Thirty year old Tom Sartori is a maverick musician from Buffalo, N.Y. He has been traveling the countryside singing his songs and also playing bling2 and raking in money and moolah. This gives him publicity and boosts his singing career. He was competing with 450 other players in Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship last week, at Bellagio. Although he lost out half way, he managed to win $20,000 from side games. Out of more than 5,600 entries he had the 26th rank in Harrah’s World Series of Poker at Rio. He took a huge prize sum of $300,000. He then used the money to get himself a producer, Geza X; a latin Grammy-winning mixed Charles Dy along with a publicist.

“The title is a poker reference, since all of my poker winnings are being dumped into my music career,” Sartori said. The album is being produced by his own independent label, Ace High.

The Legality of Poker In Italy Questioned – As Police Raided the European Ranking Festival

Last week the European Ranking festival in Amalfi was raided. This raised a question on the legality of poker in Italy. The Carabinieri (Italian police force) raided Hotel Club Due Torri, on the fourth day of the festival. The Final table of the Pot Limit Omaha was about to be played, when the police stormed in. The police stopped the play immediately and players moved away in small groups. Policemen then began to question the event organizers. There were players from all over Europe, present at the venue. The European ranking points at stake held an offer of 750 Euros from the main event that was about to take place in the afternoon.

Many of these players had already registered and were very concerned to see all the registration money, chips, cards and all poker paraphernalia boxed up and taken away by the police in the early hours of the morning. Like a scene from the illegal gambling dens of yesteryear, many players were hiding chips and money in their socks to avoid confiscation.

2 K Games’ World Poker Tour – Simple and Functional Game for the ‘Game Boy’ Advance

2 K Games’ World Poker Tour for the Game Boy Advance is functional and fun-filled. It does not have a whole lot of features but is enjoyable. For a small amount of $20, Amercian buyers of WPT on GBA will get a No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, Limit Texas Hold’Em, Omaha and Pineapple Poker game. There are a few extras and a haflhearted multiplayer component also. The weakest part of the WPT is the multiplayer game. This is because it allows a hotseat match to be organized only amongst a combination of up to six people or computer opponents. Although computer A1 levels can be set on individual player basis, a specific person can be chosen only if one has unlocked that character through career play. Users must configure the six-person table, and then WPT allows players to choose from one of the four preset game types.

As far as multiplayer is concerned, WPT could have benefited greatly from dealer’s choice games, more configurations, more augmentable players, and a linked multiplayer mode with other GBAs. While hotseat play is nice (given that it won’t show a user’s cards until that user flips ’em up with A button), its not going to win any awards for completeness.