Poker in 2007 review – Part 1

Author: Simon Dexter

It’s that time of year for a review of the previous year, so here we go with some of the highlights and lowlights of 2007.

January saw one of the most important poker court cases to be brought before a judge, when the Gutshot Club tried to argue that poker was indeed a game of skill over luck. There was no such luck for the club however, as it was forced to shut it’s doors when the ruling went against them.

The impact of the US banning of online poker in February saw the collapse of some of the biggest names in the industry, with both Doyle’s Poker Rooms and Paradise Poker forced to shut down its US operations. Titillating adult magazine Playboy announced the same month it was opening a card room - strange decision really considering most of their customers are US-based!

Celebrities continue to dominate poker news and it was no surprise that the success in March of former Eastenders actor Michael Greco in an offline tournament hit the headlines. The actor turned gambler took down a tournament in Cardiff, which landed the star over 100,000 GBP.

In virtual April, it was announced that poker was to be banned from the online virtual game ‘Second Life’ . In a fact stranger than fiction situation, it was reported that the FBI had been on the case to see if the goings on in the non real world was breaking any laws (or more importantly keeping taxes out of the US government coffers).

May brought a decision by the Advertising Standards Authority to order a well known bookmaker to remove advertisements that suggested playing poker was likely to improve your chance of getting a woman into bed. The poster campaign saw a scantily clad woman with the strap line “You love sex. She loves sex. You love money. She loves money. You have money. She loves you.”

Another development in the increasingly important world of artificial intelligence was made in June, when it was announced scientists had developed a robot which could bluff at poker. With robots capable of mimicking human behaviour - the successful tests saw computer facing computer with bluffing tactics being used.

Check out Part 2 shortly…….