Cruise ships will be allowed to open late-night casinos in port after Cabinet approved a plan aimed at fighting off increasing competition from rival cruise destinations.

The Opposition United Bermuda Party last night attacked the move, which it said had been made without any public consultation and would open the door to gambling on the Island.

Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown announced the decision in the House of Assembly on Friday as one of a number of alterations to cruise ship legislations.

The Premier said ships would now be allowed to open bars and signature shops and “provide full entertainment inclusive of the opening of casinos after 10 p.m. while in port”.

He said cruise lines would in return be required to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to on-Island activities such as the Bermuda Music Festival and Harbour Nights.

Opinion over gambling has long divided the Island, with the AME Church recently condemning the controversial casino ship Niobe Corinthian which came to Bermuda and the Seventh-day Adventist Church hitting out against poker games which were being played in bars.

UBP Leader Kim Swan said in a statement released last night: “The United Bermuda Party is extremely concerned the Brown Government has allowed gambling in Bermuda without any public consultation whatsoever.

“Premier Brown’s statement in the House of Assembly that his Government will allow cruise ship casinos to operate while in port says he would rather bypass than engage the public on the matter.

“All Bermudians should be concerned about such a development, and ask themselves if they prefer not to have any say in Government decisions; particularly ones that may well impact the future. Make no mistake: Dr. Brown’s decision opens the door to gambling in Bermuda.

“Gambling is a highly controversial issue among Bermudians and the public should have been consulted prior to any decision on the matter.

“Dr. Brown’s rationale for the decision could well have provided the basis for a constructive public debate, but it is clear he would prefer to govern by edict than to bother with the views of the people.

“The decision raises legal issues since Bermuda outlaws gaming houses. It also raises the question of double-standards since the Government moved aggressively a few years ago to shut down the use of gaming machines around the Island.”
Cindy Violette was born in Queens New York and grew up in a family where she played plenty of poker games. While on maternity leave from her blackjack dealer job, Cindy Violette played poker for money for the very first time. Cindy Violette’s first time at the tables proved extraordinarily successful and she had a major winning streak. That single game gave Cindy Violette a taste for poker that has led her to become the professional poker player she is today. Cindy Violette was eliminated on day 1 of the 2008 WSOP along with the likes of Gavin Griffin, Stuart Paterson, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo and Kristy Gazes.

While Cindy Violette lives in New Jersey and often spends time in Atlantic City, she spends quite a bit of time in Las Vegas, where she intends to establish a bookstore/vegetarian café. She had one time had a significant crush on the poker play Stu Unger and she acknowledges and admiration of the way Unger presented himself at the tables.

Cindy Violette brought home significant amounts of cash playing mostly cash games, and she won enough money at a tournament in Lake Tahoe to get a professional poker-playing career started. However, she won 75,000 dollars at the Golden Nugget’s Grand Prix of Poker Seven-Card Stud Championship in 1985, and further earned herself a World Series of Poker gold bracelet in 2004 when she made the move to playing tournaments. Her success at the tables has earned Cindy Violette a great deal of attention; she has had an interview that appeared in Playboy magazine , and she has also had an appearance on Poker Royale. To date, Cindy Violette has earned over a million dollars in winnings.

There’s a new final-table option at Absolute Poker that is going to make life much easier for players looking to cut a deal.

Absolute Poker has added a Deal Making button that will appear in certain online poker games once they have reached a final table.

“We’re making it easier for players to facilitate deals so that everyone can walk away from a big tournament with a healthy win,” said David Clainer, Absolute Poker senior vice president.

Once the Deal Making button appears, players will be prompted to click Yes or No. Once everyone left at the final table has clicked Yes, the game will pause and an administrator will join the chat to monitor the players as they discuss a deal.

Visit Absolute Poker

The administrator will also be able to provide helpful information on chip equity during the discussions. If an agreement is reached, the pot will be split accordingly. If no agreement is made, the game will continue.

