This lawsuit, which included Full Tilt Chief Executive Raymond Bitar and board members Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson. is something that shouldn’t take people by surprise. What’s interesting to us is the fact that poker celebrities, Phil Ivey and Gus Hansen have also been named in the suit because they were responsible for promoting the website and attracting new players to their evil “clutches”!

Ok, we know that gambling when taken to the extreme is not a good thing for many and yes, there is a fine line between being a competitive game and destroying someone’s life, but if people cannot take responsibility for themselves and own up to the fact that no one pushed them to do anything, our country will turn to s*$t very soon! It’s funny how Americans want the government to help them and tax the “evil” business owners since they are so rich they can afford to pay for lazy people right?

Have these same people thought about the consequences of a tax law like this? These same business owners, who by the way create more jobs for our country, might just decide to do business in another country. An entrepreneur is the lifeblood of this economy and strangling them will only lead to a worse situation.

Sorry for the rant but this lawsuit against Full Tilt in my humble opinion is just another way for our country to show how idiotic we can be. Please feel free to give me more details in the comments below if you feel otherwise ;)

Read more about this story here

Oh, and yes, we promote playing a good game of poker with authentic casino poker chips!

Ok, this is only a $25 poker chip..

Anthony Carleo was arrested on February 3, 2011 in the very casino he robbed! In an article on the LA Times, they discussed the fact that Carleo had been staying at the Bellagio casino because he was comped since he lost a good deal of money, which amounted to over $100,000.

That is a small amount compared to the 1.5 million he is accused of stealing during that December heist. It is widely known that casino grade poker chips are tracked by casinos however if that’s really the case, how was Carleo able to use these same poker chips in the very same casino that he robbed? This is something that all casino’s will be paying attention to because if Carleo was able to do this, what’s stops someone else from doing the same thing?

We’ll all be eagerly watching this to learn more about this case and the reactions of all the casinos around the world. For more custom poker chips and casino style poker chips check out our main website, http://www.signaturepoker.com/

Are Paulson Poker Chips The Best?

Paulson poker chips are made of the same quality as those in casino’s…this is because many casinos around the world use this company to make their in house chips! For poker chip collectors, there are many features about Paulson poker chips that make them desirable. For those looking for just plain chips with no uniqueness, Paulson chips are not for you. There are some popular poker chip forums that have strong opinions about the quality of these poker chips.

One particular chip forum has a thread about how much they dislike Paulson poker chips. Read it and see their reasoning. The biggest complaint is the price but that is to be expected. This is a higher quality poker chip and price should be reflected in this. Are there other clay poker chips that are comparable at better prices? Sure there are, but when you start comparing chips this way, it’s like comparing Hugo Boss with Giorgio Armani…it comes down to personal preference :)

Make sure to check out all our Paulson Poker Chip Sets to get the best prices at Signature Poker!

Lady Gaga Outfit

Since we’re on a Glee spree..check out one of our other favorite “cover” groups on YouTube, Legaci doing a cover of the Journey cover of “Don’t Stop Believing”:

We know you like it :) Now you’ve got a smile on your face, don’t you think it’s time to buy some nice poker chip sets?

An article at DesMoinesRegister.com talks about the many ways one can work around using this system to your advantage. I never knew this but it seems that gambling is a big thing over there and this article opened my eyes to the positives as well as the negatives associated with gambling in general as well as specifically to Iowa.

Will this proposal pass? What’s your opinion on this topic. Readers of this blog of course are people interested in playing poker as well as gambling in general so I’d like to get your opinion. Please feel free to comment below and let us know what you think :)

Also if you need a poker chip set or any poker related items feel free to look through our catalog. We’ve got a great selection and pricing to match.

Wanting to bring the future closer, some scientists have made it their mission to push A.I. (artificial intelligence) into reality and with the help of super computers they try their best to accomplish this. In 1997, an IBM Deep Blue supercomputer was able to defeat the most dominant world champion in history..Garry Kasparov. Everyone believed that was the beginning of the end for chess, but even today in 2010..the development is still going on.

Garry Kasparov believes that we haven’t come far since those days. Basically he mentions that we’ve achieved what could be the highest level of computing in chess…not because technology is not improving but because simple brute force techniques are what works so why create a computer that can “out think” a human when basically it can steamroll over them! (read his quotes here)

What does he suggest to move to the next level? Teach a computer to play poker!

While chess is a 100 percent information game — both players are aware of all the data all the time — and therefore directly susceptible to computing power, poker has hidden cards and variable stakes, creating critical roles for chance, bluffing, and risk management

I personally don’t believe a computer can guess what a person is doing especially with all the odds involved with poker. Even if a computer successful computes all the given variables, can it know what to do when a player places a high bet with supposedly poor odds. Poker players know in the real world, this happens and can a computer factor this is? It may be possible but it’s probably along time off from now…we shall see.

