Monday, July 24, 2006

PokerShare.com Sponsors Mikey The Chimp At The WSOP

Yes, the rumors are true. PokerShare.com is sponsoring Mikey the Chimp at the 2006 World Series of Poker. Yours truly will be at the press conference at the Palms Hotel where Mikey and his trainers will tell us about Mikey’s professional poker training for the WSOP and on Chimpanzee’s cognitive abilities.

“Everyone has heard about the intelligence of primates and Mikey is one of the smartest around. PokerShare.com is confident that our purchase of a seat to the World Series of Poker will get put to good use by Mikey,” says, Lucan M. Toh, CEO of PokerShare.com.

HAIRY SITUATION FINDING A POKER-PLAYING MONKEY?
There are very few primates that have the cognitive ability of Mikey. “After a gruelling search across North America,” says Lucan Toh, CEO of PokerShare.com, “we have spent our efforts on one lucky chimp.” Mikey has been professionally trained to recognize the colors and shapes of suits and numbers. His favorite move is going “all in” but don’t tell his competition. His website, WWW.MONKEYSHARE.NET will show video footage of this chimp practicing his “all in” moves with his trainers.

BANANAS OR CHIPS?
With spectators going bananas for this animated chimp, Mikey will be playing for chips! He wants cold hard cash for his retirement, which has become a more serious problem for show business animals. After chimps perform for several years, they must retire, and like humans, live off of their earnings for the rest of their lives. Mikey’s trainers are available to comment on Mikey’s retirement plan and where he hopes to retire, should he win the 2006 WSOP.

MIKEY CHALLENGES MEDIA TO HEAD’S UP MATCH!
After his press conference at the Palms, Mikey will also challenge a journalist to a live poker match. Journalists and producers will receive a banana split and share in cold Bannarama Vodka Blended’s at the press conference.

CHIMP OR CHUMP?
Mikey the chimp will be sending all of his losing opponents BACK to next year’s World
Series of Poker (WSOP), compliments of Pokershare.com. That’s right, Pokershare.com will sponsor his losing victims to get right back up after defeat, and play again for free in the 2007 World Series of Poker!

Pokerzone TV to promote classic Skill Game

GameAccount Launches Televised Backgammon

#1 online skill gaming provider GameAccount and Pokerzone will collaborate to bring viewers live Backgammon via Pokerzone’s global Poker and gaming lifestyle channel (www.pokerzone.tv) available via satellite, cable and broadband television.

The partnership means that Pokerzone will use live in-game footage taken from GameAccount’s WorldGammon brand and destination site (www.worldgammon.com) to educate and stimulate interest in this classic parlour game. Backgammon has a huge worldwide player base and its legal status as a pure game of skill has ensured a dedicated online audience as well. Hundreds of thousands of people enjoy a daily game of virtual Backgammon, from recreational newcomers to the more serious experienced pros.

Pokerzone (Sky Channel 843) will drive the editorial content and draw on GameAccount’s existing expertise to demonstrate the appeal of Backgammon to a targeted gaming audience. Each episode will last 3 hours for an initial run of 12 episodes, as well as additional repeats, every weekend, starting this October.

This unique collaboration marks the first time online players will be used to specifically promote and demonstrate Backgammon. Pokerzone have already achieved a track record in televising Backgammon, debuting the world’s first televised matchplay Backgammon event in addition to a series of lifestyle documentaries surrounding the “Sport of Kings” in 2005.

Celebrity Guest Beats Regular at Free Hold’em Tournament

Star of ACES the Movie Wins Wednesday Free Roll at Aces.com

She said she practiced a lot for her role in ACES the Movie and has been playing a lot since then, and it was obvious as she quite tidily won the weekly Free Roll Tournament at Aces.com last week. Much to the surprise of everyone at the final table – including her -- Lacey Toups, star of the sexy new poker movie that Aces.com is sponsoring, wound up triumphant with over 50,000 in chips.

