The world is changing.

If you take a moment to stub out that cigarette, put down that crossword book, and think for a moment – you know that’s true.

You see it every day. Worldly images of death and destruction beamed into your brain from the idiot box that controls your world from the heart of your living room.

But there is light out there. The darkness is not having its own way. The world is also changing in a good way. More and more young people are starting to take positive action as they try to make a difference in the world. They are putting the lives of others in front of their own, and this movement has reached the shores of the poker community.

Trump Entertainment Resorts may actually make a run at emerging from bankruptcy. According to a report on Bloomberg.com on Thursday, the unsecured creditor’s panel has reached a deal with Trump Entertainment that will immediately resolve disputes over the company’s restructuring plan and will help the company to emerge from bankruptcy.

Originally, the unsecured creditors objected to the current reorganization plan in place by lenders because they were to only get a split of $1 million. This equaled less than one percent of total debts owed. In the new negotiation, the fund to pay those creditors has been increased to $3.5 million.

Creditors Will Stand Down from Litigation But Union Appeal Remains

According to Karen A. Giannelli, lawyer for the unsecured creditor’s committee, the settlement allowed them to support the restructuring plan in place. This plan will give primary debt holder Carl Icahn complete control of the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. Icahn brokered a similar deal to take over the Tropicana Casino and subsequently turned them profitable.

After suffering a “hardware failure” last week that forced a shutdown, the Bitcoin-only poker site Seals With Clubs (SWC) announced today that the poker room will remain down for good.

A posting on the website describes “operational security” as the reason behind the closure, citing several events that occurred on February 11 that indicate SWC “now operates in a perpetual state of jeopardy.” Precise details were not divulged, but may be forthcoming at a later date.

Q:All player funds and data remain intact and the issue was not software related,” said a posting intended for SWC’s loyal players. “We do not believe any of our Bitcoin wallets used in operations to be compromised or lost. However, this event has made the majority vote of the ownership and team agree that shutting down operations is the best move for safety and security purposes.”;

Players with account balances are urged to withdraw ASAP. There is no set time limit in which to do so.

‘2145’

As I hit the code into the pad my eyes grace the wall in front of me. There are a lot of hearts. People have written messages of love and posted them on the board.

I don’t have a pen.

I smile instead.

According to Michelle Minton, there will be a hearing on the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA), the online gambling ban proposed by Sheldon Adelson and introduced into the House of Representatives by Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), on March 5th in the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations. Chaffetz is a member of the committee.

Chaffetz, along with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), first introduced RAWA last March, but neither the House or Senate version was brought up in committee in 2014. There was a late push to try to get the bill included in the trillion-dollar CRomnibus spending bill that passed in the Lame Duck session of 2014, but these efforts came up short.

What to expect on March 5th

How the hearing will go depends entirely on who is called to testify. Adelson’s allies have proven they’re not ready for prime time in previous hearings, often stumbling over their own talking points and unable to adequately answer questions on the inherent hypocrisy of a casino mogul opposing online gambling.

The Resorts Casino in Atlantic City has received approval to offer iGaming in New Jersey, but not with PokerStars. The company announced on Wednesday that they have received a transactional waiver to offer online gaming services through Sportech NYX Gaming LLC, which is a joint venture between Sportech PLC and NYX Gaming Group LTD.

Games will be offered through ResortsCasino.com and will feature primarily slot and table games. Online poker will not be spread at this time as Amaya is still trying to gain approval for PokerStars in the state.

Resorts is the oldest casino in Atlantic City and by far the smallest. Last year, the company only took in a combined $139.3 million in revenue. While this was a solid 6.6% gain year-over-year, it still trailed far behind every other property by year’s end. Borgata was the city’s top-earning casino in 2014, taking in $687 million.

When the site launches later this month, it will offer over 120 slot and table games. At least 40 of these games will be new offerings for the New Jersey iGaming community. Currently, the site offers free money slots only.

New Jersey and Nevada online poker players who enjoy tournaments with small buy-ins would be wise to head over to WSOP.com. The Mini Festival of Poker has been running since February 1, with 10 days remaining in which to participate.

One tournament is being held each day over the course of the month. Buy-ins during the Mini Festival are all $10 or less, except for the event scheduled for February 28. The final MTT for the fest features a $20 entry fee with re-buys and add-ons, and promises a prize pool of at least $4,000.

That concluding event marks $20,000 in combined guarantees throughout February in the Mini Festival of Poker. Players may click here to find out more information about playing at WSOP.com.

Welcome Week Bonus Bonanza

Online poker players who enjoy completing missions and taking a shot at some big bonus cash in the process should click their way over to PokerStars for a new Mission Weeks promotion that is running now until March 1.

A grand total of $400,000 in prizes is on the line for players who choose to accept the Missions at hand. Those who successfully complete their personal challenges will receive tickets to any of eight $50,000 All-In Shootouts that take place on March 2 and promise $5,000 to the winner.

To begin, players need to click on the “Challenges” window found in the PokerStars lobby. Hitting the start button means you have accepted the assignment and are ready to proceed.

There are three separate Missions: Mission Play runs from Feb. 16-22; Mission Win from Feb. 23-March 1; and Bonus Mission runs the entire length of the promo, Feb. 16-March 1. You must click Start on each Mission for your results to count.

Over £700m?

Not on your nelly!

That seems to be the position of brothers Avi and Aaron Shaked after William Hill placed that valuation on 888 Holdings – the company the brothers own a 50% stake in.

