Best online poker games on Launchpoker.com

  Last year at the World Series of Poker there was a youth movement like the sport has never seen. Twice during the WSOP the record for the "youngest person to ever win a bracelet" was broken. This year the pendulum has swung back in the direction of the established professionals. New United States regulations on internet gaming seem to be a factor in the resurgence of the more "seasoned" players. In 2007 you couldn't swing a dead chicken in the poker room of the Rio without hitting a poker pro who was too young to shave. That has been lacking at the WSOP this year.



  According to Jay Lakin, President of PokerSourceOnline.com, the value of online gaming to the WSOP and the sport as a whole can be summed up with the following words: "More people are classifying themselves as professionals than ever before, there are a disproportionate number of pros than amateurs this year. The poker learning curve has been greatly shortened because of the ability to play online. Up and coming players see many more hands and gain a considerable amount of knowledge in a much shorter time frame than ever before. Because of this, they are able to become pros faster. Hence, the dominance of pros throughout the 2008 WSOP."



  The smart money is on Mr. Lakin being right on target with his opinion. Fundamentally, one would have to be blind, deaf, dumb, and brain damaged in order to argue with him. Of course those are exactly the qualifications that get somebody an American Congressional seat. With that said, we are now 33 events into the WSOP and the youth movement from last year has been considerably slowed. Granted, new, young champions are emerging, but they are generally from countries where internet gambling is not treated as a felony.



  This has all helped out the older pros who have been kicking around for a while. Event #33 was a good example of this as two seasoned vets went head to head for the championship bracelet.



  Despite some help from the US government in thinning the online herd from the WSOP, players still have to play. Event #33 saw five-time bracelet winner, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson entering into heads-up play with a 2 to 1 chip lead, and going away in second place. He had to watch from the rail as German professional Sebastian Ruthenberg raised the bracelet for all to see. Ruthenberg is a successful tournament player for whom this is his first WSOP gold.



  While Chris was shaking off the loss, and preparing for his next tournament, Event #32 was also crowning a new champion. Anthony Signore was chasing his first bracelet when he ran into Luis Velador, who was also keen to strap on some WSOP jewelry. In this battle of the unknowns, Velador came away with the championship.



  Well, another day, another dollar, another championship.