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Split Pot Game Based On Double Flop Hold’em Coming Soon From PokerStars?

New graphics in the online poker client indicate PokerStars may be readying to launch a new poker variant called Split Hold’em.

Thanks to new graphics released in the PokerStars client across dot-com, UK and EU networks, it seems that a new poker variant called Split Hold’em (presumably based on Double Flop Hold’em) is set to be released from the operator.

Looking at the files uploaded in the client (as seen above), it seems possible that Split Hold’em is inspired by, if not entirely based on, a common home game novelty known as Double Flop Hold’em. If this is the case, it will be the first time Double Flop Hold’em has been seen in the online poker arena, as it is predominantly a game only seen in home games.

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Connecticut Considering Legal Online Poker And Casino Games

Gamblers in Connecticut may soon be able to jump on the internet and play legal and regulated online poker and casino games. They may even be able to bet on sports.

Particularly if the Native American Tribes behind the state’s two brick and mortar casino resorts have any say.

At a March 15 Connecticut Public Safety and Security Committee hearing, Connecticut’s two gaming tribes, the Mohegan Tribe and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, both came out in favor of legalizing online gambling and sports betting inside the state.

In fact, written testimony submitted by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation run Foxwoods Resort Casino and executive director of online gaming Seth Young went even further. Not only did it support online gambling and sports betting, it said online gambling represented a major opportunity for the state:

“As we see it, the strongest opportunity for the state is in legalizing statewide iGaming, another activity that is currently operating for Connecticut residents in the black market today.”

The Mohegan Tribe, owner and operator of the Mohegan Sun casino and resort, echoed those same sentiments in written testimony submitted to the committee by Avi Alroy, Mohegan Sun’s VP of interactive gaming:

“To clarify, I believe that the state of Connecticut will benefit from both online casino gaming and sport wagering as it will reduce unregulated bets that are done locally and off-shore, and increase state revenues.”

Mohegan Sun already owns and operates a legal and regulated online casino in the New Jersey market. It runs under the Resorts Casino Hotel internet gambling license. The Atlantic City casino is managed by the Mohegan Tribe and Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment.

Connecticut online gambling revenue projections

Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun also submitted online gambling revenue projections for the state.

Both believe Connecticut will generate as much as $87 million in tax revenue over the first five years with legal and regulated online gambling.

The estimates are based on generating $14.25 million in tax revenue in the first year. Then, growing that to as much as $20 million by year five.

New Jersey online gambling sites generated a record $245.6 million in gross gaming revenue in 2017. That represented a close to 25 percent increase from the previous record of $196.7 million set one year earlier.

New Jersey has had legal and regulated online gambling since November 2013. Gross online gambling revenue reached $122.9 in 2014, the industry’s first full year of existence. It has gone up more than 20 percent every year since.

New Jersey online gambling generated more than $40 million in tax revenue in 2017. The state has pulled in more than $130 million in tax revenue from online gambling since it launched.

New Jersey’s population is almost three times the size of Connecticut’s.

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No online gambling bill yet

Connecticut’s Public Safety and Security Committee hearing amounts to little more than a discussion about online gambling and its possibilities. No bill seeking to legalize online gambling has been put forward in the legislature so far this year.

In addition to discussing online gambling, Connecticut lawmakers are currently thinking about legalizing sports betting. But only if the Supreme Court of the United States overturns the current federal ban on sports betting.

Additionally, lawmakers are considering a bill that would legalize online lottery sales.

The Foxwoods Resort Casino hotel and casino complex sits on the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation, within Ledyard, Connecticut. The casino on the property hosts 5,500 slot machines and over 300 table games. Plus it is home to the largest poker room on the East Coast.

The Mohegan Sun 34-story casino, hotel and entertainment complex is in Uncasville, Connecticut. Its three casinos feature nearly 5,000 slot machines, 300 table games, and a 42-table state-of-the-art poker room.

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Should The Poker Community Be Celebrating Weight Loss Prop Bets?

Poker playing brothers Jamie and Matt Staples won a substantial amount of money this weekend, but it wasn’t won at the poker tables. It was won via a prop bet.

Twelve months ago, the two brothers made a bet with Bill Perkins that they couldn’t weigh within a single pound of one other in a year. Getting to that point would be no small feat, as Jamie weighed 305 pounds and Matt 134 pounds at the time of the bet. The Staples got 50-1 odds from Perkins on a $3,000 wager, meaning they would collect $150,000 if they could pull it off. And pull it off they did, with both weighing in at 188.3 pounds on Sunday.

