But this industry blog is good because it is about the main event of poker.

Here is how it starts: The oldest casino promotion in the history of the U.S. casino business keeps taking on a younger and younger look.

Eight of the nine players earning seats at the final table of the 41st World Series of Poker’s main event are 25 years of age or younger.

They were not old enough to play in a casino when Chris Moneymaker made big time tournament poker a game for the masses with his 2003 final table victory at the World Series.

This includes 22-year-old Jonathan Duhamel; the Canadian who has nearly $66 million in chips as he awaits his Nov. 6 return to the Rio, when the final table will play down to the winner who will enjoy an $8.9 million payday.

It will all be part of a two-hour made for ESPN event.

And I’ll be glued to my TV for that; if I’m not there in person.

Even Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, easily the best known of the final table nine, is only 29. Each of the nine has received ninth place money of $811,823.

Man, I wish I was in Australia right now, in Sydney, where the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Grand Final began Dec. 1.

It was former WSOP champion Joe Hachem starting play with the familiar “Shuffle up and deal.”

81 hopefuls started and by late afternoon, about 50 were already trailing Tony “Bond18″ Dunst, who blasted the competition with a late day surge.

Dunst, reports said, started the day slowly dropping below the 30,000 starting stack, but he came back with a series of small pot wins.

His first big win came beating Jason Gray, went all in with pocket queens against Dunst’s A spades, King of hearts. A king on the flop won the hand.

Others sitting near the leaderboard top include a group of  PokerStars qualifiers.

One of the contestants on Joe Hachem’s Australian poker TV show “The Poker Star”, Donna Ciric, h ad an up and down day. At one point, she held the chip lead, but she could not maintain her momentum and ended the day with less than her starting stack at 23,000. 

We’ll give you the final rundown next week. With all the details about who ultimately won.

Ah, to be in Sydney, where it’s now summer.

Eastgate Rules!

Denmark, home of the reigning World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate, is famous for having one of the heaviest and most complicated tax codes in Europe.

Check this out: Eastgate, who won $9.1 million at the WSOP Championship event last November was taxed at a 45 percent rate for his first $4 million, and 75 percent for the rest, leaving him with $2.5 million.

Now, the government is going one step further and hitting on online players. Which is outrageous. The Danish Supreme Court is ruling that  a 35 year old man, who had allegedly been earning a living as an online player, would have to be taxed as a “professional player,” like Eastgate. It’s weird because the Danes were one of the first to introduce state sponsored gaming system called Danske Spit. And the state operated a casino and poker room on its own. They’ve been very progressive. The irony is, the casinos have rooms where poker winnings are not taxed, as long as you play in those rooms.

So..looks like this is a way for the government to get people to come to their casinos, rather than play on line. What a bunch of hypocrites.

What do you think?

I

Until now.

While millions of online poker players take part in the game throughout the world, my segment of the market  has been frequently overlooked when it comes to online gaming.

No more.

Those of us who run Apple computers (I love my Mac) are left out of many of the activities found online. Especially poker.

Ultimate Bet, the online poker room is changing all that.

Ultimate Bet, the home of 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, among others, will be offering up a Mac version of its popular site called UB Mac, a completely compatible version of the full offerings of Ultimate Bet for the Mac OS, something that has been asked for repeatedly by many poker fans.

“Our company strives to make our poker room accessible to as many people as possible and we recognize that Apple computers have a growing market share in the personal computing industry. In response to this trend, we have developed an all-new download poker application specifically for the Mac Operating System,” said Tokwiro Chief Operating Officer Paul Leggett. “As a Mac user myself, the only real limitation I have found is that a lot of poker applications will not run on the Mac OS. With UB Mac, players will enjoy the same incredible user experience that PC users currently have, and we remain committed to ongoing development of our Mac online poker client to ensure it is the best in the business.”

The new software allows Mac players to have access to the most popular features and functionality that UB users playing on Windows-compatible computers have, including ring games, satellites, single and multi-table Hold’em tournaments, and single player blackjack.

Besides both Mac and Windows options, Ultimate Bet also has a no-download option for players who don’t want to bog down their systems with programs. Its sister site, Absolute Poker also has Mac option.

Other Mac-compatible online poker sites include Poker Stars and Full Tilt, both of which boast fully-functional clients for the Mac which can easily be downloaded and installed.

Now, I gotta run. Excuse me while I start playing. See you next week. Or sooner.

Hey, all you Mac people…let me know how things are working. Okay? If it sucks, let me know that too. And I’ll print your letters.

Cyndy Violette

It used to be that the game of poker was reserved only for men. But it’s no longer the case because women have been making a name for themselves in this popular card game. Thanks to the internet, women can now freely play poker in the comforts of their home without being looked down by the males. With numerous online poker sites, women have been given the opportunity to show their skills in the game.

For many women, playing poker can just be for fun or to entertain themselves. And when women get bored, there’s really no stopping them from venturing into a new kind of activity that could divert their attention from their daily grind.

Today, the top female players in the field of poker come from the different parts of the world such as the United States and Europe. Some of them had the chance to work in casinos the reason for developing an interest in the card game while the others started playing only later in their lives.

In the U.S., one of the famous women poker players is Cyndy Violette from Queens, New York. Cyndy grew up in a family that loved to play poker and got the chance to become a blackjack and poker dealer when her family moved to Las Vegas.

Lucienne Rokach

Europe’s bet is Lucienne Rokach from England. A former car dealer and teacher of history subject, Lucy’s love for poker began upon reaching the age of 38. So far, she has already earned more than $1.9 million.