At 8:00 ET on ESPN, the Green Bay Packers will face the Indianapolis Colts tonight. This is a true test of these two potential Super Bowl teams, although this is just a preseason game.

First, we have the Indianapolis Colts, who have been consistently successful throughout the 2000’s. They are also the defending AFC Champions. A stud receiver (Reggie Wayne) along with several other young talented receivers, and an all-pro tight end (Dallas Clark), with arguably the best quarterback in the nation (you know whom I am talking about). On offense, this team is full of talent. Indianapolis can be rather inconsistent at times, although on defense they have a lot of talent too.

After a 6-10 record in 2008, now we have the Green Bay Packers, the Packers turned it around and posted an 11-5 record in 2009, earning themselves a wild-card playoff berth. By many, they are thought to be a Super Bowl contender and look to show it against the Colts. With only 7 interceptions, with Pro Bowler Aaron Rodgers who threw for over 4000 yards and 30 touchdowns last year, they are loaded on offense. In 2009, the Packers defense was dominant, but some questions are circulating in 2010 about the secondary, which has looked flimsy ever since the 51-45 playoff loss in Arizona.

This game should be one of the better preseason games you will see, with Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers under center for the first 2 or hopefully 3 quarters. Although it may get less interesting once Matt Flynn and Curtis Painter take the stage, look for both teams to air it out early in the game and enjoy watching and seeing how the starters do for these offensively talented teams. For the Packers, this will be a true test, and a true test for the Colts to show that they still have that talent they have had for the past decade.

So what will the final score of this game be? I will take a shot at it and say the final score will be 41-38 Packers, although it is difficult to predict final scores of preseason games. We will just have to wait and see, even though we could be totally wrong.

A big score was landed this week when a 68-year-old retired fisherman from San Pedro, California won Commerce Casino’s first ever summer Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament. Defeating a healthy 3,300-player field in the $335 buy-in event, Rick Bakovic won the title and $173,500 first-place prize in the Los Angeles area Tuesday.

Bakovic said, “It’s the thrill of a lifetime. It just goes to show that if I can do it, anyone can”. For the past five years, he has been playing five tournaments a week, but never cashed for more than $22,000.
This event gave players the option of entering or re-entering on any of the first five days, a unique feature at Commerce Casino. Leaving 135 to battle it out for the big money, the top 27 players advanced each day to the final.

Bruce Buffer, Maria Ho, Archie Karas, John Phan, Shannon Elizabeth, Joe Tehan, and former L.A. Poker Classic winner Eric Hershler were the famous faces who played in the tournament.

To the final day, the players who made it were “Miami” John Cernuto, Nam Le and David “Dragon” Pham, although they did not make it to the final table.

This event will be back on its schedule, said the Commerce officials, despite a $59,500 overlay.

Casino Manager Jeff Harris said, “Clearly our initial Guaranteed Million Dollar Summer Tournament was a major hit, and we are thrilled that so many players responded to a tournament that was just announced a couple of weeks ago. With this demonstration of interest in a low-buy-in, high-payout summer event, Commerce Casino has already committed to another Guaranteed Million Dollar event for summer 2011, following on the heels of the L.A. Poker Classic opening event in February.”

Beginning on Sept 1, next up on the Commerce schedule is the Hold’em Series.

Two events reached their conclusion on June 18th at the World Series of Poker. Event #30 ($1,500 No Limit Hold’em) drew 2,394 entrants for a prize pool of $3,231,900, with $580,000 going to eventual winner Mike Ellis. Ellis started the final table in 7th place but was able to overcome the difference in chip stacks when he beat Christopher Gonzales heads up. Poker room favorite, Ellis took down the tournament title when his nut flush cracked Gonzales aces.

The other event that came to an end today was event #31 ($1,500 HORSE). Konstantin Puchkov was able to outlast 828 players for his first ever WSOP cash and first WSOP title. Heads play between Puchkov and Al Barbieri took 3.5 hours to complete with only one all in moment occurring during that time. Buchkov will take home $257,000 for his hard earned efforts.

