The Intercontinental Poker Championship

There seems to be no question that televised poker tournaments now rival golf and tennis as a most watched spectator sport. The popularity of televised poker has grown to unforeseen proportions, primarily due to the popularity of such high profile poker tournaments as The World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. The participation in these events by well known movie and sports stars, and the celebrity status and fan adulation accorded the poker champions has created a new world-wide poker craze.

Such publicized success by the WSOP and the WPT naturally has attracted competitors, and the proliferation of big money poker tournaments is sure to continue. Among these newcomers is The Intercontinental Poker Championship, a tournament that puts a new twist on old concepts by promoting exclusivity as a primary feature.

The Intercontinental Poker Championship made its debut on Saturday, June 17, 2006, and continued through Saturday, July 22nd. Comprised of eight weekend shows, and televised by CBS Sports, the tournament was populated by 21 of the world’s top poker players, from 21 different countries recruited on an invitation-only basis. The players in this exclusive competition were:

• Antanas Guoga – (Tony G) …………….. Australia
• Daniel Negreanu …………………………. Canada
• Johnny Chan …………………………….. China
• Humberto Brenes ……………………….. Costa Rica
• David Ulliott ……………………………… England
• David Benyamine ………………………… France
• Dan O’Dea ………………………………… Ireland
• Eli Elezra ………………………………….. Israel
• Marco Traniello ……………………………Italy
• Yosh Nakano ……………………………… Japan
• Sammy Farha …………………………… Lebanon
• Refugio Quintero …………………………. Mexico
• Thor Hansen ……………………………….Norway
• Hasan Habib ……………………………….Pakistan
• Ralph Perry ………………………………. Russia
• Carlos Mortensen …………………………Spain
• Stephen Wolff ……………………………..South Africa
• Jimmy Cha ………………………………. South Korea
• Chris Bjorin ………………………………Sweden
• Doyle Brunson ……………………………United States
• Chau Giang ………………………………Vietnam

Played at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, the telecasts were rife with pomp and circumstance as each countries flag was displayed in turn accompanied by their national anthem. Veteran sportscaster Jeff Medders described the play-by-play assisted by poker player, tv analyst and former tv star, Gabe Kaplan ( “Welcome Back, Kotter” ).

The game was Texas hold ‘em. The prizes; 0,000 for the winner – which eventually was Japan’s Yoshio Nakano, and 0,000 for second place winner Tony G of Australia. There were no other prizes awarded.

The intercontinental Poker Championship has introduced an entirely new concept to tournament poker, snob appeal. You cannot buy into this tournament, you are “selected” by the tournament officials based upon your prominence as a player. Still another entirely new dimension has been brought into tournament poker by this tournament, since the players are selected from different countries, bringing “national pride” into the picture as well, a concept hugely appealing to viewers.

And finally, spectators can participate in the games vicariously through the viewing of the players hole cards through the ingenious “hole card cam”, a lipstick-sized device designed to enable viewers to see the players bluffs and strategies first-hand.

The Intercontinental Poker Championship was originated by an amazing man, one Henry Orenstein, (born circa 1925). A survivor of Nazi concentration camps in his youth, Orenstein is a successful inventor, holding more than 100 patents, and is the inventor of the aforementioned “hole cam” to which he still holds exclusive rights.

Orenstein’s accomplishments don’t stop there. He is also a top professional poker player in his own right. One of the oldest tournament players, the octogenarian won 0,000 in the 1996 WSOP tourney, defeating some of the tournament’s best players at seven-card stud. He has finished in the money numerous times at the WSOP and other tournaments, such as the United States Poker Championship, and his continuing contributions to the popularity of televised tournament poker have proven invaluable.

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Basic Info on Online Gambling in Norway

When many people hear the terms Norway and gambling in the same sentence they think of some of the best poker players in the world. Some of the people at the top of the world poker ranks are from Norway, yet the country does not allow online casino play for any of its citizens. This is a frustrating thing for many residents of Norway that just want to get online and have a good time like everyone else.

The country already has laws in place making it illegal to play in an online casino, but they are considering laws like the United States has, making it difficult, almost impossible for most United States residents to play online because their IP addresses are blocked.

Norway Citizens Unable To Play Online

Online casinos are at the height of their popularity right now, yet the people that live in Norway cannot play the games that they love online. There are people from many other countries that are logging in and playing online to their hearts content, but this is not a possibility if you live in this country. Here there are currently laws making it illegal, but because there is not a block on IP addresses many people still continue to play despite the fact that it is illegal.

Norway has a fear that too many residents will become too caught up in the process of playing in their computers that they will cease to be worthwhile residents of the country because they will become addicted to the games, which is why they will not legalize online casinos.

Many argue that this is not reason enough to ban the online gambling, because those that are addicts will find a way to play whether it is online or not. Many people feel like they are being punished for the addiction of a few and they want the laws changed.

Norway is currently flirting with the idea of imposing laws like the United States has. The United States is different than a lot of other countries because they do not just have laws against gaming online, they have blocked IP addresses so that people from the country cannot even create accounts with these online casinos. In addition, it is a crime for the financial institutions that the casinos work with to do business with Americans.

This makes it really tough, if not impossible, for most Americans to get online and play the casino games that they love. This is the intent, but it just has people looking for illegal ways to obtain the entertainment that they seek. Wouldn’t it just be easier to allow people to play online and try to regulate the online casinos much like the British and the Italians do?

Those in Norway don’t like the idea of having their entertainment options dictated to them. While it’s bad enough that there are laws against visiting online casinos now, most people can still access the websites and even play, they are just taking a risk because if you are caught gambling online in Norway it is a felony.

On one hand it is nice that Norway is trying to protect its citizens, but many are frustrated that they cannot play the casino games that they want to play in the comfort of their own home.

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