The deal is off.

The top Bitcoin-only site in the online poker industry, SealsWithClubs, has been off-line since the middle of last week.

According to the poker room’s Twitter account, a “hardware failure” on February 11 was the reason behind the TKO. SWC was up and running again on the same day for a brief period, but again went down for the count and has yet to come back online as of this writing.

Players needn’t worry about their account balances. The following message at the website let those loyal players know that access to their Bitcoin is just a few clicks and less than 24 hours away:

“While we are down, you can enter withdrawal requests using the form below. It will enter a cashout for the entirety of your balance and will be processed while we work on bringing everything back up.”

After a successful inaugural season in 2014, the Senior Poker Tour (SPT) gets ready for its first stop in 2015 – the Horseshoe Casino & Hotel in Tunica, Mississippi.

For players 50 years old and up, SPT action begins on Thursday, February 19 with two very affordable events at buy-ins of $175 and $125, the latter a Turbo Deepstack. Day 1A of the Main Event begins on Feb. 20, featuring a $550 entry fee.

Day 1B of the Main Event gets underway on Saturday, Feb. 21, with a champion crowned on Day 2 the following day, Sunday the 22nd. Highlights for Sunday include a special $125 LIPS (Ladies International Poker Series) event, and a $175 Tag Team Event. All tournaments throughout the four-day festival allow for re-entries until the 4th level.

Back to the beginning

The 2015 World Series of Poker promises to be one of the best in history. Thanks to key changes and additions to the schedule, this year’s WSOP will shatter records and help to grow the game of poker as a whole.

There are years that I look at the upcoming WSOP schedule and find it difficult to build excitement. This is not one of those years. Poker players of all skill levels and disciplines will find something to get excited about on this schedule. Below are three reasons why the 2015 WSOP will be the best ever.

Here a Gimmick, There a Gimmick

I never thought I’d be an advocate for “gimmick” poker tournaments but I’ll give credit where it’s due. This year’s schedule has several tournaments that are a bit gimmicky but are perfect to draw in players of all skill levels.

My son played football on the weekend. Before the match I took him to one side and gave him some fatherly advice. After the game I praised him, gave him some feedback and a big hug.

“I’m proud of you son.”

And I was.

In the evening I watched American Sniper. The controversial biography of Chris Kyle. A former U.S. Navy Seal. The most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. He had 160 confirmed kills.

Not everyone agrees, but in my opinion a lot of progress towards an online poker bill was made in California over the past few weeks. The question is, will it be enough to get a bill passed?

It now appears the coalition of tribes that formed to oppose PokerStars’ entry into the potential California online poker market is splintering, and the scales have now tipped in PokerStars favor.

Following this week’s developments, it seems the only power players that remain in the camp of all out resistance to PokerStars are the Pechanga Tribe and the Agua Caliente tribe. These are the only two entities, from the coalition that at one point in time contained 13 tribes, who publicly criticized Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer’s online poker bill, AB 167.

Keep in mind this was a coalition that was speaking with one same voice as recently as this past summer.

Online poker players who enjoy basic poker tournaments at affordable buy-ins may want to click their way over to Full Tilt.

Beginning on February 15 and running eight days through the 22nd, Full Tilt has announced a “classic” tournament schedule that features two deep stack freezeout events each day. Cards will be in the air for both daily tournaments beginning at 13:30 and 15:30 ET.

The buy-ins begin the first day at a mere $0.50 and get a bit steeper each day until the final day on Feb. 22 when a $100 buy-in is good for a seat in the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool Main Event. In-between the high and low entry fees for the series will be tournament buy-ins of $1, $2.50, $5, $10, $25 and $50.

As an added bonus, every player who competes in a Full Tilt Classic event will receive a ticket to a freeroll held the next day. Players who play in a No Limit Hold’em Classic event will be awarded a Classic Hold’em Freeroll Ticket, while players who were part of the field in a non-NLHE Classic tournament get a ticket to a Classic Freeroll.

Like the old man Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the latest deal to sell the Revel casino is “not dead yet,” but it might as well be. According to a report by ABC Philadelphia on Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Gloria Burns refused to extend a deadline to sell the casino to Glenn Straub. However, she failed to rule on whether Revel could terminate their agreement with the Florida real estate mogul.

Instead, Burns said that she would issue a ruling on Tuesday whether Revel can cancel their sale of $95.4 million to Straub. If she cancels the deal, it would be the second deal to fall through for the bankrupt casino. The original potential buyer, Brookfield Holdings, failed to close on the deal after issues arose regarding debt held by the property’s power provider.

Another Sale Could Force Price Even Lower

John Cunningham, attorney for Revel, made it clear that they are ready to find a new buyer for the property. “We’re ready to find a new buyer,” Cunningham told reporters. “We have zero confidence in Polo North’s ability to close.”

The ongoing saga of the Trump Taj Mahal bankruptcy has claimed another casualty. Effective Sunday, February 15 at 11:59 pm, the poker room at the Trump Taj will shut down, closing one of the more iconic American poker rooms.

Allen Kessler shared a photo of the poker room closure via Twitter, stating, “Sad day in poker. I played here for several years during the 90s.” The Taj poker room was immortalized in Rounders when Mike and Worm took their trip to Atlantic City to blow off steam.

It was also home of the United States Poker Championship from 1996 to 2010. The USPC was one of poker’s top tournament series’ and was broadcast annually by ESPN until 2006.

Taj Poker Room on the Decline in Recent Years