entertainment - "international poker"

IT'S almost miraculous, but the international telecast of World Youth Day has so far come together without an obvious technical hitch.

One of the first few rooms to host freerolls to the 2008 PokerNews Cup Australia - Carbon poker host five in the coming months exclusively for PokerNews players.

The final table of a tournament is obviously a great place to be. Not only is it a testament to your skill, stamina, and the ability to keep your head in stressful situation, but it also means you are finishing in the money. The only drawback to that is that the celebratory beers are probably going to be on your tab. During this year's World Series of poker we have seen a lot of really great plays, but over the course of the events we have also seen a lot of players give up at the final table.

There are some absolutely brilliant players out there who are that way naturally. They just have the sort of knack for reading situations and putting their opponents on hands that simply can't be taught. But they are the minority. There are a bunch of other really fantastic players who have gotten that way with study, and worked their tails off to be as good as they are. While there are more of them than those who are just born good, this is still a minority of players. Most of what we will meet in the casinos are players who are the poker equivalent of a C student.

And then there were nine. Yesterday the World Series of poker field was finally narrowed to the final nine players. This left most people with a strange, unsatisfied feeling as the WSOP ground to a halt for the first time with no Main Event Champion being crowned. It was sort of like getting a hot fudge sundae with the actual fudge. Regardless of anyone's feeling on how the setup has been changed to make ESPN happy, we are still looking forward to eventually seeing the final nine play it out until there is a champion.

The bill by California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) which would lead to the legalization of intrastate online poker in California has cleared a significant legislative hurdle and is on its way to the Senate Appropriations...

The 39th annual World Series of poker is being paused till November now, the records are all being tallied, and one record is the number of countries that attended the play in Las Vegas this summer. Last year some 87 countries were represented at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino, where the games are held. This year that number jumped to 118, and included players from every one of the 50 US states...

The Final Table is set for the 2008 World Series of poker, and no big name poker pros are among the final nine. The players, who hail from New York, Missouri, Texas, Califorina, Denmark, Russia, and Canada, are being dubbed the 'November Nine' thanks to the delay in the game this year, which will not resume again until the Fall. The nine players are: Dennis Phillips, Craig Marquis, Ylon Schwartz, Scott Montgomery, Darus Suharto, David 'Chino' Rheem, Ivan Demidov, Kelly Kim, and Peter Eastgate, all of whom are competing for the $9 million top prize.Related Articles:2008 WSOP broadcast schedule announcedWSOP Circuit schedule released...

The latest version of the Apple iPhone has hit the market and right on its heels is a new poker application available at Apple's App Store. The application, simply named 'Texas Holdem poker', uses the iPhone's unique touch screen interface to provide a new poker experience. Play is single player against the computer or multiplayer against other iPhone or iTouch users on a wifi network...

International News: Deals for 120 hours of programming closed -- British TV distrib, Channel 4 Intl. has sold 120 hours of shows to an array of broadcasters around Asia.