She openly competes in charity tournaments and wins against poker players who have been playing the game for between 10 to 50 years. Proud father Justin Fisher, an avid poker player himself, began teaching his daughter Alexa to count by using a deck of cards. At the age of four she could riffle shuffle and by the age of just five was learning the math skills of No Limit Texas Hold’em.

Alexa Fisher, child poker prodigy, aged 8

Proud father Justin Fisher, an avid poker player himself, began teaching his daughter Alexa to count by using a deck of cards. At the age of four she could riffle shuffle and by the age of just five was learning the math skills of No Limit Texas Hold’em.

Now Alexa is being hailed as child poker prodigy, who, when she is old enough, is expected to win millions of dollars and even the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.

Her father said: “Before the tournament begins, a lot of players will see a kid sitting at the table and just assume she is there to pass the time.

“But their eyes really begin to open wide when she grabs a stack of poker chips and shuffles them with one hand. Some laugh with amazement, others just don’t know what to make of it.

“In 2009, she played a game of No-Limit Texas Hold’em and each player began with 1,000 chips. By the end of the event, she walked away with more than 8,000.”

Poker genius Alexa can play 50 varieties of the card game and she recently turned down a trip to Disneyland in favour of a flight to Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker at the Rio.

Alexa said she dreams of being a pro one day but is happy to play against hardened poker players in charity events until she becomes of age.

Federal authorities busted the three largest online poker websites in the United States on Friday with charges of bank fraud and illegal gambling against 11 people, accusing them of manipulating banks to process billions of dollars in illegal revenue.

Prosecutors in Manhattan said they’ve issued restraining orders against more than 75 bank accounts in 14 countries used by the poker companies, interrupting the illegal flow of billions of dollars.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the defendants “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits.”

The companies, all based overseas, were identified as Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. The indictment sought $3 billion in money laundering penalties and forfeiture from the defendants.

The indictment said the companies ran afoul of the law after the U.S. in October 2006 enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which makes it a crime for gambling businesses to knowingly accept most forms of payment in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling.

Authorities said Absolute Poker responded by saying in a release after the new law was enacted that it would continue its U.S. operations because “the U.S. Congress has no control over” the company’s payment transactions.

Late Friday, Full Tilt Poker released a statement defending its executives named in the indictment, including Nelson Burtnick and its CEO, Raymond Bitar.

“I am surprised and disappointed by the government’s decision to bring these charges,” Bitar said in a statement. “I look forward to Mr. Burtnick’s and my exoneration.”

Bitar is accused of arranging for money received from American gamblers to be disguised as payments to online merchants that didn’t exist.

The company said it has suspended play for real money on its site in the United States but would continue offering gambling on poker in other countries.

Efforts to reach the other companies were not immediately successful. Phone calls either went unanswered or messages were not immediately returned. An attempt to look at the website for PokerStars.com was met with a message from the FBI saying the domain name had been seized as part of a criminal probe. In all, authorities said they had seized five Internet domain names used by the poker companies to operate illegally in the U.S.

The indictment said the defendants turned to fraudulent methods to trick financial institutions into processing payments on their behalf after the law was passed.

It said they sometimes arranged for money from U.S. gamblers to be disguised as payments to hundreds of non-existent online merchants purporting to sell merchandise such as jewelry and golf balls.

Prosecutors said about a third or more of the billions of dollars in payment transactions that the poker companies tricked U.S. banks into processing went directly to the poker companies as revenue. They said the money represented the “rake” charged to players on almost every poker hand played online.

Two arrests occurred Friday in Las Vegas and Utah, while another man was expected to surrender in Utah on Monday. Eight others were not yet arrested. Chad Elie, 31, arrested in Las Vegas, was freed Friday on his own recognizance. Prosecutors said he obtained accounts at U.S. banks for the poker companies after lying to banks about the nature of the financial transactions they were processing.

Prosecutors said Elie and others in September 2009 approached John Campos, the vice chairman of the board and part-owner of Sun First Bank, a small private bank based in Saint George, Utah, about processing Internet poker transactions. The government said Campos expressed “trepidations” but agreed to process the transactions in return for a $10 million investment in Sun First by Elie and an associate. Authorities say Campos also received a $20,000 “bonus” for his assistance. It was not immediately clear who was representing Campos in court. The bank referred questions to the bank president but said he would not be available for comment until Monday.