In Michigan, all gambling is considered illegal unless it’s for charity or organized by the state regulated casino. What I don’t understand is how the organizers were able to convince the hotel management that the whole event was legal which allowed them to hold the tournament in one of their large conference rooms. There is no mention of the organizer deceiving the hotel management so we’ll have to wait and see the outcome of what is the hotel’s responsibility in this matter.

The person or group running this operation seriously had some balls or are plain stupid because they were so blatant in their promotion of the whole event that it had the authorities a bit surprised. You would think they would be more discrete especially when “These topless dealers would perform different aerobic exercises. Twister games and jello shots for tips” Lt. Schram explained. These people in my opinion definitely deserved to be arrested as this is an obvious instance of breaking the law in multiple ways. Although, it does concern me as I’m not sure what the distinction is between playing amongst friends with the possibility of some money being exchanged, alcohol served and naked woman could be around in your home. Is this illegal? I’m guessing it is in some states. It seems like a story that occurred last November in Cyprus, Greece when 42 elderly woman were arrested as well for playing a private poker and gin rummy session in one of their private homes. Pretty crazy as well..you should read the story here.

Find out more about the topless gambling arrest here.

As always we don’t condone any illegal activities involving gambling even though we sell poker chips and run some of the best deals on poker chip sets. We hope you enjoy the game of poker and the skills it involve. Clothing is optional ;)

Image credit: Wikipedia

Internet poker is another thing altogether. Yes, some say it can contribute to a gambling addiction and limiting it was one of the claimed reasons for stopping it but we know the main reason was because the government was missing on all that money so instead of figuring something out they decided to make it illegal..at least for now. Sure, there are plenty of off shore companies that continue to run business online and plenty of customers to keep it going but the debate has been on how internet gambling can come back to the states legally. New Jersey seems to be leading the way on this issue.

According to figures released by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, gaming revenues in Atlantic City dipped 13.2% during the 2009 calendar year compared to 2008. Sounds drastic but also expected in the current economic climate. You can read more of the details here. It’s humorous to me that the limiting of smoking in some establishments is considered a reason for a drop in the casino revenue but it kind of makes sense eh? Man, gamblers are deviants eh? No offense meant to smokers…I meant this jokingly and if you’ve been reading this blog you’d know I’m a jokester! Also Id like to note the total taxable gross revenue for the NJ casinos in 2009 was $3.9 billion dollars! This type of money is what all the fuss is about and why there is a debate around legalized internet gambling.

New Jersey now seems to want to lead the way in tapping into the internet poker stream and state Sen. Raymond Lesniak has introduced legislation that may bring intrastate internet poker to New Jersey through their Atlantic City casinos.
This landmark legislation which is identified as New Jersey Senate Bill 490 (S3167), is the first intrastate Internet gambling bill to be introduced in the U.S and could be the beginning of many more instances of this in many states. Many supporters actually think the bill will never pass…what do you think? We’ll have to see.

Read the rest of the story on the New Jersey Bill

Rush Limbaugh is one of the few people who are stands by his comment that America should stay out of Haiti and that our president is just using our aid to position himself more favorably in the American as well as the world’s public eye. We personally believe this is absurd! How can someone watch a video like this below and not fell compelled to help out however we can.

Thankfully the poker community also agrees. Giants in the industry such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker have openly shown their support by setting up games specifically to aid in the Haiti relief. Many of the top poker players have donated to the cause. PokerStars pro JC Alvarado encouraged those with extra money in their PokerStars’ accounts to donate to the cause via his Twitter feed (@JCAlvarado1), while Full Tilt’s Howard Lederer (@howardlederer) made a similar plea for Full Tilt’s fundraising efforts. Just a reminder that both sites pledge to match any and all monetary donations made. The groups have already raised six-figures’ worth of relief to benefit victims of the quake. Some of the players who have made the maximum contribution of $1,000 on PokerStars include Michael “SirWatts” Watson, Eric “sheets” Haber, Gavin Griffin, John Duthie, and Steven “Zugwat” Silverman. Read more of this story here of how the poker community has rallied strongly to help out.

We’re proud of the how the poker community has gathered together in it’s support of Haiti!

ESPN is bold enough to try…what’s your opinion?

ESPN Ranks Top Poker Players; Phil Ivey Number One

In a list compiled by ESPN, seven expert pollsters selected Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey as the top all-around poker player. In second was Patrik Antonius.

High Stakes News also put together their thoughts on who the top player is right now:

Top 10 Poker Players Right Now | High Stakes News

When it comes to listing top 10 of poker players, I’m sure that if 100 person would make the list, there would be 100 different lists of players. Still, there are some players that almost everybody would put in their list. …

For me, I’m a big tennis fan…so to read this story about Becker is really cool:

Becker Getting Better With Each Stroke – Poker News

It’s been almost two years since Boris Becker traded in his racquet for a few chips and a chair and the tennis legend tells PokerListings things are starting to click.

It’s nice to see he’s improving his game and the poker setup in his home sounds sweet :) All this talk about poker has me jumpy to play. I’m off to improve my game..Happy Holidays everyone!