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Golf’s Ryder Cup took place last month, an event that pitted the best in the world from Europe and America over four days of unique competition. The European team, although underdogs at the off, were well-deserved winners. Actually, they thrashed the Americans. And to hear the Europeans talk about it, I was reminded that the golf and poker worlds are not so dissimilar.

The unique thing about the Ryder Cup is how it transforms a sport for individuals into a team sport. Players who have spent their careers competing for themselves alone are suddenly put into situations in which they have to rely on and perform for teammates rather than themselves. And with the European golfers winning four out of the last five Ryder Cups despite being outclassed on paper, these results have shown that the ability to perform as an individual does not necessarily transfer over to team play.

What if a “poker” Ryder Cup was organized? Would European team spirit be enough to overcome a perceived American advantage in individual skills? I’d like to bet on it, but first there needs to be a format created to transform poker into a team game rather than an individual one. I have an idea, using golf’s Ryder Cup as a model, whereby players compete over three days in three disciplines — Fourballs, Foursomes, and Singles. Here’s a poker equivalent of these disciplines:

In golf Fourballs, players play in groups of four, two from each team. Although each player plays his own ball, only a team’s best score counts on each hole. A poker equivalent of this would be to pit two from each team against each other in two head-up matches — playing the same cards! While Player A on one team played Player B from another team, the other …

It seems that Las Vegas casino operators are looking for customers beyond the borders of the Silver State yet again. First it was MGM/Mirage acquiring an online casino license from the Isle of Man. Now five Vegas gaming companies are looking at setting up shop in the former Portuguese colony of Macau.

The opportunity arose when casino tycoon Dr. Stanley Ho’s forty-year gambling monopoly in the territory came to an end in 2001. Three casino licenses are now available and there are 20 companies from around the globe bidding for the 25-year licenses.

Macau became a Special Administrative Region of China in 1999, and has a fair amount of autonomy over internal affairs. Like Hong Kong, Macau isn’t subject to China’s economic policies; capitalism is alive and well in the territory and casinos are a multi-billion dollar business.

U.K.-based Aspinalls is one of the familiar names in the hunt for a license, but Vegas companies are leading the charge. MGM/Mirage Macau, Asian American Entertainment Corp., Lucky 9 Casino Corp., Wynn Resorts Ltd., and MP Entertainment (a Park Place Entertainment / Mandalay Resort Group joint venture) all have their names on the list of potential candidates.

That doesn’t mean they’re going to get in, however. Ho’s STDM group is expected to get one of the licenses and MGM/Mirage will likely get the second, leaving only the third up for grabs. MGM is reported to have been willing to spend US$2 billion to operate casinos in the territory, and it will be hard for the people in charge to ignore those kinds of numbers.

Two-thirds of Macau’s annual revenue from a 35-percent betting tax, and these new ventures stand to substantially increase that amount. They will also attract more tourist dollars and international Judi Slot Online corporations to the region if the …

VANCOUVER, BC, Canada — Poker.com, Inc. (NASD OTC BB:PKER.OB), a leading provider of online gaming systems, is excited to announce the successful launch by Ladbrokes of their poker room. Ladbrokes is the world’s largest bookmaker and the betting and gaming division of Hilton Group plc, the world’s premier international hotel brand.

Ladbrokes poker room is the first of many sub-poker rooms to be run under the Microgaming agreement. Poker.com entered into a strategic relationship with Microgaming Software Systems LTD to market online multi-player poker software sublicenses.

Microgaming’s intention is to provide all their casino licensees with a poker card room sublicense. The Card room will offer several different variations of poker games that include Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 5 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud, and tournaments along with future enhancements as they are released.

Poker.com will earn a monthly royalty fee from revenue generated by Ladbrokes card room.

“Having such a well-known and recognized gaming organization using our software is a real delight and pleasure for Poker.com Inc. Licensees with this level of expertise both secures Poker.com’s position within the gaming marketplace and solidifies the companies future growth,” said Christa Taylor, President and CFO of Poker.com.

Jackpot Madness Launches Roulette Royale

CURACAO — Jackpot Madness, the World’s#1 Jackpot Destination, announces the launch of Roulette Royale, the Web’s ONLY progressive roulette game. Starting at $60,000, Roulette Royale joins a network of the 10 most popular progressive games on the web. This launch follows April’s fantastically successful launch of Major Millions, which paid out the biggest jackpot in online gaming history to its first winner – a record-breaking $1,594,649.21. In all, Jackpot Madness casinos have paid out a grand total of over $67,000,000.

Roulette Royale is an exciting game of chance based on traditional Roulette and is connected to multiple casinos …

As around a dozen games are left in the Barclay’s Premier League, it seems Chelsea might be on course for the title following Manchester City’s defeat against a resurgent Liverpool at Anfield.

 

Tonight’s midweek’s matches include Manchester City against bottom club Leicester where anything less than a win could hand the title to Situs Online Judi Terbaik 2021 Chelsea who face West Ham in an all-London derby. Manchester United travel to the North East to play Newcastle while QPR face Arsenal at Loftus Road.

