3 Things Poker Players Can Be Thankful For

   Happy Thanksgiving Readers! It's been a tough year for us poker players with all that's taken place with the DOJ and online poker, Congress' epic failure to license and regulate the industry, and some countries and US states rejecting proposals for casinos and online gaming, but fear not! There are a few bright spots, and some reasons to be optimistic.

   It was a record setting year at the World Series of Poker. There were 75,672 entrants from 105 different nations. There were 58 events spanning a 50 day period, and the total prize pool was $191,999,010 making it the largest WSOP in history. The Main Event was the third largest poker tournament all time in a year which saw the epic take down of the three biggest online poker sites in the world. ESPN covered the final table and showed every hand on a 15 minute delay for the first time ever. This year's WSOP also hosted the largest live Pot Limit Omaha event in history with 1,071 entries, a 21 percent increase from 2010. 1st place was awarded $292,825. Next year the World Series of Poker will be hosting a 1 million dollar buy-in event which is unprecedented. A few WPT events saw an increase in traffic this year as well. These are clear signs that poker is still running strong.

   This week Governor Deval Patrick, of my home state of Massachusetts, signed a bill into law that will allow for the creation of three full-scale casinos and a slot-only casino. Massachusetts becomes the 40th state to legalize casinos and slot parlors. Opponents will likely seek a referendum to repeal the law in 2012, but personally I doubt they will be successful as this bill had a lot of support. It took Governor Patrick 3 years to get this done and he and his staff deserve a lot of credit. I happen to live on the western border of Massachusetts and the nearest casinos are Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods which are 2 hours away in Connecticut. There is also Turning Stone casino in upstate NY, but that's about 2 and a half hours (plus they don't serve alcohol there; less drunks mean less fish for us sharks to feed on). As it stands, I haven't played a live poker tournament in months! The signing of this bill could potentially put a casino just 45 minutes to an hour away thereby cutting my travel time in half. It looks as though I'll be playing a lot more live poker tournaments in the near future. Hooray!

   Now hear this, now hear this. Phil Ivey has returned to tournament poker. Finally! He sat out this year's WSOP in response to allegations against Full Tilt Poker, the website he endorsed. According to cardplayer.com, Ivey entered the Asian Pacific Poker Tour Macau main event on Wednesday. With over 13 million dollars in lifetime earnings, 8 WSOP bracelets (none of which are in No-Limit Hold Em), four top 25 finishes in the WSOP Main Event since 2002, and a WPT title, Ivey is considered by many, including myself, to be the best all around player in the game today. It looks as though poker has its "ambassador" back. Thank God! Welcome back Phil!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!