Following the weigh-in, the Staples brothers’ Twitter accounts were flooded with congratulations.

But not everyone felt the achievement should be celebrated by a community that complains it’s unfairly labeled as gambling degenerates, nor do they feel the person instigating these bets, Perkins, be let off the hook for what some believe is nothing more than a wealthy person acting as a marionette for his own entertainment.

The criticisms are not without merit.

If the poker community wants to celebrate this type of betting it’s hard to get upset at the general public looking at poker players as little more than glorified gamblers.

And yes, many of these bets have the ugly stink of rich people dangling money in front of people simply to make them do something they see as embarrassing – Antonio Esfandiari paying Lance Bradley $8,000 to wear the same shirt for a year — or in some cases, dangerous things, such as the infamous running bet between Haseeb Qureshi and Ashton Griffin.

What category does the Staples bet fall into?

I don’t know what Perkins’ motivations were for offering the bet, but despite some of the criticisms of Matt Staples being forced to gain weight, Jamie and Matt both looked healthy and happy at their weigh-in, and both seem better prepared to lead healthier lives.

Their risk, a combined $3,000, also made it ok for them to not achieve the goal but still come out ahead in “life points” if Jamie lost some weight and Matt gained some weight. The $150,000 (plus any side action) was a tempting carrot, but neither is hurting for money, and my guess is the new lifestyle benefits outweigh the $75k each pocketed in the long run.

Jamie lost over 100 pounds and wasn’t forced to drop to any unhealthy weight, or engage in dangerous saunas or week-long fasts (more on this in a moment). And while Matt had to gain about 54 pounds, he gained a lot of muscle in the process and can easily adjust his diet to lose the excess bad weight he gained pretty quickly.

As a former 130 pounder who ate a ton and exercised like a madman to get up to 195 pounds (it took me two years though), I can tell you that the lifestyle that causes you to weigh 130 pounds is extremely unhealthy.

So, while not all of Matt’s new weight is “good weight” but a lot of it is, and he now understands how to eat and exercise to gain or lose weight and more importantly, to be healthy.

Does that mean the bet should be celebrated? In this case yes, but where the Staples bet may have been good clean fun, some of these bets are far riskier.

A dangerous game

Perkins was also involved in a weight loss wager this year that didn’t sit well with me. Around the same time as the Staples Brothers bet, Perkins offered 2+2 PokerCast host Adam Schwartz $25,000 to shed 80 pounds in 10 months and keep the weight off for a period of eight weeks. Schwartz would be going from 230 to 150 to win the bet… he did.

If Perkins’ goal was to get Schwartz motivated to lose weight he could have set the goal at a more healthy 165 pounds. Instead, Schwartz looked like hell warmed over at each of his weigh-ins (sorry Adam but it’s true), and essentially spent 10 weeks in a starved and weakened state.

A similarly dangerous bet occurred back in 2010 when Mike Matusow bet Ted Forrest $2 million that the 188-pound Forrest couldn’t weigh less than 140 pounds by the WSOP. The 5’11” Forrest weighed in at 138 pounds.

Matusow famously quipped he thought Forrest would die trying to accomplish the feat:

“As soon as he made the bet, I said, ‘I don’t want you to die,’” Matusow told ESPN. “‘If you do, I don’t have the $150,000.’ Then I told him, ‘I don’t have the $2 million to pay out.’ That’s how it came down. I made that bet because I didn’t think it was feasibly possible.”

In both cases the people cutting weight were doing dangerous things. From extended stays in the saunas with a rubber suit on for Schwartz, to a near zero-calories and six-hour workouts for Forrest.

Bottom line: there’s a difference between prodding someone to improve their lifestyle, as was the case with the Staples Brothers, and prodding someone to do something that could be dangerous. And we, the poker community, should be careful what we promote.

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Poker Industry PRO: Euro SCOOP: PokerStars Runs its Largest Ever Tournament in a Segregated Market

€10 million is guaranteed in the first ever SCOOP Europe which is more than double the combined schedules in Spain and France last year.

PokerStars has scheduled its largest ever tournament in the segregated European markets, with a €10 Million SCOOP 2018 running now on the shared French-Spanish network.

Running for the next two weeks, the operator has scheduled 120 events for the inaugural SCOOP Europe. Buy-ins range from €10 up to €250, the highest permitted under Spanish regulation.

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