We have recently upgraded all our poker tables. Branded felt with our company logo and website. With water resistant fibres, even if you have an spillage at the table - we've got you covered!

Welcome to the May 2007 edition of "Face Up" an insight into Australian Poker news and events. Poker Face welcomes a new staff member - Dean Jenkins is our new Event Manager and joined the company in April. Dean has over 10 years’ casino experience including working for Carnival Cruise line in Mexico and the Caribbean . Call Dean on 0418 549 717 or 03 9318 0484 to organise your next poker tournament.

2007 Melbourne Poker Championships — Currently underway

The 2007 Melbourne Poker Championships kicked off with a bang on ANZAC Day with a massive field of 628 players contesting the $120 No Limit Hold’em event.

Shortly before the event kicked-off, new Crown tournament director Brett Jones locked the event as staff were faced with the problem of accommodating the huge field.

However, they did a great job, starting the tournament 11-handed with 155 players waiting on the sidelines as alternates. Jones also elected to stop the clock with two minutes remaining at the second level (100/200), ensuring all players were seated with at least 10 big blinds before level three (150/300) started. Local player Chul Hyon Park took out the $12,600 first prize from a pool of $60,000 (smashing the $30,000 guarantee).

The Melbourne Poker Championships continue this week, culminating in the $5200 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament on Thursday and the $1100 No Limit Hold’em main event on May 5-6 (with a big contingent heading down to Melbourne from Sydney representing the PokerDome).

The Inside Word

With Bluff Australasiaeditor-in-chief Sean Callander

The long wait is finally over! After being ‘officially launched at last year’s World Series of Poker, the movie Lucky You, which stars Aussie Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore, will open in Australian cinemas on May 12.

As reported in the upcoming edition of Bluff Australasia, Lucky You tells the story of Huck Cheever, a young high stakes cash player, played by Eric Bana.

Along the way, Huck battles the dreaded swings that come with high stakes poker, tries to win the girl (played by Drew Barrymore), and come to terms with his rocky relationship with his father, a Doylesque poker legend, played by Robert Duval. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of the looming World Series of Poker.

Lucky You is also about a world in a state of flux. It’s significant that the film is set in 2003, just before the poker boom, and it attempts to capture the poker world as it began to transform, when the old school players began to witness their world becoming overwhelmed with players from all walks of life.

You’ll also spot scores of famous poker faces in cameo roles. Keep an eye out in your local papers for details of when and where you’ll be able to catch Lucky You.

• With the countdown to the 2007 World Series of Poker down to less than a month, a low-level war is simmering between the world’s two premier poker brands: the WSOP and the World Poker Tour.

With the WSOP scheduled to rumble to life at the Rio on June 1, the WPT has announced that it has awarded ‘tour status’ to the Bellagio Cup, which kicks-off on the other side of Interstate 15 on June 11.

The increasingly popular Bellagio event will comprise 27 events (only no limit hold’em) and culminates in a $10,000 buy-in main event that kicks-off on July 11.

And if that’s not enough, the Deep Stack Extravaganza II will take place from June 1 to July 1 at the Venetian. That means a total of 114 tournaments will be spread at the World Series of Poker (June 1 to July 17), the Bellagio Cup III (June 11 to July 13) and the Venetian’s Deep Stack Extravaganza II.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the WPT has fired back in response to the announcement of the WSOP Europe event to be held in London in September.

Forced to scrap its traditional season opener in Paris citing an “uncertain legal environment in France ”, the WPT has announced it will hold a tournament at the Casino Barcelona in October (which presents a potential conflict with the PokerStars’ European Poker Tour event already held in Barcelona ). One thing’s for sure: there’ll be no shortage of tournament options for the game’s top players.

POKER JOKES...

Q: How do you get a professional poker player off your porch?
A: Pay him for the Pizza!

Q: How can you tell a poker player is lying?
A: His chips are moving.

Q: Heard of the Los Angeles poker hand?
A: Four Clubs beat a King

Q: What is the difference between a poker player and a dog.
A: In about ten years the dog quits whining.

Q: What is the difference between a poker room and a church?
A: When you pray in a poker room, you really mean it!!