Authorities say Elie’s associates bragged about buying the bank and said they were looking to buy as many as three more to process poker revenue.

Elie’s lawyer for the court appearance, Craig Denney, said Elie planned to fight the charges. The lawyer said Elie was arrested at a home, where he lives with his fiancée.

Meanwhile, the casino companies that once partnered with the poker companies in online poker have backed away.

Wynn Resorts Limited and Fertitta Interactive had deals in place with Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker, respectively, in the hopes of partnering on online poker if it were made legal in the United States.

Michael Weaver, a spokesman for Wynn Resorts, run by billionaire Steve Wynn, announced Friday that it had terminated its alliance with Poker Stars as a result of the criminal indictment.

Caren Bell, a spokeswoman for Fertitta Interactive, owned by brothers who own Station Casinos Inc., said the deal between Full Tilt Poker and Fertitta Interactive was contingent upon the passage of federal legislation legalizing Internet poker, along with its internal due diligence and a finding of suitability for gaming licensure.

Frank Fahrenkopf, chief executive of the American Gaming Association, the commercial casino industry’s main trade group, said the prosecution shows a “clear need to strengthen laws to address illegal online gambling in the U.S.”

He added: “Tough law enforcement is the key to making such a system work, and the AGA supports strong enforcement against illegal online gambling activity in this country. But illegal activity _ and the risk of consumer fraud, money laundering and underage gambling _ will continue until the U.S. passes laws ensuring that only licensed, taxed and highly regulated companies can operate in the U.S. market.”

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said the allegations made by federal prosecutors against the three companies were of “grave concern.” But he added that he remained committed to the possibility that federal legislation will eventually permit Internet gambling in a way that matches the same rigorous standards that apply to traditional gaming institutions.

With the eventual legalization of online poker on the cards, MGM wishes to protect its interests with no cyber-space confusion should they wish to open online counterpart poker rooms and a request for comment was placed with MGM Resorts attorneys on that issue.

The U.S. District Court in Las Vegas received a lawsuit only last week that cited the following domain names and their owners: ariapoker.com, bellagioonlinepoker.com, circuscircuspoker.com, excaliburpoker.com, luxorpoker.com, mandalaybayonlinepoker.com and mgmpoker.com.

The lawsuit claims that the registrants of the domain names are deliberately attempting to profit from the casino’s “substantial fame, goodwill and consumer recognition.”

The lawsuit claims that MGM Resorts and its predecessors have spent billions of dollars on advertising and promotion over a number of years and that the people and companies that have registered these domains are capitalizing on that investment to the detriment of MGM Resorts International.

“The defendants have or have had a bad faith intent to profit from their registration of the domain names,” charges the suit, which alleges the defendants have been involved in either “cyber squatting” — the use of other’s trademarks to earn a profit online — or trademark infringement, or in some cases both.

“The defendants have done nothing more than tack on the descriptive terms ‘poker’ or ‘online poker’ to each of the MGM marks to form the domain names. Accordingly, there is no question that the domain names are confusingly similar to the MGM marks,” MGM Resorts’ attorneys said in a request for a temporary restraining order that would block the defendants from using the domain names until a legal decision is reached.

The defendants couldn’t immediately be located for comment on the suit, filed by attorneys at the Las Vegas office of the law firm Lewis and Roca LLP.

The defendants are:

• Shahram Kolahzadeh believed to be a resident of Zimbabwe who allegedly registered the ariapoker name.

• Evan Krentzman of Woodland Hills, Calif., allegedly the owner of the bellagioonlinepoker name.

• Roberto Ciamillo of Shelby Township, Mich., allegedly the owner of the circuscircuspoker name.

• Adam Majewski of McKinney, Texas, allegedly the owner of the excaliburpoker.com name.

• RevNet, an entity in Hackensack, N.J., that allegedly owns the mandalaybayonlinepoker.com name.

• PokerSons, an entity based in London that allegedly owns the luxorpoker.com and mgmpoker.com names.

The two-day final table began on Sunday at the Rio in Las Vegas which was the culmination of the third
largest live tournament field with 6,865 poker players representing 85 countries around the world.

