Blair Hinkle, Dwyte Pilgrim and Doug “Rico” Carli are all no strangers to the WSOP Circuit events around the country. All were playing at the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Council Bluffs, which is right on the border of Iowa. To honor the cornfields of the heartland of America, the three engaged in a Corn Shucking Prop Bet to see who could shuck three corn stalks the quickest. The winner of this amazing prop bet wins the admiration of dozens, bragging rights over his poker peers in addition to the grand prize of an all expense paid dinner at the casino.

Blair Hinkle is a young live tournament pro who has a WSOP bracelet to his name, in the 2008 WSOP $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event which won him over a half million dollars. He’s also won online, including the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) $216 No Limit Hold’em event for $146,288. At this particular circuit event he ended up winning the $1,600 Main Event which had 251 runners for a $88,000 payday. He also received a diamond and gold ring and $10,000 to buy into the 2011 WSOP Main Event, in addition to a seat at the Circuit National Championship.

Dwyte Pilgrim is the unofficial WSOP Circuit Master, with over $750,000 to his name in live tournament earnings. He is considered a rising star in the world of live tournament poker and someone to keep an eye out on at the 2011 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em events.

Doug “Rico” Carli is an old-school poker player hailing from Ohio who has a degree in mathematics. In addition to poker he’s known to be found at the local golf course or bowling alley.

In preparation for its forthcoming Championship Event, World Team Poker has added 19 countries to its lineup, including Canada, Pakistan, and Spain. World Team Poker will even receive face time on Fox Sports Net when its tournaments begin debuting in January on Sunday nights for 13 weeks.

Team Canada promises to be among the fiercest in the 30-team field. Shawn Buchanan, Kyle Wilson, Eric Cloutier, Owen “ocrowe” Crowe, Daniel Idema, and Terrence “Unassigned” Chan will comprise the group, which features two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Greg “FBT” Mueller as its captain. Buchanan finished as the runner-up to new DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Dan “djk123” Kelly in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event at the 2010 WSOP, banking $813,000.

Hasan Habib and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka will co-captain Team Pakistan. A press release distributed by World Team Poker delicately explains, “Pakistan, which is known more for its cricket than poker players, has formed a formidable team of excellent poker talent.” Jaka is the reigning World Poker Tour (WPT) Player of the Year after recording two final tables and four top 20 finishes last season. Also on Team Pakistan are Ayaz Mahmood, Ozzy Sheikh, Owais Ahmed, Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania, and former Ultimate Bet Online Championship (UBOC) Main Event winner Hafiz Khan.

Carlos Mortensen, the WPT’s all-time money leader, will captain Team Spain. Mortensen was the only announced player for the Spanish World Team Poker contingent, but the former WSOP Main Event champ has four WPT final tables to his credit along with three titles. Mortensen has $5.7 million in career WPT earnings along with $2.4 million from the WSOP felts, where he’s a two-time bracelet winner.

Team Caribbean Islands is also taking form, with three players having signed up to be part of the fun. Jean-Robert Bellande, a former Bodog pro and “Survivor: China” castaway, will compete for the island nation team alongside Jean “Prince” Gaspard and Amnon Filippi. Among their competition will be Team Germany, which consists of Dan Heimiller, John Galbraith, Kathy Liebert, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh, and Cyndy Violette. Liebert is being inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame this evening, while Violette is already a member.

Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari will captain Team Iran. Backing him up is an eclectic group of players that includes Reza Golestani, Mojgan Stringham, Shawn “Sheiky” Sheikhan, and Soheil Shamseddin.

Team USA has largely already been determined, with Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, and Erik Seidel taking the floor for the North American nation. Three online poker sites – DoylesRoom, UB.com, and Full Tilt Poker – will be represented.

The 30-team Championship Event will likely occur next month from Las Vegas, although the dates, times, and a location have not yet been announced. The inaugural World Team Poker tournament took place at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas earlier this year and was won by Team China, whose impressive roster of pros includes former WPT Championship winner David Chiu, 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan, Winfred Yu, former “Amazing Race” contestant Maria Ho, Chau Giang, Rich Zhu, and Derek Cheung.