Clainer noted that by the time many of the tournaments reach a final table at Absolute Poker, the game has become a coin toss as players go all-in for a shot at winning the pot.

The Deal Making function will allow the players an easier way to discuss deals and split the pot to avoid leaving a potential big win or loss to chance.

The folks at Hollywood Poker are giving players yet another reason to check out their Grand Tournament, which kicks off on May 30.

In addition to the $1 million guarantee Grand Tournament, Hollywod Poker will also offer the World Series of Poker Slam with premium WSOP packages up for grabs. Poker Slam will take place right after each Grand Event, scheduled for May 30-June 1.

The $45,000 WSOP Grand Slam will take place on Sunday and it will give players a chance to win a combo that includes a WSOP Main Event seat package plus a side events package worth $26,500.

Leading up to that grand finale is Friday’s $40,000 WSOP Side Event Slam that awards top three finalist a WSOP Side Events Package each and Saturday’s $35,000 WSOP Main Event Slam which awards the top two finalists a WSOP Main Event Package each.

There are numerous ways to qualify for Hollywood Poker’s Grand Weekend and you can learn about them by clicking here.

Hollywood Poker is home to celebrities like Vince Van Patten and James Woods and delivers a broad range of online poker games with over $14 million in prize pools including the $1 million monthly grand.

THE ban on indoor smoking is ripping tens of millions from the pub and club industry, and poker machine turnover fell almost 20 per cent in hotels last month.

Figures from the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing show poker machine turnover fell 19 per cent in hotels and 11 per cent in clubs in March compared with the same month last year, in the worst monthly result since the ban was introduced.

Clubs NSW yesterday warned of catastrophic consequences for the industry from the ban, and also blamed rises in interest rates and petrol prices for the downturn.

The figures show that overall, between July last year, when the smoking ban was fully implemented, and February, poker machine turnover fell 11.4 per cent in hotels and 7.7 per cent in clubs.

Club revenue from pokies fell from $295 million in March 2007 to $230 million in March 2008. Total turnover - the amount of money put through the machines - fell from $3.6 billion in March last year to $2.9 billion this March.

Clubs believe the unseasonably wet weather last month was a large factor in the fall in patronage, deterring pub- and club-goers who smoke and have to go outside to light up. But figures fell across the board.

In the Blacktown-Baulkham Hills area, gambling machine turnover fell from $164 million to $139 million, or 15.2 per cent, between July and March; in inner Sydney, turnover fell from $132 million to $99 million (25 per cent); and in outer western Sydney, turnover fell from $145 million to $121 million (16.6 per cent).

“I don’t think people realise just how tough clubs are travelling,” said a Clubs NSW spokesman, Jeremy Bath.

“Parramatta Leagues, for example, is a well-managed club … and yet even they will declare a multi-million-dollar loss this year. That hasn’t happened [at the club] in more than 30 years.

“The storm clouds predicted three years ago by the industry have well and truly arrived.”

The chief executive of Clubs NSW, David Costello, said: “Twelve months ago the industry would never have expected a result like we experienced in March.

“When you look at Queensland and the ACT, nine months into their indoor ban and gaming losses were beginning to plateau.

“There is growing evidence that the continuing drop in revenue is not related just to the indoor bans. With petrol prices up substantially this year and several more interest rate increases announced, households are clearly reducing how much they gamble.” Some clubs would not survive, he said.

