces.com launched a new and improved site this week. The long-popular online casino with the easy-to-remember name is keeping its retro Vegas look and feel, and still offers every kind of gambling found on The Strip, but has added new instant-play games and a new Poker School & Casino School for newbies.

“Most of our players are old school gamblers. They like Vegas.” said Aces.com Manager Rene Quesada, “So we’re keeping a re-vamped ‘rat pack’ look and we still offer everything Vegas offers: casino games, poker, horses and sports betting. We just modernized our games – new instant-play Flash games that don’t require downloading or installation – and we’ve added a lot more resources, especially for inexperienced players.”

Most casino and poker sites have the basic rules of their games buried somewhere on their site, but the new Aces.com Casino School and Poker School provide more thorough and easier-to-understand explanations of both game play and betting procedures than most. The Aces.com Sportsbook and Horsebook both feature easy-to-understand animated tutorials and there’s even a Texas Hold ‘Em video tutorial by the star of the new poker movie Aces.com is sponsoring.

“Aces.com has been around since 1998 and a lot of our players are experienced gamblers that have been playing with us for years,” said Quesada, “But, especially with this summer’s movie promotion, we’re seeing more and more new players that want to play but need a little help with how to bet, especially in one of the most popular games, Texas Hold ’Em.”

As the sponsor of ACES the Movie, Aces.com is sending all new players a copy of the sexy new movie about three beautiful young women that take on the underground card rooms of Las Vegas. The new site features clips and photos from the movie in addition to the Texas Hold ’Em video tutorial with the movie’s star, Lacey Toups.

Like Las Vegas, Aces.com attracts a lot of celebrities so players never know when they’re going to be playing against a movie star or rock icon. Snoop Dogg, Lance Bass, Deborah Gibson, Lauren Holly all have accounts at Aces.com. Wednesday night tournaments are frequently hosted by the stars of Aces the Movie.

No fly-by-night operation, Aces.com is part of Sportingbet Plc, the world’s biggest online gambling company. Known and trusted for years, Aces.com has a reputation for quick payouts, exemplary customer service and generous bonuses and promotions.

Beginner's Luck

New Player Wins $116,828 Slotland.com Jackpot

A new player has hit the sixth major jackpot of the year at Slotland.com. “Iringion” of Massachusetts won $116,828 playing the popular Wild Heart slot machine at the world’s most popular slots site.

“I wasn’t even a real slots fan before this,” said the excited winner. “I used to prefer online poker and other card games, but after this experience you can be sure I love spinning slots now!”

“Some people think you have to play slots a lot before you win anything,” said Hannah Morante of Slotland.com, “But this beginner winning a very big jackpot after playing such a short time shows that anyone can win any time.”

“Iringion” decided to try out Slotland’s unique games when he realized that several are, in fact, card games.

“I’ve found the Slotland card games to be quite loose,” said the winner. “I just figured that there are more slots and players probably play the slots more often than the card games, which is why I see so many slot machine jackpots. I did recall Striking Sevens hitting recently, so I really was not expecting the jackpot by playing the card games! “

On his winning session, Slotland’s most recent progressive jackpot winner knew he’d really hit a groove of nice paying hands when he saw a couple of straight flushes and several four of a kinds land in his lap while playing Jacks or Better. When he switched to Wild Hearts, it was slow at first and he was down $600. Then he was dealt three Wild Royal Flushes for an automatic $1,500 win – and there were still two wild cards in each deck. Agonizing for a moment about whether or not to take the guaranteed $1500 or go for the glory, with a progressive jackpot or over $116,000 luring him to give it a try, he trusted his decision to a flip of a coin.

“When the cards came up, I will never forget seeing that beloved jack of diamonds fall on the bottom line!” recalls the winner of his winning hand. “And can you believe it? I also DID get another wild card on the middle line! Kind of like extra frosting on an amazing cake!”

“Our jackpots get hit so often – usually every six weeks or so – and for such large amounts, you’d think we’d get used to hearing about yet another big winner,” said Hannah Morante of Slotland.com. “But the whole office always gets excited whenever a players has this kind of good luck!”

Asked what he plans to do with his big win, the winner said he still hasn’t calmed down enough to think that far. “I never expected it to be me to win the jackpot, so I never really thought very hard about what to do with so much money. But don't worry I am sure I will figure it out!”

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Motorola Razr Best Phone for Mobile Gambling Says Games Pioneer Slotland.com

Have you played casino games on your cell phone yet?!

Mobile gambling is exploding just like online gambling did, and games developers at Slotland.com – recently named one of the best mobile gambling companies in the world -- say the Motorola Razr is one of the best mobile phones for mobile casino games.

“The large screen on the Motorola Razr makes it an obvious choice for mobile gambling,” said Martin Smith, Slotland.com’s Mobile Games Manager, “But it is also one of the most technically advanced mobile phones and supports Java better than most. And Java is what makes our real-money slot machines work on a phone or PDA.”