Toups battled it out at the Final Table with an Aces.com regular who frequently places second in the weekly tournament but never manages to win. It was down to the actress, “ZevTTTP1” aka “Brill”, and a skeptic that couldn’t be convinced one of his opponents was in fact the beautiful star of the poker movie. There’s a $100 bounty for anyone that can knock out the celebrity guests at the regular tournaments over the next few weeks.

“I don’t know if the guy didn’t think it was really the girl from the movie playing poker with them,” said Toups, “Or if he just couldn’t believe that a pretty girl could be beating him so badly!”

“coolnike305” ended up head-to-head with Toups and placed second in the free tournament. The manager of Aces.com made him a believer by awarding him the special prize for the evening -- an all expense paid trip to Aces.com’s DVD Release Party in Los Angeles later this summer.

“Lacey told me she wasn’t that great a player, so we honestly didn’t expect her to win.” laughed Aces.com Manager Rene Quesada. “We’re giving the prize to the second place player, so he’ll get to meet Lacey and the rest of the cast at the Party. We’ll be giving away lots more prizes like that, and lots of free DVDs too.”

“It was a really fun tourney. It felt really cool to win. It was funny because I didn't think I would win something that I was involved in for other reasons!” said Toups from her home in Florida the morning after her online victory. “I guess I really am getting better at this game! My boyfriend plays and I have learned a lot from him. Like when to fold and when you just gotta go all in!”

This Wednesday night (11:00 pm EDT), Christina Morris, the cheating trio’s leader in the movie and director Daniel Zirilli will be the special guests at Ace.com’s free Texas Hold’em Tournament. Sheena Chou, who plays the spoilt Chinese schoolgirl in the movie, says Zirilli is good, but she pummeled him one night while on location in Rio de Janeiro. She’ll host the online tournament the following week.

This weekend, Aces.com is bringing the cast to Las Vegas to enjoy a few days of the World Series of Poker.

“Apparently there’s a huge billboard with the three of us up on The Strip, right outside The Stardust” said Morris. “I can’t wait to take a picture of that!”

The cast will report on their adventures in Las Vegas July 27 – 31 in their blog, which will include audio podcasts (Episode 2) from all the parties and events the stars will be attending.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Stars of Aces.com’s Poker Movie Launch Blog & Podcast

Upcoming Episodes Will Feature Live Podcasts from WSOP

The stars of the sexy new poker movie presented by online casino Aces.com have launched a new blog and a premiere podcast episode to share their experiences shooting the film in Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro. The cast will be in Las Vegas for the Championship weekend of the WSOP, July 27 – 30 and yours truly will be there to help them publish their blog and podcast from The Strip. (Haha... One of the benefits of being buddies with the manager of Aces.com!)

The blog – Three Girls, One Summer, No Limit – is at acesmovie.blogspot.com where there is a link to the movie trailer video and to the girls’ podcast. The free podcast is also available at iTunes.

ACES the Movie is a sexy thriller about three beautiful, smart college girls that take on the underground card room circuit in Las Vegas. They eventually get caught cheating but they’re just as smart as they are beautiful and they end up in Rio de Janeiro beating some very high rollers at their own game. The movie will be released by Warner Brothers and Polychrome Pictures in the fall; Aces.com is doing promotional events throughout the summer and will be hosting a DVD release party in September.

So far in their blog, ACES stars Lacey Toups, Christina Morris and Sheena Chou have written about learning to play Texas Hold’em for their roles, and how much they enjoyed shooting the final beach scene. Their first podcast is an interview with Sheena where she talks about searching the back woods villages of Brazil with director Daniel Zirilli looking for a poker game, and about learning to play poker as a pre-schooler from her elderly Chinese great-uncle.

“We had a lot of fun shooting ACES in Vegas. I can’t wait to go back,” said Christina Morris, whose ACES character acts as the seductive decoy that distracts high rollers while her team cheats them out of their money.