With a small lull in live poker action during the month of May before the World Series begins, some players may be wondering where to take in some online action. The answer is Titan Poker. Not only will Titan Poker be offering several promotions during May, it will also kick off its second European Championship of Online Poker towards the end of the month. First up are the final two super satellites offered by the poker site to send players to Manila to participate in the Asian Poker Tour. They will take place May 5 and 12 at 8 p.m. GMT+1 and offer players a shot at winning a $6,000 prize package for only a $250+$8 buy-in. Each super satellite will award four prize packages, which include the $2,500 buy-in to the APT main event plus money for travel and accommodations. For online poker players looking for an even less expensive way to win their way to the APT Manila event, there are plenty of ongoing and daily qualifiers at Titan Poker. Poker players can work their way into the super satellite through the qualifiers for as little as $3.30+30¢. On May 4, the poker site will also begin a week-long VIP race designed to award $30,000 in prizes. To get in on the race, players will have to be Diamond, Titanium, Platinum, Gold and Silver VIP players at Titan Poker. During the week-long VIP race, Titan Poker will track the top players in each VIP level with leaderboards on the poker site, with the top players in each earning prizes when the race ends May 10. As soon as that promotion ends, however, a new one will begin. On May 11, Titan Poker will kick off the May Challenge. For the May Challenge, Titan Poker will stage 10 daily leaderboard races until May 20. Every other day the race will focus on cash-game play, and on alternating days the race will be for tournament play. With $3,000 in prizes being given out each day, the May Challenge will award $30,000 in cash. That cash will come in handy for players interested in taking on the European Championship of Online Poker when it begins May 23. The ECOOP II will feature 10 days of online poker action as players can take on several different types of poker events with buy-ins ranging from $100+$9 up to $1,000+$60 for the main event. There will also be a freeroll at the end of the series for the top 100 players on the ECOOP leaderboard. In the first ECOOP, Titan Poker had $2.5 million in guaranteed prize pools. This time around the poker site will offer up $3.6 million in guaranteed prize pools. Visit Titan Poker for your chance to participate in these and many other promotions. Plus, players who sign up at Titan Poker through a PokerListings link have access to exclusive promotions including the $600 sign-up bonus at 200% match, plus $50 up front for deposits of more than $100.

Melody is everywhere and if you take advantage it might become your best friend in poker games. Psychology presents different aspects of music where personal matters are connected to melodies. For instance, the songs you listened to on a Saturday night at your friend’s house, during a rainy night downtown in the city, or even when finishing primary school can remind you again and again of different feelings. As well, in a poker room music can successfully benefit you to improve your abilities.

Music is a way of expression, an art and an entertainment. It is the combination of sounds that affect our emotions and our moods therefore, it can even be so powerful that our way of thinking is constantly affected.

The body is also influenced by different type of music. Our blood pressure and energy level are aspects which can increase or decrease according to which type of harmony surrounds us. Classical music is regarded as relaxing and pacifying while on the opposite Salsa and Latin music is considered motivating to our physical energy.

It is scientifically proved that melodies are connected to our emotional and physical aspects. In deed, people choose sounds according their emotional characteristic or physical state.

Although it seems unlikely that every player will choose specifically a song according to their mood, psychology says the person chooses the music subconsciously adapting it to his or her strength of mind. Likewise, playing poker in a casino or poker room demands a full concentration and a strong attention to every move made. This is how the importance of music chosen during a poker game can benefit the player to make the right move.

Certainly music can be applied as well to medical areas in therapies such as insomnia, stress reduction or encouraging education. Harmony has a wide variety of areas to cover such as entertainment, medicine, psychology, and more. Poker players should use it to benefit concerning their decisions and moves since the chances of improving a game are big and its worth trying.

Poker has always been seen as a male-dominated pastime - but a woman proved to be the ace in the pack at the first Shropshire championships.

Mel Clifford lifted the title after a gruelling day of bluffing, holding and folding at AFC Telford Learning Centre.

Mel, one of only five women in a 53-strong field, defeated runner-up Nathan Kitson in a late-night showdown.

Mel won a £200 first prize, half of which she donated to the charity benefiting from the event, Hope House children’s hospice at Morda, near Oswestry.

Mel, based in Stoke-on-Trent, had heard about the contest, believed to be the first of its type in the country, from a friend in Gnosall, near Newport, who had read about it in the Shropshire Star.

Organiser Steve Upton-Clear was delighted with the response to the championships, which ran from 4pm until well after 11pm.

“It was an excellent turnout and very hard-fought.

