Poker shorts

Author: Simon Dexter

We have mentioned Steve Bellis on this site before. He was the guy who managed to get more more than he actually asked for when pitching his Poker Quiz League on the TV show Dragons Den.

The Welshman is putting the money to good use and is now expanding into poker tourism.

The 33-year-old came up with the idea after doing an Internet search for poker holidays and finding out most companies centred their business around Las Vegas or catered for the high-roller players.

“We wanted to offer something that was a bit closer to home, more relaxed and less expensive,” said Bellis - who has already made one foray into the travel business.

In 2007 he organised a trip to Lanzarote for a coach load of poker heads.

“We went out there last year with 50 players and it was a great success. A lot of places have karaoke and bingo but there are lots of people who want to play poker. Then we had a meeting with TR4 Travel in Holywell and discussed the possibility of taking 120 people.”

From poker tourism to poker charity…of a sort.

Rumour has it that one leading online poker site lost a million pounds recently due to a software glitch.

The incident, that has been the talk of the forums for the past few weeks, occurred in January this year and saw all players being paid out in a six-pack tournament if they all went all-in on the first hand.

Cash prizes were awarded for first and second place players, but the second place prize money was also paid out to 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place players.

There has been much discussion about the morals of the people who took advantage of this glitch with people questioning themselves on what they would have done in the same situation. Having been brought up with a huge amount of Catholic guilt I know what I would have done but what would you have done if presented with free money?

The company is asking for the money back and they are legally entitled to do so having checked the terms and conditions.

I won’t tell you the name of the company but it’s a fair bet you’ve heard of them.

For all your online poker gaming, play at Littlewoods Poker.