Here are the new team captains along with the countries they represent as announced by World Team Poker on Friday:

Greg Mueller: Canada
Hasan Habib and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka: Pakistan
Jean-Robert Bellande: Caribbean Islands
Peter Costa: Cyprus
Max Stern: Costa Rica
Chris Bjorin: Sweden
Martin Pollak: Austria
Dan Heimiller: Germany
Bruno Fitoussi: France
Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumer: India
Toto Leonidas: Philippines
Antonio Esfandiari: Iran
Kevin Song: Korea
Marco Traniello: Italy
Lenny Martin: Russia
Carlos Mortensen: Spain
Roberto Rominelli: Wales
Padraig Parkinson and Donnacha O’Dea: Ireland
Vladimir Shchemelev: Ukraine

Visit WorldTeamPoker.com for more details.

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. This old saying darted through my mind every time I read about the National Football League (NFL) lobbying against Representative Barney Frank’s internet gambling bill, HR 2267. Fortunately, the league ended its opposition to the bill in August because an amendment was added that would prohibit licensed online gambling operators from offering sports betting.

That doesn’t mean that the NFL’s stance on the whole issue is any less tilt-inducing to me, though. Before I get to my rant, I should say that given the NFL’s position on sports betting, I completely understand why the league, and other sports leagues for that matter, couldn’t care less about poker players. If a bill that legalizes and regulates online poker also does so for online sports betting, poker is unimportant collateral damage if the NFL manages to get the entire bill shot down. Guilt by association. I think most poker players feel the same way about sports betting. While we feel that people should be allowed to bet online, if throwing sports betting under the bus is the way for poker to come out on top, well…sorry sports bettors. Sucks to be you.

So, while I get why poker players are not a concern of the NFL, the league’s hatred of sports betting just doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, they hate it so much that they hired someone to lobby against Rep. Frank’s bill. They feel that sports betting hurts the integrity of the game. But as far as I know, there have never been any sports betting or game fixing scandals of note involving the NFL. Besides, while it’s of course possible, I find it extremely unlikely that an NFL player would be able to be influenced by criminal types to fix a game. Players get paid handsome sums of money for their skills, so the fee that someone would have to pay a player to, say, lose on purpose, would have to be pretty substantial. Plus, it would be quite difficult for a player to throw a game by himself without it being extremely obvious. I just don’t think it would realistically happen.

Getting back to my opening sentence, what really gets me is that without sports betting, the NFL wouldn’t be nearly as popular as it is today. Football season is like an extended Christmas shopping season for sports books and the Super Bowl is like Black Friday. Millions of people who either don’t have a strong rooting interest or whose team has no chance remain interested because they have money on the games. These people subscribe to DirecTV’s football package, make sure they get the NFL Network on cable, watch the commercials that feed the NFL’s coffers, and view the ads on the NFL’s website.

And all that doesn’t include fantasy football, which the NFL loves. The hypocrisy of that should be obvious. Fantasy football is gambling. It’s just in different form. Yes, many, if not most, people play fantasy for free and put no money into their leagues. But millions of people do bet at least a few bucks each season, hoping that their team will win the league and result in a nice payout. Of course it’s gambling. Fantasy players are betting on the performance of the players they draft, rather than on the performance of an NFL team. And the payouts come at the end of the season, instead of at the end of each game.

One big thing that the NFL is ignoring in its loathing of online sports betting is that it’s easier to catch game fixing and the like online than it is offline. Online, all wagering history is recorded and suspicious trends are tracked. For example, in 2007, millions of dollars were bet on the European sports book Betfair against tennis player Nikolay Davydenko in a match in which he was a strong favorite and had already won the first set. He then withdrew from the match in the third set with an apparent injury. Betfair, in accordance with its agreement with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), notified the ATP of this suspicious activity, and cancelled all wagers on the match.

What the NFL should do is partner with the online sports books to help fight sports betting crime. Over a dozen online sports books in Europe are members of the European Sports Security Association (ESSA), which has a “mandate to keep sport clean and free from manipulation.” The ESSA members alert each other if any irregular betting patterns are detected, and in turn, alert the sports leagues and regulatory bodies. A system like this seems so obvious. In the meantime, the NFL and other professional sports leagues in the U.S. would apparently rather have online sports betting go underground with no protections, either for the bettors or the leagues, in place.

