Ayre Force is the first of its kind and just released graphic novel from Bodog. Based on real people this novel reveals the hidden activities and past of billionaire founder, Calvin Ayre, as he leads the covert operations unit composed of members from the Bodog team.
The poker pro’s include, Evelyn Ng, David Williams and Josh Arieh along with MMA fighters Tara LaRosa, Jorge Masvidal, Trevor Prangley and musicians Bif Naked, Jason Darr and Nazanin.

Calvin Ayre and his unit have been in a years-long war with pharmaceutical magnate Janus Winter, attacking the illegal operations of Wintercorp all over the globe. Now, Janus has upped the anti by unleashing his genetically-engineered, superhuman children on Calvin and his team, intending to end the war between Bodog and Wintercorp!

This graphic novel is defiantly action packed and lead by an outstanding creative team: Shawn Martinbrough, Adam Slutsky, Joseph Philip Illidge, Andrew Dalhouse and Marshall Dillon.

All materials used in the production and distribution of the novel are environmentally friendly and all proceeds from sales will be donated to support the Calvin Ayre Foundation.

Ayre Force

According to actor Vince Vaughn, Cinco de Mayo was the perfect excuse to play a little poker — for a good cause, of course. E! Online reports that Vaughn celebrated Cinco de Mayo at the Velvet Margarita poker party in Hollywood Monday night. The buy-in was $120, with all proceeds going to the charity Friends of El Faro, which donates money to an orphanage in Mexico.

Reports E! Online, Vaughn and his friends sat at a private booth and enjoyed the bar’s signature margaritas. By the end of the night he had turned his attention to the blonde in the cute pony tail and cowboy hat. According to an eyewitness, “Vince seemed interested in her. He wanted her to stick around.” The two left the party together.

Having an online poker room as a poker sponsor is a huge advantage for any player. Having all or most of your tournament buy-ins covered for you would alleviate much of the pressure of being a tournament pro.

Poker room sponsorships seem to be as individual as the players. Specific terms are usually private, but most consist of tournament entries with little or no winnings going back to the poker room.

Beyond the financial advantages that being sponsored would provide, having one has become a badge of honor among players on the circuit. Having a sponsor means that you’re good enough for a company to spend tens of thousands of dollars on you. This adds an intimidation factor to a player’s game; it tells everyone at the table that you’re skilled and experienced. The only worry you could possibly have when you have a sponsor is having enough success to maintain that sponsorship into the future.

Final table to be played out on November 9th, four months after the start date of the WSOP. Johnny Chan likes the idea. What do you think?

In a press conference to be held later today, World Series of Poker and Harrah’s officials are expected to announce a major change to the way the final table at the Main Event is played out. It is expected that they will push to suspend final table play in mid-July and then resume action four months later on Sunday, Nov. 9th. (ESPN will be broadcasting the Main Event/final table two days later, Nov. 11, at 9 p.m.)

Although it hasn’t been made official yet, it’s as good as done and there’s already been plenty of feedback on the move to delay action. You gotta wonder what that’ll do for players riding a hot streak during play leading up to the final table.

“Poker is a game of skill. The hands are random. … It’s how you play your hand. I don’t believe in hot streaks,” Poker pro Johnny Chan says.

“It might be huge for the continued growth of poker; however, the down side is this long gap allows the players to become completely different people between the time they make the final table and when they play it,” says poker pro Greg Raymer.

What do you think of the change? Let me know…

Washington State Democratic candidate Dino Rossi went on-air Tuesday to express his strong opposition to that state’s felony law banning online poker. Although the majority of the on-air interview between talk radio host Dori Monson and the politician dealt with questions concerning the budget, the first question up was about online poker. When asked what he thought about Governor Christine Gregoire’s decision to make playing online poker in the state of Washington a felony, here’s what Rossi had to say:

“I never would have signed that bill. Because actually, they made it a crime for someone playing poker online on their computer. They made it a crime that’s equal with child pornography. Now, a felony will mess up your life for a very long time. You have some college kid that’s playing poker online and you’re giving him a felony for that? It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t fit the crime.”