“The beauty of it was that we had a wide range of entrants, from very experienced poker players to virtual beginners who have played a little online and who wanted the experience of playing in a competition.”

Chips were used for bidding with no money changing hands during the event.

Players were eliminated throughout the day until the final clash between Mel and Nathan, when cool heads were needed after a stamina-sapping seven-hour session.

Steve added: “She heard about the event from a friend in Gnosall and came with a group who play regularly in casinos.”

He said that the response to the competition had given him the encouragement to think about organising similar ventures in future.

The final total to be donated to Hope House was still being calculated, he added.

Casino Arizona continues to be a pioneer in Indian gaming with the addition of new, state-of-the-art games at its 101 & McKellips and 101 & Indian Bend locations. The installation of these machines at Casino Arizona, including Wheel Poker, CineReels and Roulette Revolution, marks the first time they are available in the state.

”Our goal at Casino Arizona is to keep our guests excited about the games and amenities we offer,” said David Vandiver, director of slot operations for Casino Arizona. ”We do this by constantly adding to the gaming floor. These new games incorporate the latest technology to some of our guests’ favorite games.”

One game with which technology adds a new twist is Wheel Poker from International Gaming Technology. Housed at Casino Arizona 101 & McKellips location, Wheel Poker serves up seven of the most popular video poker games including Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild and Triple Double Bonus Poker. With a five-credit max bet on each hand, guests have the option to wager an additional credit on any played hands to qualify for an equal number of chances at the Wheel Poker bonus. Wheel Poker gives any dealt or naturally drawn four-of-a-kind the wheel bonus.

Another new machine bank added to the 101 & McKellips location is Cine-Reels. These 2-cent slots, manufactured by Bally’s, are the gaming industry’s only seven-reel stepper. Designed to give guests optimal comfort and enjoyment during play, CineReels also share the same widescreen style as the wildly popular cabinet, Cine-Vision. Additionally, Cine-Reels supports microstepping technology with unique All Stop functionality.

101 & McKellips isn’t the only Casino Arizona location in on the new gaming action. Casino Arizona 101 & Indian Bend has added Roulette Revolution, an electronic table game also from IGT. Roulette Revolution was designed to address all facets for the player experience and is complete with a 23-inch-wide screen LCD touch-screen monitor, added leg room, wrist rests and a live roulette wheel.

When playing Roulette Revolution, guests place traditional wagers including straight up, split corners, red or black, and even or odd during real-time game play. Guests also enjoy the game’s unique history function. By pressing the trends button, guests can review the top five hot and cold numbers, the last 20 hits and the top five bets.

Casino Arizona 101 & McKellips offers visitors more than 100,000 square feet devoted to gaming and entertainment. Amenities include 48 table games, 1,026 EZ-Pay slot machines, Keno, a world-class showroom and gourmet restaurants, including the Cholla Prime Steakhouse and Lounge.

Casino Arizona 101 & Indian Bend features 637 slot machines, 42 blackjack tables, 46 poker tables and fast action Keno. Guests also can enjoy food and drink from the facilities two lounges, the Blue Coyote Grill & Sports Bar and The Wandering Horse Cafe.

On February 29, I e-mailed all of the major online poker sites that accept U.S. customers a short questionnaire about the safety and security measures taken on each site. Given more than a week for responses, I received only one-from PokerStars-with answers to my questions. Thus, PokerStars is the online site featured in this column.

Q: What company or individual(s) own your site?

A: PokerStars is owned by Rational Entertainment Enterprises Limited, a privately held Isle of Man company.

Q: What company or organization holds your gaming license?

A: There is a misconception about offshore companies being unlicensed and unregulated. PokerStars holds its license with the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission. More information can be found at www.PokerStars. com/IOM.

Q: What is your site’s stance on multi-accounting and seat-selling practices?

