Online Poker

Domain name registrar, GoDaddy has announced they will be sponsoring the National Heads Up Poker Championship at Caeser's Palace in Las Vegas this March.

I always remember GoDaddy fondly, because it was the first registrar I ever used. The were also responsible for the first (& only) time I have ever clicked through from a spam email. Yes they were spammers back in the day, but now they're a big company with super bowl ads and a poker tournament sponsorship.

Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson always does well at the heads up, making the final table three out of four times, winning it last year to be the current reigning champion. Phil Hellmuth & Ted Forrest beat him in the other years.

Some people are claiming that it's ground-breaking to have a domain registrar sponsor a poker tournament, but I don't see the big deal. They're just another business sponsoring a live event, which happens all the time... There's really no correlation between the event and online poker or GoDaddy and online poker.

More newsworthy is California's push to legalize online poker within the state. It's just a blatant grab for tax dollars to try and prop up their failing economy, so it looks like it might just get through the legislative process.

Would it be a good thing or a bad thing for online poker players? How much would it be taxed? Would rake have to increase to pay the taxes? Would only Californians be taxed? Who knows how it would all work.... It will be interesting to see how everything pans out for online poker in the USA over the next few years.

Ed