 

Wednesday, 4 March 2015

 

Man City 2 v Leicester 0

Newcastle 2 v Man Utd 2

QPR 0 v Arsenal 2

Stoke 1 v Everton 1

Tottenham 2 v Swansea 1

West Ham 1 v Chelsea 3

Liverpool 2 v Burnley 1

 

More Burnley Than West Ham As Points Safety Total Lowers

 

West Ham were relegated in 18th spot with 42 points in 2002/03, whilst Burnley finished in the same position with just 30 points in 2009/10 and bet365 think it could be low 30’s, rather than 40’s, for the team ending the 2014/15 campaign in 18th.

 

There was a relegation feel to Tuesday night’s fixtures with Aston Villa (Evens for the drop) hosting local rivals West Brom (33/1) and Steve Bruce’s Hull team (3/1) looking to get one over on his former club Sunderland (3/1).

 

2014/15 Premier League

 

Points Total of Side Finishing 18th

 

To Be Relegated

Yes No

Burnley 4/11 9/4

Leicester 2/5 2/1

QPR 4/7 11/8

Aston Villa Evs 4/5

Sunderland 3/1 1/4

Hull 3/1 1/4

West Brom 33/1

Crystal Palace 33/1

 

Relegated Teams

 

Burnley, Leics & QPR 10/3 Burnley, Leics & Villa 5/1 Leics, QPR & Villa 13/2 Burnley, QPR & Villa 8/1 Burnley, Leics & Hull 16/1 Burnley, QPR & …

 

With television debuting a new show on the glories of Las Vegas casinos approximately every four hours these days, it might be wise to consider the words of Richard Marcus in tonight’s premiere of the History Channel’s Breaking Vegas: ‘The only `sure thing’ in gambling is cheating.”

 

Marcus, like the other featured players in Breaking Vegas, is a career cheater. This fascinating documentary series uses interviews, old news footage and recreated scenes to tell the stories of gamblers who use everything from cutting-edge silicon chips to old-fashioned nimble fingers to gain an edge on the casinos.

 

High- and low-tech cheaters both get their props in tonight’s special two-hour debut. (Future episodes of Breaking Vegas will be only an hour.) But champions of traditional values will note with satisfaction that it’s the old-school guys who got away with millions of bucks, while the computer whiz kids went to jail.

 

To call the cheating ring led by Richard Marcus low-tech is a whopping understatement. As Marcus himself admits, his technique was ”so simple it’s idiotic” — he just slipped chips onto or off of the table when blackjack dealers and roulette tourneurs weren’t looking.

 

At first, Marcus and his crew added high-value chips to winning bets. But as casino surveillance teams caught on to that one, Marcus reversed his ploy: He bet high every time but replaced big chips with small ones when his bets lost. Touchingly, he named the technique ”Savannah,” after his favorite Vegas topless dancer.

 

Marcus, never arrested in 24 years of cheating, now lives in retirement on the French Riviera. Less lucky, and more morally ambiguous, was Ron Harris, a rogue computer-security specialist for the Nevada Gaming Commission, the agency that regulates casinos.

 

His job was to detect rigged software in …

 

 

Soccerphile explores more proposals for change in the English Premier League.

 

As Soccerphile has documented over the last few years, suggestions with regards to restructuring the Premier League have been plentiful. There was talk in 2008 of a 39th fixture being added to the annual schedule, with each club playing outside of England for this game. There were rumblings about the Old Firm (Rangers and Celtic) joining England’s elite league once again this season, while Bolton Phil Gartside also proposed the idea of a two-tier Premiership with no promotion or relegation outside of it.

 

The in-vogue discussion ahead of the next Premier League chairman’s meeting in April is of a play-off system being introduced which would see the clubs finishing between fourth and seventh battling for a spot in the Champions League. The idea Togel Hongkong behind such a move would be to inject more competition into a league that has seen the same four clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United – qualify for the competition from the Premier League for the past six seasons.

 

As with other potential areas of change that have been mooted over the past few years, there are supporters and detractors of this latest proposal. Perhaps unsurprisingly it is the current ‘chasing pack’ behind the Premier League’s ‘Big Four’ that have stepped forward to champion this suggestion. Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp believes that introducing a Champions League play-off system in the Premier League would increase excitement and work as well as the Football League Play-Offs. Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neill thinks the system would reinvigorate the aspirations of mid-table teams.

 

Liverpool manager Rafa Benítez has poured scorn over the ideas, believing more games would lead to players being exposed to great risk of injury and clubs “playing until …

 

 

It turns out that ‘Koreaphobia’ is a condition not easily cured. For South Korea and China, this week is the ‘decider’. The two neighbours have crossed swords twice this year already with the score resting at 1-1. Events over the next 48 hours will determine which nation emerges as the winner.

 

The Koreans have long had the upper hand when it comes to the beautiful game. In 32 meetings between the two national teams, China had never won. Such a Data HK woeful record gave rise to the pseudo-psychological condition that described the fear of playing Korea. It was a term coined in the Middle Kingdom but taken up with gusto in the Land of the Morning Calm.