The mobile platform isn’t like the Internet. There are no standards and inconsistencies among mobile phone brands have slowed development. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola -- everyone develops their own solutions as they go along. That means mobile entertainment providers like Slotland.com have to design versions of every game for every different phone brand. If they could choose one phone as the standard, it would be the Motorola Razr.

Despite the challenges of pioneering new technology, Slotland.com/mobile manages to add a new mobile slot machine every six weeks or so. Coincidently, that’s about as often as Slotland’s huge Progressive Jackpot is hit.

“We’re not playing for quarters here,” laughs Smith. “The jackpots on our mobile games are tied in to the jackpots online and part of that huge prize pool. We had a player recently that won $163K spinning slots on his mobile phone!”

Technical challenges may be slowing the pace to a run, but it seems that no technical difficulty will deter the increasingly popular mobile entertainment platform from being just as big a pop-cultural phenomenon as the Internet. Analysts predict big things for mobile gambling. It's just the scale of bigness they disagree on. Informa estimates the current mobile gambling market to be worth about $1.2 billion and predicts it to reach $7.6 billion by 2010. Mintel forecasts the business will grow to $3 billion in the U.S. alone by 2009. Juniper expects nearly $20 billion worldwide by then.

Recognizing the company’s commitment to unique games and exemplary customer service, Slotland.com was recently named as one of five finalists in the inaugural ME Awards for mobile entertainment “Best Gambling Company” category.

Mobile players can access Slotland.com slot machines from their mobile phone or PDA by logging on at wap.Slotland.com. Information about mobile gambling is online at www.Slotland.com/mobile. Players can make deposits and withdrawals from either their phone or computer.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Web Slots Site Finalist in Mobile Entertainment Awards

ME Awards nomination recognizes Slotland.com’s pioneering contribution to mobile gambling

The world’s most popular slot machine web site has been selected as one of five finalists in the ME Awards “Best Mobile Gambling” category. Slotland.com began offering their popular online games on mobile phones and PDAs last September and is already recognized as a leader in the new field of mobile gambling.

Mobile Entertainment Magazine, which produces the Mobile Entertainment (ME) Awards to honour excellence among those that provide content for mobile devices, announced this week that Slotland.com has been short listed by a group of industry experts as one of the top five mobile gambling providers in the world. The winner will be announced at a gala reception in London, UK September 19, 2006.

If you’re under thirty-five, and especially if you’re North American and/or female, you might think of that Nokia the kids talked you into buying as merely a phone. But if you’re young, male and European, your mobile has probably become an everyday portable entertainment device replacing everything from your MP3 player to your video games. In 2002, when the first Nokia colour phone with Java entered the market, visionaries at Slotland.com recognized an opportunity to be key players in the birth of a totally new entertainment platform. Already leaders in online entertainment, they were uniquely positioned to bring the experience of the web to phones and PDAs. In many important demographic respects, mobile is a whole new game, requiring the company to adapt. But one thing this company knows after providing online entertainment for eight years is that players have an insatiable appetite for new games and that those games have to be unique. The company has opted to develop its own proprietary games and systems so that they can set priorities based on what they know players want.

“We are excited to be one of the pioneers of mobile gambling and strive to emerge as one of the leaders in mobile games in terms of quality and uniqueness of our games, customer service, security and banking, as opposed to sheer quantity of games and services,” said Martin Smith, Slotland.com’s Mobile Games Manager. “This has always been our goal in the web-based gaming and we are sticking to it in the mobile games arena as well.”

”We don’t want to be the 101st vendor offering the same content as the previous hundred. Our games and related services are world-wide unique, they are simply not available from other operators,” adds Smith. “What we have learned in the past is that customers value our uniqueness.”

The award for Best Gambling Company will be given to a company that has created a downloadable gambling game or set up a server platform for handling billing and player registrations – or both. Other categories, such as Best Adult Services Company, Best Music Label, and Best Video & TV Service Provider show that on the new mobile entertainment platform content is king. However, the list of awards also includes Best Handset Company and Best Payment/Billing Provider.

Slotland.com is being recognized in part for the resources they have devoted to developing games for the mobile platform – a daunting task since each game has to be re-designed for every phone model – but also because Slotland.com is a different kind of company.

“Our players choose to play with us because they know we are constantly designing new and better games for them, because they know they can trust us, and because we give award-winning customer service,” said Hannah Morante of Slotland.com. “But they also know how we support amateur sports around the world, and that we’ve built a wonderful new school in an impoverished African village. We’re a different kind of company in that respect.”

Juniper Research estimates the current mobile gambling market to be worth approximately $315 million worldwide and forecasts that the mobile gambling sector will be worth up to $16.6 billion by 2008. Experts predict that by then more than 450 million wireless subscribers will be playing some form of mobile games and that four out of five mobile users – 200 million people in Western Europe and the U.S. -- will be playing internet games on their phones. The Asia-Pacific region currently hosts 70 million mobile gamers with wireless gaming revenues totalling $1.1 billion.

Friday, August 04, 2006

WSOP = World Series of Parties!

I’m just back from a week in Vegas – the opening weekend of the biggest poker event of the year, the WSOP.