I am pleased that the NFL has dropped its opposition to the Frank bill, but it still needs to get its head out of the sand and get with the times. It owes much of its popularity to sports betting. Accept it and embrace the technological advancements that will protect the game better than prohibition will.

Ever want to improve your Multi-Table Tournament game to make more money? Obviously! Well never fear, CardRunners is here once again with another free training video exclusively for our loyal Poker News Daily readers. This time the video will take a look at playing $22 Rebuy tournaments that allow 1 add-on. These are extremely popular tournaments that run constantly on sites like Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, PartyPoker and more. The fields are fishy, but do you have all the knowledge necessary to maximize your ROI? Watching this video just might help you figure that out.

The official CardRunners teaser:

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Yes tough decisions suck and are no fun. that was one of the big things holding me back when i was not very good at tournaments…i was afraid to make big decisions so i ended up just playing way too tight and relying on picking up good hands and coolering people. sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone to make the right play. sometimes i have to really talk myself into pulling the trigger. luckily we’re playing online so at least we don’t have to hide our tells when we’re bluffing

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Twenty year-old Toby Lewis triumphed over the field in the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) stop in Vilamoura, Portugal. Lewis banked a hearty €467,000 for his efforts in the €5,350 buy-in tournament, the largest ever held in the European nation.

The final pot of the night was a dramatic one. Facing off against fellow young gun Martin Jacobson, who is just 23 years old, Lewis raised pre-flop and received a call to see the first three cards come A-9-10. The action slowed down and both players checked to a five on the turn. Jacobson bet out for 180,000 and Lewis made it 525,000. Not to be outdone, Jacobson 3bet to 1.025 million and Lewis added another million on top of that. Jacobson tanked before 5betting all-in and Lewis made the call.

When the cards were revealed, Jacobson held 9-5 for bottom two pair, while Lewis held pocket fives for a turned set. Jacobson was drawing thin to a nine and whiffed on the river when another 10 came. Lewis held a boat and took down the EPT Vilamoura title. Don’t feel sorry for Jacobson, however, who pulled down €298,000 for his runner-up performance in the record-breaking Portuguese poker tournament.

American Jason Lee was EPT Vilamoura’s third place finisher. Lee shoved all-in pre-flop with A-5 of hearts, but ran into Jacobson’s A-10. No hearts came on the board and Jacobson turned a 10 to boot, bringing a 3:2 chip lead into heads-up play against Lewis. U.K. poker pro Sam Trickett, a former winner of the Grosvenor U.K. Poker Tour Luton Main Event, nabbed fourth place for €139,000.

Following his title, Lewis told EPT officials, “I’m pretty happy at the moment. This title means a lot to me. I was disappointed not to win IPT Venice, but this means even more. It wasn’t easy – Martin was a very hard player to beat.” Lewis finished seventh in the PokerStars-backed Italian Poker Tour (IPT) stop in Venice in July. Italian Tamas Lendavi took down the €2,000 buy-in tournament to the tune of €235,000.

World-renowned footballer Teddy Sheringham took fifth in EPT Vilamoura. The Friend of PokerStars 3bet all-in on a board of K-9-10-9 with K-Q for kings-up, but Jacobson tabled Q-J for the nut straight. No miracle card came on the river and Sheringham was sent into the streets of Vilamoura €93,000 richer for his wear. According to the HendonMob database, it was Sheringham’s largest live tournament cash ever. He finished 14th in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event last year for £40,000.

Others who made the money included Luca Pagano, J.P. Kelly, and Rob Hollink. Here’s how the final table shook out. Six nations were represented among its eight participants:

1. Toby Lewis (U.K.) – € 467,836
2. Martin Jacobson (Sweden) – €297,985
3. Jason Lee (USA) €186,241
4. Sam Trickett (U.K.) – €139,681
5. Teddy Sheringham (U.K.) – €93,121
6. Frederik Jensen (Denmark) – €74,496
7. Rob Hollink (Netherlands) – €55,872
8. Sergio Coutinho (Portugal) – €37,248

The EPT is now on hiatus until September 28th, when EPT London kicks off. The London festival of poker plays out until October 4th at the Hilton London Metropole. The Main Event begins on September 29th with the first of two starting days and a massive crowd is expected for the £5,250 buy-in event. Last year, 730 players entered EPT London, forming the largest tournament ever held in the U.K. 2008 WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate, now on a break from poker, finished second in the EPT London feature tournament.