 

That all changed on a February evening in Tokyo when China shocked the Asian Tigers with a 3-0 win. The result wasn’t flattering in the least and it could easily have been more.

 

The victory was the best moment for Chinese football since they reached the 2004 Asian Cup final. It was greeted with a hail of happy headlines on the west side of the Yellow Sea and provoked gloom, doom and much soul-searching over on the east. Only a 2-0 win over Ivory Coast a month later lightened the mood ahead of the World Cup – that and last week’s results.

 

The Asian Champions League reached the halfway stage and as it did so, Korea’s four representatives in the competition met China’s quartet. Each of the eight groups contains four teams with the top two progressing to the second round. It was a clean sweep for Korea as all four K-League teams triumphed against Chinese Super league opposition.

 

Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma started the week coming back from a goal down at home against the …

 

 

The locals got their wish. Their very own superstar delivered the goods with a goal from his heart to proclaim Barcelona as FIFA Club World Cup Champions of the World.

 

The truth of the matter was that he, proclaimed World footballer of the year the following day, and he alone (well maybe not…remember the title of this piece) was the catalyst for Barcelona winning the trophy. An uninspiring display against Atlante Bandarq Online was brought to life by his introduction and in the final he stood out for his intelligent use of the ball during the game and then elevated himself to immortal status. Normally you would describe this as head and shoulders better than the rest. Not Lionel Messi, he has to go one better. Head, shoulders and chest better than the rest.

 

Barcelona v Estudiantes Club World Cup Final

 

The day itself was firstly notable for the absence of the Congo fans, as for the first time since their introduction to the tournament I could hear myself think. Their non stop cacophony of noise and their lead dancer entertained us all, (but I do prefer it when the noise relates to the action on the pitch).

 

Estudiantes fans began the day in good voice and baited their opponents outside the ground as they had many more fans in evidence as they warmed up for the evening’s match. They could be heard throughout the 3rd place play off game, which Pohang Steelers won on penalties.

 

Barcelona v Estudiantes Club World Cup Final

 

We waited for Barcelona fans to make themselves heard during the final but it was evident that Estudiantes were the ones whose passionate fans had made the trip in more numbers.

 

It wasn’t till the end as Barcelona …

 

 

Arsenal Chief executive (and man City fan) Ivan Gazidis has ruled out sacking manager Arsene Wenger, despite Arsenal’s poor start to the new season, which has left them 50/1 with Bet 365 to win the Premier League.

 

61-year-old Wenger’s job security has come under question as the Gunners have won just one of their opening five Premier League games, conceding 14 goals in the process, including four in the 4-3 defeat at Blackburn Rovers last weekend.

 

However, Gazidis says that making a change is not even an option, with Wenger having been in charge at Arsenal for more than 15 years. Togel Gazidis said at the Sport Industry Breakfast Club in London: “(Sacking him) is a route we are not going to go down. “We will be unmoved in the way we do things and will not be swayed by talk of a crisis. We need to stick together.”

 

Arsenal already trail champions Manchester United by 11 points, with the Red Devils 4/6 to retain their crown after five wins out of five.

 

Blue skies over Manchester…?

 

Manchester City have revealed plans for an 80-acre training centre in the shadow of their Eastlands Stadium.

 

The Blues, riding high in second place in the Premier League, are looking to consolidate their arrival in soccer’s rich list, a new era begun when the Abu Dhabi United investment group purchased them three years ago.Man City.

Since then a galaxy of stars have arrived in the blue half of Manchester, including Robinho, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez, Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero. City ended their 35-year trophy drought by winning the FA Cup last season, and finished third in the league to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time.

 

With an …

 

 

Japanese national star Hidetoshi Nakata has told Soccerphile he was happy to come out of his first FA Cup tie on the winners’ side.

Bolton Wanderers had been expecting a tough 3rd Round test at Vicarage Road against 4th-placed Championship side Watford but ended up with a comfortable 3-0 victory.

“We knew it was going to be hard but we did the Dominoqq job,” said Nakata. “We just started well and took it from there.”

Bolton took control of their hosts in the 11th minute after Mexican marksman Jared Borgetti fired into the bottom corner after Watford had failed to clear a Ricardo Gardner cross.

After 34 minutes they turned the screw on the Hornets when Borgetti dummied for teammate Stelios Giannokopoulos to lash the ball into the roof of the net. Portuguese winger Ricardo Vaz Te added a third in the 73rd minute to send Bolton into the hat for the 4th Round and emphasize the ever-growing gulf in class between England’s top two divisions.

“Yes we played really well today,” confirmed Nakata, “and maybe the most important thing was that we did not give away any goals.”

The Japanese legend arrived at the Reebok Stadium last August on a season-long loan from Fiorentina and so far has made twelve appearances for the Wanderers in all competitions, scoring once.

‘Hide’ has adapted well to his new surroundings despite the challenge of a new culture and language:

“Yes I like it here in England,” he told Soccerphile. “There is an excellent atmosphere at the football matches here, and being at an English club is very different from one in Italy but I am happy.”

Having spent so long abroad Nakata has not found adapting to a new country and langauge a problem although admits,

“My Italian is of …