Team 888poker consists of poker pros and former sports stars with Shane Warne as the captain of the team which now includes: JC Tran, Jesse Sylvia, Jake Balsiger, Russell Thomas, Georges St-Pierre, Jackie Glazier and Jessica Dawley.
Sam Holden has just left the team and announced his semi-retirement from poker and is taking time out to get a degree in philosophy.
The bill is exclusively for online poker cash games and tournaments with 15% tax on players revenue. The New York Online Poker Bill will include a bad actor clause preventing poker sites that operated in the US after 31st December 2006 from qualifying for a license.
This is bad news for PokerStars and may affect their chances of getting into the Big Apple intrastate poker list of regulated poker rooms. Unregulated poker sites are will soon be liable for taxes and penalties
The population of New York is similar to New Jersey which is proving to be a success with several poker sites: PartyPoker, 888Poker, WSOP and Ultimate Poker.
The bill was introduced to congress on Wednesday and was backed by nine state representatives. If passed the bill will make any forms of betting online, illegal under federal law.
Backed by Sheldon Adelson, billionaire Las Vegas Sands Casino CEO, in his War on Online Poker and online gambling.
Political analysts have predicted that the bill will most probably not even be up for voting in 2014.
The Democratic Governors Association claims that if the law were to be passed it would also affect the lottery which would lose $20 billion in states revenue.
Read more about the Restoration of America’s Wire Act
Amongst the registered players there are twelve poker pros which includes: Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Trickett, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Phil Galfond, Jason Mercier, Brian Rast, Noah Schwartz, Bobby Baldwin and Andrew Robl.
Half of the seats are already confirmed as the event is limited to the first 56 players cap limit. This will be the second time the event has featured on the World Series of Poker schedule with the first taking place in 2012.
Antonio Esfandiari won the 2012 WSOP Big One for One Drop winning more than $18 million which instantly positioned him in first place on the Poker All Time Money List.
The 2014 WSOP Main Event features $10 Million for first place prize adding great value to the most popular live poker tournament in history.
The new partnership will be a step in the right direction as the current set-up of state-by-state separation was not attracting enough players.
Nevada and Delaware governors Brian Sandoval and Jack Markell signed the deal this week to form a partnership for online poker in the two states.
Both states will still have their separate gambling laws and will only share player pools at regulated and approved online poker sites.