Two more events started on June 18th as well. These events are Event 34 ($1,000 Seniors No Limit’em) and Event 35 ($10,000 No Limit Hold’em Heads Up). The $1,000 Seniors event drew 3,142 players for a huge prize pool of $2,827,800 while the $10,000 Heads Up event drew a more modest 256 entrants for a prize pool of $2,406, 400. Both of these events are slated to run from the 18th to the 20th of June. There is no lack of notable poker pros in the $10,000 Heads Up event. Phil Ivey, Kido Pham, Vanessa Rousso and Antonio Esfandiari all ponied up the $10k for the chance at one of the more prestigious events at this year’s world series. Heads up events have grown in popularity over recent years so it will be interesting to see who come out the winner in this event.

Switzerland’s highest court has banned the popular card game of Texas Hold’em from being played in private competitions, as of Wednesday. The game requires no skill and is almost entirely based on luck, according to the Supreme Court. Now deemed a game of chance, it can only be played in licensed casinos. To amateur players who have flocked to private games held at restaurants, bars and other public places, the news came as a quite a blow. The loyal following of fans had even been playing tournaments online and betting online too.

What exactly prompted the nation’s highest court to get involved? An earlier decision made by a lower court, appealed Swiss casinos. Allowing private games to be played and the exchange of money, the lower court ruling, considered Texas Hold’em as a skilled based game. According to Swiss casinos, this practice amounted to unfair competition. Especially since private games are not held to the same regulations that casinos are forced to abide by. The high taxes they were required to pay on profits; a 50 percent tax that private tournaments were not forced to p, one of the main differences that concerned Swiss casinos.

Swiss casinos must also identify all players to watch out those individuals who build up excessive debts they are not able to play and for gambling addictions. Some of these same individuals had flocked to Texas Hold’em tournaments instead, who had been banned from playing in Swiss casinos. For amateur players it was unfortunate and they disagree with the decision the high court’s decision is final.

Several thousand of the top poker players in the world convened at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the 2009 World Series of Poker, on May 27, 2009. The tournament was very successful with 57 bracelets and millions of dollars being handed out to the winners of the 57 tournaments, despite a recession and anti-gambling legislation.

Introduced a year earlier, the “November Nine” concept, returned in 2009. On November 7, the Main Event field was narrowed down to nine finalists and play was suspended and resumed.

Eventually 21-year-old, Joe Cada, won the Main Event.

The Main Event was eventually won by 21-year-old Joe Cada. He defeated a man more than double his age, 46-year-old Darvin Moon. He became the youngest Main Event winner in the history of the tournament, surpassing Peter Eastgate’s record (22 years old) from just a year before.

In the end, 6,494 players turned out for the Main Event. After recording subpar numbers for Day 1A and Day 1B, many figured it would be a down year just three years after a record 8,773 showed up for the 2006 Main Event. However, 2,809 registered to play on Day 1D, resulting in a sellout. Many more attempted to register but were turned away as a result of the sellout.
Jeff Lisandro won the $10,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split (8 or Better), the $1,500 Seven Card Stud, and the $2,500 Razz. He became the first player to win three bracelets in the same WSOP since Phil Ivey in 2002. Ivey, Brock Parker and Greg Mueller joined Lisandro as winners of multiple bracelets at the tournament.

In the 21st century, the popularity of Poker began and it has drastically been altered since the introduction of the online poker.

The World Series of Poker event, features 57 of total events and is most intently monitored is titled as the “Main Event,” a game of $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold’em. Totaling 6,494 players entering the sweepstakes with an incredible prize pool of more than sixty million dollars, the game is witnessing tremendous amount of entries.

At 21 years of age, Joe Cada, became the youngest champion of the 2009 World Series of Poker Championship, surpassing Peter Eastgate, the previous youngest champ. By the time he entered the World Series of Poker, he has earned more than 500, 00 dollars on online websites. All his winnings were dwarfed by the more than 8.5 million dollars that he would earn with his victory in the World Series of Poker.

Along the way, in path to his victory, Cada actually fell into some trouble. After third of four opening day sessions, Cada was the leading chip holder but was reduced to very low chip levels but eventually was able to win it, helping him to bag the 8.5 million dollar prize. Other players that earned significant cash prizes included Kevin Schaffel (1.3 million), Phil Ivey (1.3 million), Jeff Shulman (nearly 2 million), James Akenhead (over 1.2 million), Antoine Saout (nearly 3.5 million), Steven Begleiter (nearly 1.6 million), James Akenhead (over 1.2 million) and Darvin Moon (nearly 5.2 million).