A: With trivial exceptions, a player may play on only one (his) account during a tournament and may not “hand off” his seat mid-event to a different player. Violation of this rule may result in penalties including disqualification from the tournament, with full forfeiture of winnings (which will be distributed to other players) and barring from PokerStars. Further clarification, including examples of what is acceptable and unacceptable activity can be found under Rule 21 at www.PokerStars.com/Poker/Tournaments/Rules.

Q: What security measures does your site employ to prevent cheating?

A: PokerStars employs a large number of experienced poker players who review any suspicious activity at the tables. These reviews are initiated from three main sources: 1) player complaints, 2) automated alerts of unusual activity, and 3) standard scheduled reviews of accounts. These reviews involve examining both account activity and the hands played by the player in question for any suspicious activity. In addition, we have a Games Security department whose only goal is to protect players from inappropriate activity by other players.

Q: How can you assure players that their money is safe and the games are fair?

A: Regarding money, all PokerStars player balances are held in a segregated account of a major European bank and are never used for any sort of operating expense. PokerStars was the first major site to establish a segregated account of this nature. If every player on the site wished to cash out their full balance tomorrow, there would be absolutely no problem handling all of the requests. No player has ever failed to receive a cash-out on our site in over six years of operation.

Regarding games, as indicated above, we engage in both reactive and proactive reviews of the play between players on our site. In terms of receiving a fair deal, we have undertaken great lengths to develop truly random shuffle, safe from any hacking or manipulation. Our random number generator w

as submitted and verified by multiple auditing agencies. More details can be found at www.PokerStars.com/Poker/Room/Features/Security.

Finally, we have a standing offer with every real money player on our site to send them every real money hand that they have ever played for review… Many players have taken advantage of this service, and often publish their results, all of which always indicate that our shuffle is completely random.

A: Several of the measures outlined above are unique to PokerStars (segregated account balances, offer to send all hand histories). However, the biggest way that we separate ourselves is by the company culture that has customer focus as the main company value. That focus is what brought us the reputation of having the best support in the industry. PokerStars was founded by businessmen and technology professionals who were also passionate recreational poker players viewing poker as both challenging and entertaining. Much of senior management is still heavily comprised of people who love poker and who are committed to providing a great poker experience for all our players.

He was new in town, looking for a game, and got the e-mail address of another poker player off a Web site.

But when he showed up for the game in Mount Pleasant, they refused to let him in.

‘Nobody knew me, or could vouch for me, so I couldn’t play,’ said the man who asked not to be identified. ‘I had to leave, which was stupid, because if I was a cop, I already knew where the game was.’

But that was shortly after a group of poker players in Mount Pleasant had been busted, and tensions were running high among the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who play Texas Hold ‘em here on a regular basis.

But if things were bad then, players are positively paranoid now after Lowcountry law enforcement busted up a poker ring in Hanahan this month. So far, there have been nearly 200 warrants issued for 65 players.

Many games have been canceled, and the ones that continue are kept quiet, the table talk filled with nervous jokes — chatter about who’s going to rat them out, when the cops will come breaking down the door.

‘Most people are not playing right now; it’s really low-key,’ said Matt, who normally plays once or twice a week. ‘I’m not expecting to play anytime soon.’

The majority of games being played around the Lowcountry are nothing like the Hanahan game, in which one dealer said he, like the waiters, worked for tips as guys tossed around hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in a night.

At most games, people play for a few bucks a game, risking no more than $100 or $200 a night. They’re looking for a way to unwind, a chance to drink beer and insult their buddies and throw the ace-high flush in the face of a guy who’s way too proud of his straight.

They know what they’re doing is against the law, but players interviewed by The Post and Courier — all of whom asked to be identified only by their first names or not at all — argue that it’s a silly law.

After all, the same law against games using cards and dice makes Monopoly, Uno and Go Fish illegal. And nobody has seen any preschoolers on a perp walk lately.

‘I see prostitutes roaming the streets of North Charleston, and I’ve heard that recently North Charleston was voted seventh in the nation for crime,’ one player said. ‘So I’m wondering why these (expletive) police are spending taxpayers’ money to arrest guys that just wanna play some cards. It’s ridiculous and needs to be stopped.’