Visit PokerStars for more details.

On today’s Daily Deal, the coalition of California casinos clarifies its stance on internet gambling legislation, 888 reports its financial results for the first half of two-thousand ten, the World Series of Poker Main Event continues airing on ESPN and we find out who the final nominees are for this year’s Hall of Fame. It’s all ahead… faster than you can say, “I can dodge bullets, baby.”

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, Hollywood Park, and the California Gaming Association joined in opposition Congressman Barney Frank’s HR 2267, which would create a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States.

The four casinos have found themselves in a war of words against the Poker Players Alliance, which has launched an online petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse their stance against the groundbreaking legislation. Poker News Daily sat down with card room coalition spokesperson Waltona Manion to explore the coalition’s resistance.

Manion argued,

“We’re looking for Federal enforcement of the same strict licensing and regulation for online poker as U.S. land-based casinos abide by. This means that they have to license all of their employees and the physical operations should be in the U.S. In addition, the hardware and software should be tested and certified.”

She added, “Frank’s bill provides fewer industry regulations and player protections. It imposes lower taxes for foreign online companies than what U.S. casinos pay. It would enable illegal offshore companies to export significant money from our economy.”

We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.

888 Holdings, the gaming operator that owns 888 Poker, announced Tuesday that it will be cutting costs in order to address a loss in profits for the first half of 2010. The company has also decided to scrap its dividend in order to pay for acquisitions after the weak economy and World Cup caused a decline in poker revenue.

888’s first half financial results showed revenues were up 10.5% to one-hundred thirty million dollars, but pre-tax profit dropped by 56% to four point three million dollars. Poker revenue dropped 25% to nineteen point six million.

The WSOP Main Event continued airing on ESPN on Tuesday night with Day Two-B. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day Two and the feature table included Dan Harrington and Jeff Shulman, who were seated next to each other. Prahlad Friedman and Allied Network Solutions CEO Ted Bort tangled in a hand in which Bort called the clock after pushing all in. Friedman waited until the count reached one and quietly said, “I call,” but floor officials ruled that the clock had expired. Bort turned over top two pair and Friedman mucked.

A maelstrom of yelling ensued. ESPN aired a replay clearly showing that Friedman had called at the one-second mark and the dealer promptly said, “He called.” Nevertheless, another floor supervisor was summoned who also said the hand was dead. Don’t forget that Friedman was also involved in “Ante-gate” with Jeffrey Lisandro.

Finally, the nominees as voted by the fans are in for the Poker Hall of Fame. This year’s class is a who’s who of the poker world, all of whom have distinguished careers warranting their nominations. This year’s class of nominees, who will be voted on by the 16 living Hall of Fame members and a 17-person media panel. Only these 33 individuals cast votes for induction. The nominees are:

1. CHRIS FERGUSON
2. BARRY GREENSTEIN
3. JENNIFER HARMAN-TRANIELLO
4. DAN HARRINGTON
5. PHIL IVEY
6. LINDA JOHNSON
7. TOM McEVOY
8. DANIEL NEGREANU
9. SCOTTY NGUYEN
10. ERIK SEIDEL

Well, that does it for today’s edition of The Daily Deal, and we’ll be back with you on Tuesday of next week. Be sure to visit Poker News Daily every day for the latest poker headlines, and be sure to check us out at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you next time. Now go crush those fish at the tables!

Let’s pretend you’re a brand new poker player.  Maybe you’re in Las Vegas for a buddy’s bachelor party, you’ve seen some poker on TV, and although you’re saving a little for the strip clubs, you’ve still got an extra $500 for “discretionary expenses” in your pocket.  So, you sit down at the smallest game spread at the Venetian, fumble a big blind onto the felt, and play your very first hand of big-kid poker.