Than ever before, huge money and excitement surrounds poker room. As the wide availability for people to play poker and rack up money, people feel that the true art of the game is lost, resulting in the loss of the true understanding of the game. A game like poker will keep attracting more and more attention of the people since poker gives them the ability to put themselves in the shoes of the stars.

Sorel Mizzi was born April 16, 1986 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “Imper1um” and “Zangbezan24” are the names under which he plays. In online tournaments wins, he has won over $700,000.
He was placed tenth in September 2006 Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic for $29,800 and won $280,284 and took third place at the 2007 Irish Poker Open. He finished 2nd and won £5,000 at the 2008 World Series of Poker. Mizzi’s winnings exceed $1.5 million dollars and are sponsored by betting company Betfair.
In 2007 with $154,705, Mizzi finished 15th at World Poker Tour. At the 2008 Five Diamond World Poker Classic which earned him $143,050 and also won the $3,000 No-limit Hold’em event.
No-Limit Hold’em tournament win made Mizzi the 2nd player in FTOPS history and he won event #7 of FTOPS III on February 15, 2007.
He has expressed love for music, working out, playing table tennis, volleyball. He respects other poker players Mike Mac Donald, Gavin Smith, Tony G, Daniel Negreanu, Maat Kay and Greg Mueller. He said he wanted to abolish cheating and make balanced rules in online poker.
In Dec 2007, In an “account selling”, Mizzi was banned along with Vaughn from Full Tilt Poker. Even though Mizzi had won it, he was disqualified, later he apologized for his actions.
When asked about the incident, Mizzi Replied; “The more I think about it, the more I believe that what I did was wrong and it’s something that I want the poker community to know that I would never do again. Hopefully people can forgive me for what I’ve done and I can move forward with my life and not be known as someone who cheats or someone who multi-accounts.”
Since this incident in 2007, Mizzi is promoting honesty, demeaning cheating. He is considered as the top 10 online poker players in the world and is definitely is a great Online Poker player.

On Tuesday, April 13, Jason Mercier took home an impressive $450,000 and won the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun High Roller Bounty Shootout. This young Team PokerStars Pro member is on a winning streak. In February, netting a cool $141,000, Jason finished in third place in the High Roller event of the L.A. Poker Classic. The next month he finished in fifth place at the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, banking another $75,000. At the next High Roller Bounty Shootout, Tuesday’s win cements his place.

He pitted himself in a head to head against fellow PocketFives.com member Sam Stein and used his trademark pocket threes to claim the lead. This is definitely his largest win with that hand although Mercier has always been a big fan of the pocket threes. The hand came later during heads-up play, which lasted well over three hours. With pocket threes, Mercier was all-in pre-flop. Stein held A-J of diamonds when the flop produced J-2-6. A four on the turn gave Jason a straight draw to a five, although the commanding lead was held by Stein.

As luck would have it, when a five landed on the river, Mercier doubled up. A few hands later, the tournament finally came to an end. Stein’s 9-3 of hearts was no match for Mercier’s 10-6. A combination of $350,000 final table prize, $60,000 for making it past Day 1 of the tournament, and $40,000 in bounty spoils with total take home of $450,000. Be sure to follow Mercier’s career and look for him at the next High Roller Bounty Shootout.

Poker’s roots go back to Europe and Asia as far back as the middle ages. And when people started moving West, the game came with them.

5 card stud was very popular in the gold fields during the Gold Rush. After spending long, hard days in the gold mine, the miners relaxed at night by playing poker. The game of 5 card stud starting out as a form of entertainment and then moved on to a way for professional gamblers to make a living.

Up until the 1820’s, only 20 cards were used. 10 through Ace in the four suits. Since there were so few options of winning hands, people were starting to get bored with the game. So they started using a full deck of 52 cards, which meant more people could play and there were more winning combinations.

The game began to thrive. It was played during the civil war, in the Wild West and then started being played on riverboats that floated down the Mississippi River. New Orleans became a hot bed of 5 card stud.
More and more variations were added to the game to raise profitability. Originally, 5 cards were dealt face down and there was only one round of betting. Professional gamblers began adding wild cards and bluffing to make it possible to make more money at the game. Then around 1850 the draw was added to the game to add another round of betting. Now online poker has got equally popular with its’ different variations.

dean martin

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