2BlogPoker.com

Recent online reports say that CheckRaised.com an online poker forum offering tools and software downloads distributed a trojan horse hidden in a one of it’s software packages.

The spyware was identified as Backdoor.Win32.Small.la and was built into a Rakeback calculator application designed to help online poker players track of commission fees collected by gaming website owners.

The program is capable of collecting login information from online poker sites. F-Secure, a company specializing in online security, discovered the spyware application and CheckRaised.com owners removed the download immediately.

Most experts agree that online poker can’t continue it’s exponential growth indefiniltely. Some prominent industry leaders are even saying there may come a mass exodus if online poker games don’t continue to evolve and find new ways to keep poker players entertained while waiting for their turn at betting.

Simon Prodger of PKR.com has been quoted as saying, “If you’re talking about exponential growth there is a very real ceiling to those limits, but there are still very healthy growth rates”.

While John Anderson, chief executive at 888.com recently told the Financial Times, “The exponential rates we have seen just can’t keep going,…”If it keeps going no one in the world will be working. We’ll all be playing online poker.”

What it comes down to is that real live poker can be so much more engrossing and entertaining.  Online poker sites have done their best so far adding animations and high quality graphics, but that might not be enough to keep the players happy and playing.

Get ready for Britain’s first live all-women poker championship being held this summer. Featuring a prize of £100,000 and a promise of “celebrity status in the poker world”.

Poker has emerged from the back rooms of pubs and has exploded in popularity, first by being shown on television and now by the popularity of internet gaming.

Suddenly it is not only respectable but fashionable to play, attracting more women and young people.  Women are still in a minority, but they have come a long way from the days when a female face around the table was rare.

A YouGov poll last year showed that women made up 30 to 40 per cent of online players. In casinos, the proportion of women is estimated to have increased from one to five per cent of players.

“A lot of women are starting online and then deciding they want to play with real people. I think women who have never been in a casino before but have played with friends or online will enter the championship.”

Star City began holding poker nights twice a week seven months ago and now attracts around 130 people a time.

The idea for the women’s championship came from Malcom Harwood, resident player at the World of Poker website, who approached Stanley Casinos, Britain’s largest casino operator and owner of Star City.

I am gonna watch this one closely, I agree that women can play with the best of em’.

David Matthew, a 47 year-old president of a Toronto-based company that services bank machines, won nearly $2 million last week at the World Poker Tournament in Las Vegas and plans to use the money to pay off debts, help out loved ones and pursue the card game full time.”I’m still going to own my business,” Matthew said over the phone. “But I won’t be doing any more work after probably this week. I already have people lined up to do my work.”

Matthew took home $1,903,950 US on April 24 after placing second at the four-day tournament.

He paid just $25 online (at www.paradisepoker.com) to qualify for the first stage in the event at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino and then moved on from there.

“I’m not a gambler,” said Matthew, who first learned the popular Texas hold ‘em game two years ago at a casino in Vegas.

Matthew said he played poker tournaments online “every night” – with the support of his wife – for the past year and in casinos every now and then. He started out with $200 buy-ins and eventually moved up to $1,000 buy-ins, with his biggest pot before this one being $25,000.

“I could be beaten any day and any time,” Matthew conceded. “It’s just a matter of how lucky you are and how good you play at that particular time you’re playing against me.

I am from the Toronto area so I am very please to see a local bloke take home such a large cash prize!! Good job Dave.

Want a Lotus Elise exotic sports car?  The exact same one offered as the prize in the winner-take-all inaugural poker tournament held as part of the grand opening celebrations for their new mega-poker room at the Venetian Resort?

Tournament winner, Beatrice Stranzinger took her winnings directly to eBay to “cash-out”.  After winning the Lotus she put it up for auction.  The bidding was slated to start at 42k but no one bid.