The police say other crimes are not being ignored to track down folks committing misdemeanors, and they will not ignore complaints about poker games.

Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon does not encourage people to break the law, no matter how old it is, but said he’s not going out of his way to bust up penny-ante kitchen table poker games any more than he’s looking to arrest grandmothers playing Go Fish with the kids.

They won’t look the other way if someone complains about a game, but police do have discretion. If they get a call about a small-time game, a deputy might simply tell the players to knock it off. If a fair amount of money is at stake, the players or game organizer might get a ticket, Cannon said.

And there was a fair amount of money on the table in Hanahan.

Cannon likened poker-playing to drinking and driving. The law says it’s OK to drink alcohol but the state doesn’t allow you to have 10 drinks and get behind the wheel. ‘There are limits,’ he said.

The game in Hanahan, Cannon said, was over the limit.

‘It’s an old law, but that doesn’t make it any less of a law,’ he said. ‘And if we get a complaint concerning a game of this magnitude, we’re going to investigate it and take appropriate action. Maybe in this more sophisticated crowd they don’t think it’s a crime, but in South Carolina it is a crime.’

The poker Martin Orlando Reyes

is accused of running out of his house certainly doesn’t match the description of most Lowcountry home games. The stakes were higher, the players often high- profile community professionals.

Although staff was not hired, one dealer, who would not give his name for fear that he might face criminal charges, said he worked for tips. On an average night, he could make between $300 and $600, maybe $1,000 on a banner night. Sometimes he played as well.

‘People need a dealer, and I have quick hands and can read cards quickly,’ he said. ‘I’m able to stay up for a lot of hours and I don’t have to go to the bathroom often. I keep the games moving.’

He said servers brought food and drinks around, and they too worked for tips. If the house took a cut, it was to cover expenses, not to make money.

The people involved were doctors, lawyers and other professionals, the dealer says. Some of the others were teachers, real estate agents, even a solicitor. The dealer says these were people who already had money and did this to blow off steam.

‘No one got rich off this,’ he said. ‘No one supported a lifestyle on this.’

And some arrested in the sting say that’s where Reyes’ game most closely resembles the average kitchen table poker game in Charleston: Nobody’s gambling to make a living; it’s just recreation.

‘If you want, you can find a game just about any night of the week,’ said another local man, who plays at least once a week. ‘For the most part, guys buy in between $80 to $200, give or take. Which means, on a good night, if you get lucky, you might walk away a couple hundred dollars in the plus. … This is just a game of fun. The money is just a way for us to keep score.’

Ben, a local young professional, says he and his friends used to play for quarters in the dorms at College of Charleston. He’s still playing, not too worried about the possibility of being busted.

‘I only play live games about 3 to 4 times per month, and the games I play in are not as big as the one who got busted recently,’ he said.

A fair number of folks feel the same way.

‘We play with the windows open, blinds up,’ said Teresa, another local player. ‘We don’t feel like we’re big-time enough to be worried.’

But others feel like it’s best to just cool it for a while.

Matt said

several of the people who have warrants out against them are folks he used to play with. He said some of his friends have jokingly asked why he wasn’t named, as if he had turned them in. In truth, Matt is a little surprised he wasn’t named.

The mystery behind how the police got the names of the poker players is one of the more popular

topics at tables

these days.

In poker, there’s a term called ‘pot odds,’ the complex mathematical formula that dictates whether you should call a bet. You weigh the odds of making a good hand against the payoff you are getting on your money — in other words, a $10 bet into a $100 pot is 10-to-1 odds. If the odds of making your hand are better than 10-to-1, that’s a good bet.

Right now, people are deciding the pot odds of playing poker in the Lowcountry are not worth taking the chance. Across the city, the cards are growing cold.

Reach Brian Hicks at 937-5561 or bhicks@postandcourier.com. Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.