Dave Masters and Co scoop the Team Championship of Poker.

Dave Masters defeated Michael Grayden heads up to win the inidivual title and lead his team to victory in the Team Championship of Poker. In a key hand in the heads up battle both played got all their chips in the middle almost even stacked. On a 7-9-3 board with two spades.

Graydon showd the 6-8 of spades and was a favourite over Master’s Queen-7, but Graydon missed all of his sixteen outs twice to end up crippled with a ten to one chip deficit.

In the final hand Graydon once again put his chips in as favourite with Queen-6 against Jack-Ten and hit a dry Queen high flop meaning his opponent needed runner runner to finish him off, but the dealer duly obliged and turned an Ace and a King to give Master a backdoor straight and the individual title.

Having reached the final table Masters only needed to secure third place in order for his team to take the overall title on points. Four handed the team were gifted the win when he isolated an all-in from a short-stacked player with Ace-9 from the button.

US-style ban on internet gambling on the cards? Very doubtful.

Minister for Sport – Martin Cullen – has reportedly threatened a US style ban on internet betting in Ireland, according to the Sunday Independent.

Upon reading the article however it is this reporters opinion that it’s title is grossly misleading and an outright ban is about as likely as a free dental plan for all being announced in tomorrow’s emergency budget.

At a time when the Irish government are raiding every piggy bank they can find they certainly aren’t going to ban something they can pinch more than a few pennies from, not to mention the disastrous impact such a ban would have on the country’s already embarrassing employment figures.

It is expected that bookmakers will be asked to contribute more money to the Exchequer for the controversial Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund, currently standing at €70 million but will be reduced in tomorrow budget to €68.125 million. Recently however the minister stated that this fund will be withdrawn and that bookmakers and offshore gamblers will be asked to to pick up the bill for the horse racing industry in the future.

“It is not sustainable to continue to support this fund from the Exchequer. The big players will need to come to the plate. A view will need to be formed about internet and offshore betting. I will use whatever legal levers are available to me to get at that funding in terms of trying to get some tax out of it.”

“There are choices to be made, and I am making it clear to the industry that we will make those choices. The ultimate choice would be to ban it. That approach has been taken in America and perhaps it will be taken in other countries as well. However, I do not want to go down that road. I believe there is a means of taking action.”

Read the full Independent article here