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Duplicate Poker have recently announced the closure of their skilled gaming room due to being caught in the middle of the global financial situation that has been all over the news lately.

the company is no longer able to continue their services to players and affiliates due to this crisis.

Duplicate Poker has closed its doors as of October 5th, 2008. Duplicate Poker have advised that commissions on players that have qualified up to this point will calculated shortly.

Here is a letter sent out to it’s players!

Dear players,

Duplicate is sadly bidding farewell to its players. Caught in the middle of the global financial situation the company is not able to continue to provide service. We are a small victim of the global financial crisis.

Regretfully as of the today, October 5th, 2008 we are closing our service. We thank our players for being with us. Hopefully at later time and in a better economic climate Duplicate Poker will re-appear.

Sincerely,
The Duplicate Poker Team

Duplicate poker was a very interesting experiment for an online poker site, as it’s whole selling point was the fact that each table in each seated position were given exactly the same cards. This meant you were scored by points for the way you played the hand. The idea was to elimnate as much luck as possible from the game.

Full Tilt Poker Pro John Juanda has just won the biggest brand named tournament main event in Europe, by defeating relative poker unknown Stanislav Alekhin in heads-up play to claim his first WSOPE title and his fourth WSOP bracelet after an amazing record setting, just under 22-hour final table!

Leading the final table into battle was Juanda, the the well known poker pro dominated each and every table he sat at during the second day of play at the tournament, Juanda played relentless poker and was using his big stack to Bully players around and even the likes of the man Doyle Brunson.

When it was in heads up play The Full Tilt pro found himself behind poker player Alekhin in chips late in the 28th level of the tournament, but that changed after he doubled through his Russian adversary while all-in with K 6  to Alekhin's 4 3  on a K Q 7  flop.

Juanda needed to dodge clubs and runners to stay alive, and after the board finished 9 4 ,he'd doubled up, bringing his stack up to $6.6 million and crippling Alekhin, who was left with only $600,000 after the hand.

In the end, John Juanda won the event and the 869k pound first place prize. Heads-up play between Juanda and second-place finisher Stanislav Alekhin took approximately eight hours to complete as the two exchanged the lead many times. The end came after 484 hands had been played- Alekhin moved all-in preflop holding A 9 offsuit, and Juanda called holding K 6.

The flop came 6 6 2, and Alekhin was almost drawing dead. The Q on the turn sealed the deal for Juanda - he actually ended up making quads on the river to close out the tournament in style.

John Juanda's last WSOP bracelet came in 2003, causing the four-time bracelet winner to remark, "It's so long ago when I won my last bracelet, I can't remember. It's embarrassing." After starting the final table as the chip leader, Juanda came from behind several times to claim his first Main Event bracelet Admitting that he found his young opponent almost impossible to read, Juanda gave credit to his last two opponents in saying, "Today there are so many young excellent tournament players from all over the world. Like the two young Russians and the Scandis. Much more than it used to be. " Congratulations to Full Tilt Poker Pro winner John Juanda, the 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champion.

The feature guest this week on Pokercast is Two Plus Two author Collin Moshman. Collin is on the program to talk about his newly released 2+2 poker strategy book about heads-up play titled "Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'em". He talks about several topics from his new book including exploitive play, controlling pot size and gives some real world hand analysis. Also featured on the program is the highly anticipated segment "Bunner In The Pokercast Well". Mike and Adam also talk some tournament news, forum static and of course give away the password for the October 5th Poker Stars VIP Club freeroll.

Original audio source (MP3, Right Click - Save As)

A dear friend to the US online poker playing community, Massachusetts Congresmen Barney Frank’s bill has at least made it through the initial committee vote required to get things rolling once the 2009 session of congress begins.

The bill, touted as HR 6870 received a vote of 30-19 which is enough to push the bill into congress where it will be deliberated and highly scrutinized once Congress begins its session in 2009.

The bill is called the payments systems protection act and basically will clarify and essentially make UGIEA a thing of the past except for some very clear circumstances. The goal is to protect online poker transactions and remove them from the same category that sports betting falls under.

Frank attempted to get things rolling on a similar bill last year but the efforts ultimately fell short when the bill never even moved passed the preliminary committee to get consideration in congress.

With things alive and rolling again, online gamers across the states are hoping that despite the long and tedious process of law making that somehow someway Frank’s bill will once again bring peace of mind to those wanting to participate in online gaming.

Frank’s ultimately hopes to make online gaming a legitimate business operation in the United States realizing that countries in Europe have been reaping the rewards of the massive tax revenues for years.

With poker being played by an ever increasing trendy and young crowd, the Hard Rock Las Vegas has taken it upon themselves to redefine the poker room and cater to the younger more party happy crowd.

Hard Rock Las Vegas is dropping a smooth thirty million dollars into what might be the best poker room ever created. The room will tout cushy tables built with comfort in mind as well as ipod docks and even some private rooms for higher stakes games. Additionally the room will feature bottle service, and tableside buffet service.

In the event you are forced to wait around for a game on the waiting list, don’t worry; the Hard Rock has made sure you’ll be taken care of. There is a full service bar with probably the most comfortable bar chairs ever seen, after all, why not loosen up a bit before you join the game with a nice cocktail?

The Hard Rock’s recent venture is just one of many being made by both brick and mortar casinos and online venues to cater to what is becoming an increasingly young and hip poker crowd. Unlike twenty years ago when the games were frequented by old men and cowboys, poker now is more diverse than ever with legions of young players entering the mix trying to take home their share of the prize. So order up a cocktail, watch the game on the plasma televisions, and settle in for a cozy poker game at Hard Rock next time you visit Las Vegas.