When Heinz started at the November Nine table, he had only 16,425,000 chips, the seventh highest chip
stack at the table. After the first eight hours of play, Heinz had come up to chip leader, and there were only three players left—Heinz, Martin Staszko, and Ben Lamb. When play resumed Tuesday evening, it wasn’t long before Lamb¸ the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year got knocked out of the competition all together. He was paid $4+ million for his efforts finishing in third place.

The Czech Republic’s Staszko and Heinz went heads up for more than six hours, almost as long as the
1983 finale 28 years ago that set the record for the longest final two in history when Tom McEvoy took the title from Rod Peate. Over the course of the heads up action between Staszko and Heinz, the two passed the chip lead back and forth, playing carefully not to give the other opponent anything to work
with.

The momentum was in Heinz’s direction after he doubled thru Martin Staszko and he used his big stack to put the pressure on his opponent. Running low on chips, Staszko open shoved for his last 40 million preflop with 7 T and Heinz called with A K. Heinz was ahead, but he still needed to hold up as the board played out. The 9 5 2 flop was okay for Heinz, though the J did give Staszko a gutshot in addition to his pair outs. With the 4 on the river, Heinz won the pot becoming the first German to ever win the WSOP Main Event.

Staszko though in second place became the most successful Czech poker player in terms of money when he earned more than $5.4 million. This year the WSOP was viewed live in more countries than any other tournament before, as this was the first time the tournament was televised live (with a 15-minute delay), complete with hole cards.

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Lasry’s Avenue Capital Group and Trump Entertainment Resorts have teamed up with hopes that the US regulations will allow US companies to provide online poker services in the US for online poker players. Avenue Capital has been in control of Trump Entertainment since last year.

This huge partnership overlaps with the support that legalization of online gambling enjoys in many states in the US like New Jersey which is home to Trump Entertainment and its licensed casino. However, the supporters of online gambling in the US support the argument which states that Americans spend $6 billion every year in offshore gaming and that if this money is brought back to the nation then it would benefit once and all.

Trump and his organizations seem to think it’s just a matter of time.

When internet gambling is legalized in the US, this partnership would enable the investors to become the largest internet gaming company in the US, wherein Lasry’s company takes care of the capital, and Trump’s company has the required licensing.

Establishing an internet gaming site is not so difficult, but establishing and marketing an online brand in the internet gambling industry is extremely difficult and requires a lot of capital, this is where Trump and Lasry’s venture together may just fit in perfectly.

The future of internet gambling in the US is being predicted and most people seem to think that it will follow the same pattern that the state lottery system did, which is now legal in 43 states.

Donald Trump started off in the casino industry in 1984 with Trump Plaza, but got into financial trouble later and had to declare bankruptcy. Following the reorganization after bankruptcy, Trump in 1995 made his company public. But he had trouble again and in 2004 the company went bankrupt again. The third time Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for bankruptcy was in 2009. On the other hand Lasry has had better let with online poker and high-stakes poker games, wherein he played the host for the same many a time. He has been known as a poker buff for quite some time now, and so this partnership makes sense.

There is already Legalized US Poker and you can find it at TexasHoldem.com

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TexasHoldEm.com operates under sweepstakes rules in the US offering a monthly subscription for $29.95 per month. In return, members receive points to enter into daily poker tournaments and sit-n-go’s for a chance to win over $150,000 in cash and prizes each month and entry into the signature Million Dollar Main Event. Other prizes include IPADS, Vegas Vacations and much more.

A spokesperson for the company stated that after Black Friday and all the negative publicity surrounding online poker there was a need for a safe, legal, risk free environment for people to be able to play poker online. TexasHoldEm.com fills the void left behind by the multiple poker rooms that have been forced to close their doors over recent months.

TexasHoldEm.com will also use its growing member base to push for the legalization of online poker in the US. The site will encourage its members to show support via a variety of social mediums and then use that to lobby in favor of legalization.

Poker is one of the fastest growing past times in America with groups forming all over the country and now poker fans have a safe, legal place to learn and play online. TexasHoldEm.com provides its members with a variety of tools to improve their game and test their skill in a realistic tournament environment without risking any money.

In the coming months, TexasHoldEm.com plans to form strategic alliances with local casinos and sponsor live poker tournaments around the country.

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