Priest Plays Professional Poker

Some people will tell you that gambling is the root of all evil – just don’t tell that to Father Andrew Trapp, an assistant pastor at St. Michael Catholic Church in Garden City Beach, South Carolina. Father Trapp has found a way to use his skills at his favorite pastime to raise large amounts of much-needed funds for his church.

You see, while other priests may spending their time engaged in bible study or working with bake sales and other fund raising initiatives, Trapp went and auditioned for the hit Fox poker show, PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge.



After seeing his YouTube audition tape, producers fell in love with Father Trapp and immediately booked him to be a contestant on the show. Father Trapp sees it not only as an opportunity to build a new church, but as a means of drawing you men to serve God and their communities, “people across the country to see that there are still young men choosing to be priests, and that one can be joy-filled and have fun as one serves God.”

So far Father Pratt has won over $100,000 in the tournament and hopes to earn enough to begin the process of building a new church for his parishioners.



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Poker Players Alliance Moves their Fight to Capitol Hill

Ever since the U.S. Government banned the use of credit cards at online poker and gaming sites, the industry has found itself in a tailspin. Once considered one of the biggest growth markets in the entertainment industry, online poker has shrunk significantly in this country, as men and women have pulled out their poker chips and returned to their home games rather than risk losing their money, or worse, face prosecution.

Now, a group of hearty poker players looks to change all that. The Poker Players Alliance, a non-for-profit group, has come to Washington D.C. to plead their case – the case for the legalization and government oversight of online poker.

Made up of amateur players and well-known professionals, the Poker Players Alliance is visiting with various Senators and Congressman in an attempt to get them to see the benefits of legalization and regulation – namely, billions of dollars into potential tax revenue that in years past would have been lost because of the international hosts of the games.

While there is still a significant road to traverse – many government officials see online poker as a means of corrupting our youth – there is hope on the horizon. In particular, Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank supports the return of online gaming and has been quite active in restoring it to our national landscape, introducing a number of strong bills into the House and Congress.

What does the future hold? It’s hard to say. But one thing is for certain – the Poker Players Alliance won’t rest until the games are live and online once again!

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How can you tell a Poker Tell?

When you master Poker Tells, you master other players’ reactions. Poker tells can actually be more beneficial than cheating because it’s almost impossible to keep a true poker face and even if some players are able to conceal feelings and emotions, a lot of them forget that the body language matters as well.

So next time when you get the cards, hold your horses, try to look at the other players instead and spot poker tells. Your cards will be there later on, but some expressions and body language will be gone in a second.

• The first and most obvious tell is the reversed tell. When an opponent plays strong, most chances are that he is weak. When your opponent plays weak – most chances he’s got a pretty strong hand.
• Now take a look at the players around you. What they wear? Who they’re with? How they keep their cards and chips. Generally, a loose player will also appear loose, messy, have his chips all over and a tight player will have his chips stand like an army platoon.
• In poker, people are shaking because they are excited and not because they are afraid. So if you see a player’s hand shaking, you can bet he’s got a good one.
• Also notice that when players immediately look away from their cards, they often try to hide a good hand. And walk away if you see them stare at their chips – believe us, they are thinking about big money.

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Man wins a Ladies Poker Tournament. Huh?

The South-African athlete Caster Semenya had to prove the world she is not a man as many claimed, but Abraham Korotki, the man who won the Ladies Event at the Borgata Poker Open is actually a proud member of the male specie.

How did a man enter the women poker tournament in the first place? Easy. He applied. You see, under federal law, a casino can not deny anyone over the age of 21 from entering the tournament. Disqualifying a person on a basis of gender would be illegal.

Korotki with the ladies and Rowe (third from the right)

Korotki was the only man amongst 270 women that participated in the Ladies No Limit Hold’em and except all the stir he managed to create around him, he also won the tournament and took home a $20,000 worth of poker chips.

Korotki competed against Nicole Rowe for the final prize and the whole thing could’ve been a funny anecdote and a great idea for a movie script. But we’re not in movieland and Miss Rowe was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. You can probably imagine she needed some extra cash and she offered Korotki to split the money, but like a true gentleman, he politely refused. Yep, it’s a man’s in a ladies poker night world.

The Mad Genius of Poker - Be a poker pro with Mike Caro DVD

Are you new to poker and looking for some professional advice? Even if you think that you know a lot about playing cards, there’s always room for improvement.

There’s one poker guy that everybody turns to in times of trouble and we thought you’d love to meet him. Ladies and gentlemen, give a warm welcome to the Mad Genius of Poker, Mr. Mike Caro!

Mike Caro is pro poker player and a pioneer in poker theory. You might have heard about MCU – Mike Caro University where Mike is teaching Poker 101 including advanced classes in Poker Strategy and Poker Psychology.

But if you’re not ready to go back to school, we wanted to let you know that you can now take a crash course thanks to Mike Caro Poker DVD. Caro’s been making this video for 11 years now, using bunch of cameras to capture even the most delicate human gestures and body language.

We'll throw in the first 10 tips, on the house:



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Go Pro with Shuffle Tech's Casino Grade Automatic Card Shuffler

You take your cards seriously. It’s more than just a night with the guys for you and you’re looking for something better than a 15 dollar card shuffler. You wanna go pro with the real deal. You need a Casino Grade Automatic Card Shuffler.


Why? Because Shuffle Tech patent pending shuffling process mimics hand cutting, riffling, and stripping in 90 seconds or less. You get the Casino Dealer Shuffle and the full Randomization Shuffle.

If you don’t trust your friends, just know that there is no way that a Shuffle Tech machine can be manipulated to "stack the deck" in favor of the operator.

After all the shuffling, the cards are ejected into a presentation tray, which can be removed from the machine and passed intact to the dealer, since nobody touches the cards until it's time to deal.

The presentation tray does not have to be in the shuffler for it to shuffle a second deck. The unit will complete the shuffle and then pause until the tray is returned. The shuffled deck will then be ready in less than 3 seconds once tray is inserted. This means you can actually use three decks to play the game: one deck in play, another one in the presentation tray ready for the next game, and a third deck shuffling. Now that’s what we call playing cards.



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They call me Lady Luck - Great Poker Scenes

You might not learn how to gamble by watching poker flicks, but you sure can have some fun. Most of the poker scenes are great, though some of the crazy card combination these stars get - will even make Lady Luck laugh out loud. We decided to bring you the best Hollywood poker scenes out there, who knows, maybe you will be able to a catch a trick or two, at least a new poker face.

This is one that every poker player needs to know by heart. Marlon Brando wooing Lady Luck just before a crucial game in "Guys and Dolls"



This one is my favorite. It's from the classic movie "The Sting" starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Newman is lucky alright, not with the cards, but for the fact that he did not get shot after cheating:



This one is also a classic - "The Cincinnati Kid" it features Steve McQueen as the best poker player in the world in New Orleans - the best city in the world.



Here's to chances! If this ever happened to anybody out there - I'm quitting poker. It's Mel Gibson in Maverick and his royal flush beats a straight flush and a four of a kind in one hand.



Last but not least is Guy Ritchie's "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and this is more of what your neighborhood poker night might look like:



Until the next time, check out www.pokerchest.com and get yourself a taste of Hollywood in your own home.