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Welcome to this months edition of "Face Up" - an insight into Australian Poker news and events. Poker in Australia is still very much on the upward curve. A new series of Joker Poker is to be screened soon, Australian players continue to feature heavily in international events and the pub poker scene is now in Queensland as well. If you have any poker news or would like more information please email us and we will endeavour to answer your questions. Until the next newsletter "Play your cards right!"

POKER COLUMN FROM SEAN CALLENDER EDITOR BLUFF MAGAZINE - The Inside Word

Emad Tahtouh has carried his fine form from the WSOP and Victorian Poker Championships into the second event of the 2006-07 European Poker Tour. The popular Melbourneplayer went within a whisker of his breakthrough international victory, finishing second in the £3550 buy-in main event at London ’s Grosvenor Victoria Casinoon Sunday.

Second in chips heading to the final table, Tahtouh skipped out to a handsome chip lead midway through the final eight but when his heads-up battle with Londonjournalist Vicky Coren started, their stacks were about even. With former world champion and close friend Joe Hachem watching his every move, Tahtouh moved all-in on the second hand holding pocket eights on a flop of 5 3 4, but Coren (with 6 7) called instantly having hit a straight. The verbose Brit pocketed an even £500,000 in becoming the first female champion on the EPT, while Tahtouh collected £285,900 (or just over $A720,000) for his second placing. At the 2006 WSOP, Tahtouh celebrated his first final table appearance with a seventh in the $5000 Pot Limit Hold’em event while at the recent Vic Champs, he finished runner-up in two events. The third season of EPT continues on October 7-10 in Austria for the EPT Baden Classic.

• More bad news for the World Poker Tour (WPT) legal eagles with news that former WPT hostess Shana Hiatt has filed a lawsuit against her former employers. PokerNews.comis reporting that the problems started earlier this summer, when Hiatt's representatives were contacted by NBC about the possibility of her working on a couple poker programs for the Network.

The complaint also asserts that upon finding out about NBC's advances, WPTE CEO Steve Lipscomb contacted NBC executives, and informed them that even though Hiatt was no longer shooting episodes of the WPT, she was still under contract to the WPT as part of a non-compete clause in her contract. The complaint alleges the non-compete was part of Hiatt's release from the WPT, a document the lawsuit claims Hiatt never signed. The complaint also asserts WPT options on Hiatt's services expired on September 11, 2006, and she should be free to seek work wherever she likes. This suit is the latest in a series of lawsuits filed against the WPT. Earlier this year, 7 players (inculding Joe Hachem) filed suit against the WPT, asserting unfair business practices mostly in connection with the release players are required to sign to play in WPT events.

• “Last year, Joker Poker drew an average audience of about 360,000 across Australia . The audience was consistent, which was very pleasing for a niche sport that was being taken to a really broad Australian audience for the first time,” Andersonsaid.

“The first thing people will notice about this year’s show is the improved look of the program. We’ve moved to a studio environment, which has given us a lot more flexibility,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that everything was better — from the talent, the look of the graphics and the set and the standard of the poker game.” Anderson said he delighted to be working with management and staff from Crown Casino to improve the program’s poker component. “The only criticism we got last year was from a very vocal minority, I guess you’d call them avid poker players, who criticised the standard of the game,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of work with team from Crown Casino to ensure the standard of the game dealt and played will be significantly better.”

Anderson said one of the revelations of the 2005 series was the discovery of a new TV star — a 62-year-old retired doctor by the name of Lee ‘Final Table’ Nelson, who’ll co-host Wild Turkey’s Joker Poker with Big Brother’s Mike Goldman. “Lee made a fantastic contribution last year and winning the Aussie Millions earlier this year helped boost Lee’s profile even further. He was so good we decided to expand hie role this year,” Anderson said. Expect to see Wild Turkey’s Joker Poker back on air in early October, starting with the first of 14 late-night episodes again featuring some of Australia ’s top comedians. Also look out for four celebrity specials that may be shown in a higher profile timeslot later in the year. The list of comedians includes Greg Fleet, Tim Ferguson, Bruno Lucia and Marty Fields while the celebrity selection features Kimberly Davies, Andrew G, Hamish and Andy, John Jarrett, Nick Giannopoulos, Peter Berner and Daniel McPherson.

Did you know.... The reason that dealers "burn" a card in Texas Hold 'Em is a security measure. If the top card has a mark or defect that players can identiify this whilst it has been exposed during betting rounds.