“They’ve got this crazy schedule of interviews and photo sessions and special appearances for us,” said Lacey Toups who plays the brainy ‘mark’ in the movie. “I don’t know where we’ll find time for blogging, but I promise we will! As Christina says in our movie ‘One night in Vegas – we’re asking for trouble!’ If she’s the party girl she was in Rio then we’re going to have some good stories and wild pictures for our blog, that’s for sure!”

“We’re going to be hosting the Wednesday Night Free Roll Tournaments at Aces.com,” said Sheena, the spoilt Chinese schoolgirl in the movie. “I doubt I’ll win but that’s OK. The prize each week is a trip to our DVD Release Party in LA and I already have my invitation to that anyway!”

This Wednesday night (11:00 pm EDT), Lacey Toups hosts the Free Roll at Aces.com where another winner will win a trip to the DVD Release Party. Director Daniel Zirilli will host the online poker tournament the following week and it will be Sheena’s turn the week after. The celebrity host August 2 will be Christina Morris.

Be sure to check out the cast’s blog for live reports from the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas July 27th to 30th.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Poker Movie Stars to Host Wednesday Night Online Tournaments

Free Tournament Winners Win Trip to LA DVD Release Party

This month, Aces.com poker players could find themselves seated next to one of the sexy stars of ACES the Movie. Lacey Toups, Sheena Chou and director Daniel Zirilli will be hosting Aces.com’s popular Wednesday Night Free Rolls beginning this week.

Winners of the popular weekly online Texas Hold’em tournament will win an all expense paid trip to Aces.com’s ACES the Movie DVD Release Party in Los Angeles later this summer.

ACES the movie is a sexy thriller about three smart, beautiful college girls that take on the underground card circuit in Las Vegas. When they get caught cheating, they use their wits and charms to beat some very high rollers at their own game. Sponsor Aces.com will be hosting a DVD release party and giving away thousands of copies of the DVD.

Players can get to know the cast by reading their blog (acesmovie.blogspot.com) which includes the movie trailer video and their first podcast.

The Wednesday night tournament is a popular event at Aces.com and attracts a loyal group of regulars as well as lots of players new to online poker tournaments. Prizes have included trips to the Super Bowl and to the Radio Music Awards.

Actress Sheena Chou has been playing Texas Hold’em since she was a kid but says director Daniel Zirilli is no slouch either.

“Daniel beat me bad one night in Brazil when we were shooting the movie,” laughs Chou. “It would serve him right if the players at Aces.com take him down!”

“Every one who gets to the final table will receive an Aces.com t-shirt and hat,” said Rene Quesada, Manager of Aces.com. “And anyone that can knock out one of the cast members will get $100 credited to their account!”

Aces.com Wednesday Night Free Roll
With Special Guests from ACES the Movie
Wednesday at 11:00 EDT
Weekly Prize: Trip to ACES the Movie DVD Release Party in LA

July 12- Sheena Chou Screen Name: midnight
July 19- Lacey Toups Screen Name: diamondride
July 26-Daniel Zirilli (Director) Screen Name: Shark

Anyone registered at Aces.com can play in any of the Vegas-style site’s free card tournaments, including the Wednesday Night Free Roll, by clicking on “Poker” at Aces.com.

Affleck & Maguire Long Shots to Win World Series of Poker

According to odds makers at Sportsbook.com celebrities Ben Affleck and Toby Maguire will not have what it takes to leave the World Series of Poker Championships with a bracelet. The Hollywood hunks are each a 2000-1 bet to rake in all the chips.

The Rio All Suite Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada will host the tournament from July 28th to the final play downs on August 10th. Front runners to take the title are 5 time bracelet winner Phil Ivey at 150-1 and Poker lifer and legend Daniel Negreanu at 225-1. Leading up to the tournament Negreau has had an impressive showing in World Series events including four top ten finished and winnings of almost $500,000. Ivey is also on the upswing, having just placed second in the Omaha High/Low World Series game on July 8th.

“This tournament is the grand daddy of live poker, if the limit of 8000 entries is reached the first prize could pay out $10 million dollars,’ said Alex Czajkowski, sportsbook.com.