In this scenario, what would you say might be the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you?  You get stacked?  You get cheated?  You get into a drunken brawl with a guy nicknamed “Fancy Fists”?

What if I told you the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you that night is that you win?  And win big?

It seems counterintuitive, but there’s a very good reason why it might be dangerous for a budding poker player to have a wildly successful first session: the Primacy Effect.  The Primacy Effect is a cognitive bias – a psychological tendency for us to draw incorrect conclusions based on the ways our brains are wired rather than on the objective evidence.

This particular bias is the tendency for the first items presented in a series to be remembered better or more easily, and for them to be more influential than those presented later in a series.  For instance, if someone rattles off a long distance phone number, you’re most likely to remember the first few digits.   Job applicants seen early in the hiring process are often given higher marks than those in the middle, and all applicants are best remembered by their “first impressions.”

Opening scenes are critical to the success or failure of a movie or book.  And you probably have strong memories of and a special fondness for your first girlfriend or boyfriend.  Thanks to the Primacy Effect, anything that comes first in a series serves as a powerful anchor in our memories, indelibly etched and coloring our perceptions of everything that comes after.

There’s even evidence now that the Primacy Effect has considerable power over the results on “American Idol”-style shows that rely on votes from the at-home audience.  Over and over again, the contestants who appear first (and last, thanks to a different bias, the Recency Effect) get more votes than those appearing in the middle of the program.

Fans of these shows have occasionally voiced concern over potential voter fraud or judging biases, but if research on the Primacy Effect is correct, then results could actually be rigged in an even more diabolical way.  All the producers would have to do to make sure their favorites are well-received by the voting audience is put them first or last in the evening’s lineup.

And isn’t a poker career just a long series of individual sessions?  If we have this tendency to be overly influenced by the first item in a series, isn’t it possible that our entire perception of the game of poker could be distorted by what happens in the first few sessions?

The first time you played poker, you sucked.  We all did.  But thanks to the element of chance built into the game, there’s a very real possibility that you won in spite of your suckitude.  And if you won big, the Primacy Effect will make sure that you remember that session and let it influence your perception of the game for a long time to come.

You’re likely to believe that the game is easier than it really is, and that it requires less work than it really does, and that you’re naturally more talented than you really are.  The Primacy Effect will cause you to weigh the results of that first session more heavily than subsequent sessions, so even if you go on a long losing streak, you’ll constantly be comparing your results with that first success.

“How can I lose ten sessions in a row if I destroyed the game the first time I played?  I’m a great player with natural talent.  I must just be getting unlucky!”  And you may find it more difficult to accept the brutal realities of poker: the game is hard and to master it, you must put in a lot of time and effort.  What a glorious world it would be for the professional player if everyone won big the first time they played!  The experience would likely stunt the growth of their abilities and yet get them hooked on the game itself – a recipe for long-term donations.

What about the players who lose their shirts the first time they play?  They’re probably more likely to believe the game is more difficult than it really is – perhaps even unbeatable.  For many people, a big initial losing session is enough to make them quit forever.  But ironically, these players might be better situated for long-term success since they’ll likely have a better grasp of the amount of work necessary to master the game’s strategies.

There’s another way that the Primacy Effect skews our thinking on a daily basis.  After all, isn’t each individual session a series of hands?  So, by the same token, the results of your first big pot might influence your perception of the entire evening.  Personally, I have an irrational tendency to get into a very negative and self-destructive mindset if I lose a big pot early in a session.

And how often have you heard players say, “I can tell it’s going to be a great night” after raking a massive pot soon after sitting down?  Even though each hand is an independent, random event, psychologically speaking, we’re susceptible to letting our first impressions affect us long after the first hand has hit the muck.

Whether you won or lost in your rookie season, be aware that your perception of the game has likely been distorted by your initial experiences on the felt.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Blair Hinkle came out on top of the pack in the Circuit Championship at Council Bluffs, Iowa. The $1,600 buy-in poker tournament attracted a field of 251 players.