My friends at Aces.com asked me to take the stars of the poker movie they’re sponsoring to a few interviews and a bunch of parties. Tough gig or what!?

I had a great time with Christina Morris, who plays the “bad girl” and Sheena Chou, who plays a spoilt Chinese schoolgirl in ACES the Movie. Rene, the Manager of Aces.com joined us as well – somebody had to pick up the tab wherever we went!

I went down a few days ahead of the Aces crew since I had an invitation to the big Bodog party Tuesday night. I didn’t think there’d be a lot of people there since it was the closing party for their big marketing conference – and the conference had been cancelled. I must admit I was a little nervous about flying into the U.S. on a ticket paid for by an online gambling company, the week after the FBI had arrested some high profile online gambling executives. But since a friend of mine had flown to Las Vegas from London the day before with no hassles, and since he would be a much bigger catch than l’il ole me, I figured I was safe.

No one that I talked to in the gambling business had had any trouble at the airport, by the way. But everyone had black tape over any “dot com” they had on the t-shirts and baseball caps they wore to advertise their sites. And I heard that a couple of gambling site operators were arrested during the big poker expo at the Rio. So legal issues were definitely on people’s minds…

Anyway, the Bodog party was packed. It was at one of the trendiest clubs on the Strip: Tao at The Venetian. There were naked or half naked women everywhere but the coolest spectacle were the Chinese acrobats, I thought.

Before my girls arrived from L.A., I went to a PokerShare.com press conference at The Palms. Did you hear? They entered a trained chimpanzee in the WSOP! They made the rounds of Good Morning America and whatnot but the WSOP would have no part of it. Last I saw of Mikey, he was partying at the Bluff Magazine party I went to at the Hard Rock my last night in Vegas.

I’d scored an invitation to Howard and Suzie Lederer’s private WSOP party for Thursday night. I also wanted to take Christina and Sheena to the Pocket5s.com party at the New York New York Hotel. Both events started at six and the girls’ plane landed at 5:50. I asked them to be dressed to party when they got on the plane but, well, chicks… go figger…

We arrived at the Pocket5s.com party a half hour after it was supposed to have ended. Cool group. Pocket5s is a huge online community of poker players – they all knew each other by their screen names – they’d never met in person but knew each other pretty well. There were a few geeks in the crowd I guess, but mostly a pretty cool bunch of guys. (All guys... the only women there were with me!)

Then we bolted out to the suburbs of Las Vegas to a small Greek restaurant where Howard Lederer and a whole bunch of other poker legends were in the midst of a fiercely competitive karaoke contest. We gorged on an amazing Greek buffet while Phil Gordon belted out “If I can make it there I’ll make it anywhere…” I was chatting with Lisa Mueller (almost as hot as the two hotties I’d arrived with!) when Gordon started peeling off his clothes. Clearly he’d stop at nothing to take this prize! When he started wiggling his bare butt at the judges, Christina couldn’t resist. She ran up on stage and stuffed a ten-dollar bill down Gordon’s underwear.

I assume he won. We actually took off back to the Strip – but not until Christina and Rene threw back a few whiskey shooters. Fortified, we were off to the Venetian where Sheena wanted to play some cards and Rene and Christina wanted to party.

Sheena broke even at Blackjack that night. Rene and Christina met Tara Reid from American Pie. I was asleep in my room before they were up the elevator I’m sure.

Christina made it through a 10 a.m. telephone interview with a magazine writer in the UK – but she spent the next four hours puking, paying for the previous night’s partying. Let’s just say she was a little late for her next interview… Rene was totally unsympathetic of course – we had places to go, people to see! Autographs, interviews, cameras flashing – we eventually retired to the WSOP Kitchen, a sweltering tent in the parking lot behind the convention center where, inside, thousands of wannabe Moneymakers were competing in the main event, the World Series of Poker.

After Christina’s millionth mad dash to the ladies’ room, Rene finally relented and we took the girls back to the Mirage for a quiet night in their room.

Next night we all went to Bluff Rocks at the Hard Rock Hotel. My friend Michael Caselli had organized the event and he asked me to help. I ended up at the front door all night. My job was to spot celebrities, usher them into the club and in front of the row of cameras and reporters, and then escort them up to the VIP lounge. Most of the celebrities were easy to spot – they were NBA stars that towered above the rest of us. Highlights for me were meeting poker legend Doyle Brunson, having a beer with the PokerShare monkey, and congratulating Lance Bass on his recent People Magazine headlines.

Las Vegas is surreal at the best of times, but WSOP is waaaaaay over the top even for Vegas. The energy level around the Rio, where the Championship Tournament and the Poker Life Expo were happening, was sky high. It was both exhilarating and exhausting.

Sheena and Christina have a blog with their own version of the weekend and lots of pics. Have a look: acesmovie.blogspot.com.

There. I did it. I vowed I’d write about taking the stars of Aces.com’s poker movie to the WSOP without mentioning the one thing that absolutely everyone was talking about: the weather. It was HOT! In every sense of the word.