Later on in the interview Rossi was asked if he would support a measure reversing the ban and he said that he “would sign legislation that would overturn it, certainly.”

It’s not hard to find a chance to win a seat to the WSOP main event. Not only is every online poker room offering them, but most land-based casinos are offering some type of satellite action. Lots of companies are using the WSOP brand to sell their products, and dangling a WSOP package as their prize.

PokerStars has a ridiculous amount of WSOP satellite action. They even have a freeroll promotion where you can win your way to Vegas by winning your way up levels until you win the main event ticket.

BodogLife Poker has satellite qualifiers for $1.50, which are played every day at 2:30 am ET and also at 9:30 pm ET. These cheap satellites are also played every day at 10 am ET, except on Wednesdays.

A good site from which to get your satellite info is  http://www.wsop-satellites.com/. They keep a current list of WSOP satellites.

Every poker room runs some kind of freeroll action. Action changes by the day, and if you’d like a complete list of freeroll action go to http://www.freerolls.net/

PokerStars is currently running a promotion called the Million Dollar WSOP Giveaway. There are daily free qualifiers that will get you to the next step, towards winning one of the many all-inclusive WSOP main event packages.

Party Poker runs many sizable freerolls every day. They have multiple $1250, $2500, $250, $200,000 qualifiers, and $500 freerolls for their players.

Carbon Poker runs a $50 freeroll every two hours, plus a daily $2000, $1000 and $500 tournament.

Poker Time has a bunch of daily freerolls too, with multiple prize pools of $1000, $200 and $250.

Check the individual poker rooms for times, or check the freeroll monitor I mentioned earlier. You’ll have to be a member of each site to play in their freeroll events.

Very cool news for poker players looking to keep a sharper eye on those wickedly fun guaranteed poker tournaments: GuaranteedMonitor.com.

According to its press release, the idea behind GuaranteedMonitor.com is to give online poker players a single destination where they can find online guaranteed tournaments from all poker networks in a single, convenient web site. The extensive database allows users to search by a multitude of categories that include start time, poker room and/or network, prize and buy-in fees.

What are online guaranteed poker tournaments?

A guaranteed online poker tournament is a tournament where the prize pool is guaranteed by the poker room. For example, a guaranteed $10,000 tournament will always have a minimum of $10,000 in its prize pool. If however, there are not enough players to cover the prize pool then the poker room covers the difference.

Every poker star seems to have a cause they want to support. And this month it’s Jennifer Harman’s turn to raise some funds for her charity by hosting a poker tournament. On April 18th she will host the second annual Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament to support the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

Jennifer has been instrumental in improving the conditions for animals in Nevada. The $130,000 raised last year opened two new wings in the center, and this year’s profits will go towards environments without cages.

The recommended donation to participate in the tournament is $300 + $30. There will be $200 re-donations for additional tournament chips for the first three 20-minute rounds, and a $200 add-on. The first-place prize is a $10,000 seat into the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. Visit  www.nevadaspca.org to reserve your seat in the tournament.

Much of poker’s appeal is due to the fact that it is primarily a game of skill. Although most of the skills of the game are inherent, many more of the skills are acquired only though experience. As a result, successful poker players will always seek to improve by being critical of their own play.

With both on and off line poker the game has many transferable skills that can benefit to over all emotional and mental and social health.

Poker develops critical evaluative skills that allow you to appraise information and situations realistically, and to anticipate problems and difficulties. The game also develops your numerical skills giving you the ability to handle and interpret numerical and statistical information. This skill can also attribute when micromanaging. Pragmatism skills are also attributed to poker that allows you to make the best of a no ideal situation and to work with your present constraints. Success in almost any job will require a good use of pragmatism.

These are just a few of the many heath contributors of poker. This game also contributes to the development of interpersonal, problem-solving, goal orientated, learning, flexibility and face management/deception skills, which are all important in everyday life. Poker on a personal level develops great self control and self awareness which is again is important to leading a healthy life.

The next time someone tells you that you play too much poker you can now let them know that too much poker is never a bad thing.