Odds to win the 2006 WSOP

Phil Ivey 150-1
Daniel Negreanu 225-1
Phil Hellmuth 250-1
Howard (The Professor) Lederer 250-1
Gus Hansen 300-1
Chris (Jesus) Ferguson 300-1
John Juanda 300-1
Layne Flack 400-1
Marcel Luske 400-1
Barry Greenstein 400-1
Carlos Mortenson 400-1
Scotty Nguyen 400-1
Sam Farha 400-1
Greg (Fossilman) Raymer 400-1
Mike (The Mouth) Matusow 400-1
Michael Mizrachi 400-1
Dave (Devilfish) Ulliott 500-1
Phil (Unabomber) Laak 500-1
Erik Seidel 500-1
Huckleberry Seed 500-1
Johnny Chan 500-1
John (World) Hennigan 500-1
Men (The Master) Nguyen 500-1
Paul Phillips 500-1
Ram (Crazy Horse) Vaswani 500-1
TJ Cloutier 500-1
Dan Harrington 500-1
Annie Duke 500-1
Antonio Esfandiari 500-1
Doyle (Texas Dolly) Brunson 500-1

Odds on who to make it to the final table

Phil Ivey 15-1
Daniel Negreanu 22-1
Phil Hellmuth 25-1
Howard (The Professor) Lederer 25-1
Chris (Jesus) Ferguson30-1
John Juanda 30-1
Gus Hansen 30-1
Carlos Mortenson 40-1
Barry Greenstein 40-1
Marcel Luske 40-1
Layne Flack 40-1
Michael Mizrachi 40-1
Mike (The Mouth) Matusow 40-1
Scotty Nguyen 40-1
Sam Farha 40-1
Greg (Fossilman) Raymer 40-1
Huckleberry Seed 50-1
Johnny Chan 50-1
John (World) Hennigan 50-1
Phil (Unabomber) Laak 50-1
Men (The Master) Nguyen 50-1
Paul Phillips 50-1
Ram (Crazy Horse) Vaswani 50-1
TJ Cloutier 50-1
Dan Harrington 50-1
Annie Duke 50-1
Antonio Esfandiari 50-1
Doyle (Texas Dolly) Brunson 50-1
Dave (Devilfish) Ulliott 50-1
Erik Seidel 50-1

Friday, July 07, 2006

US soccer fans confident Italy will defeat France in World Cup final

Despite an earlier than expected exit by the US men's national soccer team in this year's FIFA World Cup, Americans are still interested in 'the beautiful game'. Bettors at Sportsbook.com, the world's largest online sportsbook and casino are wagering on the outcome of what should be a thrilling finale between Italy and France this Sunday in Berlin, Germany.

Odds makers have listed the Azzuri as a narrow 2.71 favorite to win the final game and bring home the country's fourth World Cup. Italy, who beat Germany earlier this week in an emotional semi-final match-up, is getting enormous support from bettors in the US and has received 71.2 per cent of total wagers placed on the game. Although France's odds sit slightly below the Italians at 2.97, Americans are not confident that Les Bleus will triumph over Italy as they have only received 7.8 per cent of all wagers, despite France's historical dominance of Italy in previous World Cup encounters, including a quarter-final loss in 1998 and a second round defeat in 1986. The rest of the money is resting on a tie should neither team win the Cup in 90 minutes of regulation time.

"Italy and France have given blood sweat and tears just for the opportunity to win a World Cup for their country, and you can guarantee that soccer fans around the US will be watching to see who brings it home." said Alex Czajkowski at Sportsbook.com.

Sportsbook.com's FIFA World Cup Odds (as of July 7):

Who will win the 2006 FIFA World Cup?

Result -- Money -- Wagers Received

France -- 2.97 -- 7.8%
Tie -- 2.91 -- 21.7%
Italy -- 2.71 -- 71.2%

Who will win the 2006 FIFA Consolation Match?