Hinkle’s reward for winning the Circuit Championship was $88,000 in cash, a diamond and gold ring, $10,000 to buy into the 2011 WSOP Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas, and a seat in the Circuit National Championship in Sin City, the brand new $1 million tournament. The latter event is capped at 100 players and awards a WSOP bracelet to its winner. The price tags of the Main Events at each Circuit stop have been lowered to $1,600 and four Regional Championship sites feature $10,000 finales.

Hinkle’s bracelet came in 2008, when he took down a $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event to the tune of $507,000. He became one-half of the first set of brothers ever to win bracelets in the same year after his sibling Grant landed in the winner’s circle of Event #2 that year, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament. Grant faced some stiff competition at the final table of his bracelet event, including former November Niner James Akenhead, Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson, Theo Tran, and 2009 WSOP HORSE champ David Bach.

In the defining hand of heads-up play, Shiva Dudani bet 400,000 with the board reading 10-9-5-9. Hinkle called and the river was a benign deuce. Both players checked and Hinkle tabled A-8 of spades for ace-high, enough to take down the pot against Dudani’s king-high. Then, Dudani committed his chips on a board of 9-6-7-4-K with J-8 for a busted straight draw, while Hinkle made the call with K-6 for kings-up. The pot earned him $88,000 in cash and his first WSOP Circuit title.

The final table bubble boy at Council Bluffs was Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee, who moved all-in pre-flop with A-K. Dudani looked him up with a wired pair of kings and the better pre-flop hand held. Lee, a sponsored pro of Foxwoods, walked away from the Midwestern casino with $6,500 for his 10th place finish.

Thirty-three events played out at Council Bluffs with a total attendance of 4,056 players, a 12% growth year over year. The last time the WSOP Circuit came to the Iowa casino was in February, when the $5,150 buy-in Main Event drew a crowd of just 46 players for a total prize pool of $212,100. This year, attendance increased five-fold, with the prize pool mushrooming by 70%.

Also making an appearance at Council Bluffs was Doug “Rico” Carli, who has a ridiculous 42 Circuit cashes, the most of any player. Carli recorded five in the money finishes on the big stage during the WSOP in Las Vegas this year, including a $42,000 haul for taking 259th in the Main Event. He has nearly $900,000 in WSOP and Circuit Event earnings spread across 64 cashes, an average of $13,000 each, and is a two-time gold ring winner.

Here were the final results from the WSOP Circuit Championship at Horseshoe Council Bluffs:

1. Blair Hinkle – $88,555
2. Shiva Dudani – $54,715
3. Dwyte Pilgrim – $39,531
4. Matthew Lawrence – $29,092
5. Charles Moore – $21,795
6. Jack Do – $16,608
7. John Wakeen – $12,867
8. Daniel Biddle – $10,131
9. Kevin Calenzo – $8,103

Next up for the WSOP Circuit is a trip to Horseshoe Southern Indiana, located on the Ohio River just downstream from Louisville, Kentucky. The festivities get underway on October 2nd, with the Circuit Championship kicking off on October 10th and crowning a champ two days later. The buy-in for the Main Event is once again $1,600.

On Tuesday, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Seated onstage alongside reality television icon Kim Kardashian, Frank discussed, among other topics, the recent success of HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, in Committee. A lively debate with Leno ensued. Watch here.

The portion of Frank and Leno’s debate focusing on online poker and internet gambling spanned about four minutes. Frank opened the conversation by asserting, “If you have some guy who wants to play poker on the internet, we say it’s illegal… We could make billions of dollars a year by making it legal and taxing it.” The Federal Government could stand to rake in up to $42 billion over a 10-year period by legalizing and regulating the internet gambling industry in the United States.

Not everyone was onboard with Frank’s plan, including Leno, who argued, “Vegas works because you have to go to the desert to get there. You lose your money and you come home. You can’t go to the desert again until you get more money. If you’re sitting at home and you’re up late at night and you got your little credit card, next thing you know, it’s like a mini bar.”

Leno began saying something about potato chips, but Frank cut him off by noting that there are casinos everywhere in the country, not just Las Vegas. No desert surrounds Tunica and Atlantic City, for example. In addition, HR 2267 only allows for debit card and prepaid card payments.

