ARTICLES
World Series of Poker Mania
The popularity of the World Series of Poker gained tremendous
momentum from The Travel Channel's World Poker Tour showings.
Although the event had been showing for a number of years on
cable, when new technologies such as the table camera were used,
television watchers began getting involved in the hands as they
were being played.
Other advancements will also take place since the purchase of
the World Series of Poker (WSOP) from Binion's in 2004 by
Harrah's. They will need them because of the sheer increase in
the number of players entering the tournament. In 2003 when
Chris Moneymaker won the title and $2,500,000, there were 839
entrants. In 2004 Gregory Paul Raymer became champion after
defeating 2576 players and was rewarded with $5,000,000. For
2005, the WSOP will be estimated to have over 7500 players
hammering each other for a top prize of $6,000,000. And most
of these will come from Internet poker rooms. A significant
number of online poker rooms will host online tournaments to
sponsor seats to the WSOP main event with buy ins that are
far less than the $10,000 fee.
The Internet will be instrumental in tournament poker because of
the 24/7 availability to play large numbers of...
Read more
The History of Horse Racing
It is hard to imagine in today's world that one of our favourite sports, horse racing, has been around for thousands of years. It has been noted as being an organised sport as far back as the Greek Olympics in 638 BC.
Horse racing really came into its own when in the 12th century English horses were bred with Arabian horses. This breeding programme produced sturdy horses that had amazing speed. It was around this time that a more modern version of racing began with racecourses opening and rules and standards established.
Newmarket in Britain was the very first venue for horse racing and is now known all over the world. King Charles II arranged horse races in open fields and the winner would be given a prize.
Horse racing changed during the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), the races involved several horses and racing spectators could bet on their favourite horses. It was, at this time, that Queen Anne founded the famous Ascot course and horse racing became a professional sport.
In 1750 the Jockey Club was formed at Newmarket where the "elite" of the horse racing circles met. The club controlled racing and...
Read more