Result -- Money -- Wagers Received
Germany -- 1.86 -- 98.9%
Tie -- 3.10 -- 0.2%
Portugal -- 4.40

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Scottish Smoking Ban Sees Online Bingo Fever Catch Fire

Pubs, restaurants and entertainment premises may all suffering at the hands of the Scottish smoking ban, but there is one industry that is rejoicing at the new law.

Online bingo sites have seen a dramatic rise in the number of Scottish players who have joined recently, as they take up the opportunity to play at a venue where they can still smoke…home!

Since the ban came into effect three months ago, five bingo halls have been forced to close in Scotland after operators saw takings drop by over a quarter as players were forced to obey no-smoking rules.

But in that time Scottish bingo has seen online memberships increase by up to 400 per cent according to BingoScotland.com.

Dylan Schlosberg, spokesman for BingoScotland.com, said, 'When the smoking ban started, we didn’t imagine our membership would increase so rapidly.But as players have the freedom to smoke when they play online in the comfort of their own home, it makes sense that bingo websites have become even more popular.'

Jeanette Clunie, 38, from Edinburgh is a smoking bingo player who has just recently converted to playing online, 'I think online bingo is definitely on the up and through time, bingo halls will be a thing of the past. I personally wouldn’t use bingo halls now you can’t smoke in them and haven’t done since the ban.'

Baseball Fan Wins Trip to MLB All Stars Game

Aces.com Winner Gets Free Trip to Midsummer Classic in Pittsburgh

Aces.com is sending one of their favorite customers on an all-expense-paid trip to the MLB All Stars Game in Pittsburgh next week. Brian B. of Minnesota won the trip to the Midsummer Classic June 11th by betting on baseball at Aces.com Sportsbook (www.aces.com/sportsbook) last month.

“I’m in sales, and I travel a lot,” said the road weary winner, “Normally I wouldn’t get excited about a road trip to Pittsburgh, but this is different! I’m taking my buddy Jerry on this over-nighter. This trip’ll be all about fun!”

“I wish I was going to Pittsburgh with our winner!” said Aces.com Brand Manager Rene Quesada. “A summer day at PNC Park… All the best players from both leagues. Man, you can’t beat that!”

“I must’ve been one of Aces.com’s first customers,” said last month’s free contest winner who’s been betting on baseball at Aces.com since 2001. “Things have changed a lot since then. The lines are faster. Payouts back to your account are fast too. And deposits and withdrawals are easier. At Aces anyway.”

Midway through the 2006 MLB season, New York Mets (3-1), Chicago White Sox (4-1) are currently the favorites for the World Series. Like every hotel on the strip, Aces.com has hundreds of baseball odds and props. To qualify for Aces.com’s MLB All Stars Contest, players just had to place a baseball bet sometime in June.

“That’s no problem here,” chuckled Brian. “I sit down once a week and place my bets. I don’t really bet on any particular team. I just love baseball and football! I’m a homer, so I tend to favor the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings.”

The American League is looking for its ninth straight All Star Game win and will be fielding an experienced team familiar with the Midsummer Classic. Mets players dominate the young National League lineup.

“I’ll be rooting for the American League team in Pittsburgh,” said the contest winner. “I’ve been watching Johan Santana and Joe Mauer…”

Each week, Aces.com Sportsbook offers players one free no-loss baseball bet – losing bets are completely refunded.

This week’s MLB $10 Free Bet at Aces.com is:
Albert Pujols Total Runs+Hits+RBIs on Sunday Night (Must Start)
Over 3 1-1 -- Under 3 1-1

Aces.com’s Slaughter Rule, Cycle Hitter Bonus and No-Hitter Payback promos also make it one of the most fun places to bet on major league baseball this summer. The “Slaughter Rule” refunds all losing wagers for those who bet on the UNDER of the Total. Aces also refunds all losing wagers on the Money Line or Run Line of No Hitters. Hit a single, a double, a triple, and a home run all in one game and Aces.com refunds all losing wagers on the Money Line or Run Line.

Aces.com offers online gamblers ALL the gambling options they have in Las Vegas: casino games, poker, sports betting and horses.