Leno then reminded Frank that residents of many states were sold the lottery because all of the money that would go toward schools. Now, educational institutions across the country are struggling despite the influx of cash. Frank explained, “The problems that teachers and others face in schools can’t always be solved by money… The fact that someone oversells an idea doesn’t make it a bad idea, it makes them a bad salesman.”

Frank continued by arguing, “If you want to hit somebody or you want to burn somebody’s house or steal somebody’s car, then I want to stop you because you’re doing it to somebody else. If you want to be foolish with your own money, if you want to gamble, if you want to drink, if you want to smoke, I will tell you it’s a bad idea, but I think it’s a mistake for the government to try to stop you.” Frank has routinely argued that adults should be able to do what they want within the privacy of their own home.

The conversation then quickly digressed from internet gambling, with Leno explaining that smoking marijuana is essentially legal because everyone does it. If you’re caught, it’s only a small slap on the wrist. Frank responded, “I don’t want to say to the cops, ‘We say it’s illegal, but wink at it and go after this one.’ There’s also an element of racial discrimination in the way it’s enforced.”

One amendment to HR 2267 outlawed advertising internet gambling sites to children. The topic of kids not being exposed to internet gambling came up on “The Tonight Show,” with Frank claiming, “I do agree you can limit this to kids and in fact we’ve done that. Joe Camel has disappeared. As a general rule, the government shouldn’t be trying to live people’s lives for them. You protect people from other people hurting them.”

Congress is currently on recess until September 13th. Its target adjournment is October 8th in advance of the general elections in the United States, meaning that the legislative body will have just 20 days to tackle the internet gambling issue before elections. In all likelihood, a “Lame Duck” session will occur as well. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest headlines from Capitol Hill.

The International Poker Players Association (IPPA) will present a championship event later this year with the biggest buy-in the world has ever seen. The Monte Carlo IPPA Championship, scheduled for Nov. 29-Dec. 2, will be a $250,000 buy-in No Limit Hold-em Shootout featuring a prize pool of $12 million, with the winner taking home $5 million. Players participating in the televised event will be referred to as the “Elite 48″.

“This is the player’s championship, the pièce de résistance,” said IPPA President and CEO Yosh Nakano.

Thirteen of the biggest names in poker have already registered for the highly anticipated event: Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb, Tony G, Bruno Fitoussi, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, John Hennigan, Phil Ivey, Huck Seed, Robert Mizrachi, and 2010 November Niner Micheal Mizrachi. The field is also expected to consist of three sponsor’s exemptions and two qualifiers, including one from Los Angeles’ Bicycle Casino.

Players will have the opportunity to qualify for the high-roller event in a new satellite format called the Equity Rebuy Shootout. The first round of the shootout is played 10-handed, with the winners getting their $1,000 buy-in back and moving on to the second round. Players that busted out then have the option to rebuy for the value of a second-round seat.

“For as little as $1,000 — less if you win a satellite — a player can play in a qualifier and have an opportunity to win the $5 million first-place prize at the Monte Carlo IPPA Championship,” said Nakano, who worked several years as the poker manager at the Bicycle Casino.

The inaugural $250,000 IPPA Championship was supposed to take place last year but ended up being canceled. The 2009 version featured H.O.R.S.E. and two rounds of No Limit Hold’ em but, in order to gain more interest from players and television viewers, this year’s tournament will be No Limit Hold’ em only.

According to Nanoko, the goal is to create a tournament with a deep structure that will allow the cream to rise to the top. “We wanted to produce a high-end poker tournament that offered a big buy-in event with quality play. We felt that we could do a good job at putting an event together that would provide the best all-around player in the world.”

Should the event happen this year, it will be the largest buy-in poker tournament by a long shot. The current leader took place in January 2010 at the Aussie Millions $100,000 challenge, where 24 players participated to create a prize pool of $2.4 million. Dan Shak bested Phil Ivey heads up to win a prize of $1.2 million. Ivey took home $600,000, while Billy Jordanou ($300,000), Tony Bloom ($200,000) and Tony G ($100,000) also cashed.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for further news on the Monte Carlo IPPA Championship.