In an article published by the Sydney Morning Herald it can now be confirmed that this “Blacklist” has flagged over 10,000 sites to ban. These range from a wide range of harmful material including but not limited to; child porn, online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites and as bizarre as it sounds it also includes a QLD dentist.

The blacklist that was leaked by Wikileaks.org but that list has since been taken down. Julian Assange from Wikileaks has been reported as saying these secret censorship systems are “invariably corrupt” and referred to the Thailand Cersorship list. This list was made to stop child pornography but ended up being 1200 sites that were criticising the royal family. he also went on to say “History shows that secret censorship systems, whatever their original intent, are invariably corrupted into anti-democratic behaviour.”

The blacklist that ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) has produced will be provided to makers of internet filtering software so parents can install it on their computers.

Stay tuned for more to come on this astonishing development on online gambling in Australia.

It can only be described as a desperate attempt by the Australian Labor Party to earn more revenue, this disastrous decision will be felt b y thousands of people across the country. No longer will Australian gamblers be able to log on and place a bet on sport, play at an online poker site or casino.

This law that is being enforced was originally made to protect Australians from paedophiles and sexually related, illegal material. Here are some of the issues that the ACMA was made to protect:

• depictions of child sexual abuse;
• depictions of bestiality;
• material containing excessive violence or sexual violence;
• material containing detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use;
• real depictions of actual sexual activity;
• depictions of simulated sexual activity which are not subject to a restricted access system

This law has subsequently placed Australian online gamblers in the same category as this filth. It is an outrage to say the least. It has been reported that the ACMA has made a blacklist of potential ‘harmful’ sites. On this list surprisingly were only online poker sites. These included PokerStars, Full Tilt, Pacific Poker, BetFair, PokerNews and many more.

What this means for Australians is that we can no longer play at these online poker sites. Not only that, Australian gambling websites that promote these rooms will be fined $11,000 for each site. This has serious legal and financial implications.

The exact nature of the GIA has never been fully understood because of the relaxed and broad nature of it. The rules were never enforced and there have been no real problems in being able to gamble online. What we can read though is what the ACMA says in its guidelines:

The IGA makes it an offence to provide, or advertise, certain interactive gambling services. ACMA is responsible for investigating formal complaints made under the IGA in relation to prohibited internet gambling content.

Prohibited internet gambling content is content that can be accessed, or is available for access, by customers of a prohibited internet gambling service.

A prohibited internet gambling service is a gambling service provided in the course of carrying on a business to customers using an internet carriage service, and an individual physically present in Australia is capable of becoming a customer of the service.

If ACMA receives a complaint about prohibited internet gambling content that is hosted in Australia, ACMA will refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police.

If prohibited internet gambling content is hosted outside Australia, ACMA will notify the content to makers of the approved Family Friendly Filters listed in Schedule 1 to the Interactive Gambling Act Industry Code.

We will be keeping a close eye on this and keep you up to date with any further developments. It seems as though we have travelled back to the dark ages and are losing our freedoms. This law is violating Australian’s rights.

Scott finished Day 4 on the top of the leader board and never looked back throughout the final table. There were times when he was challenged for the chip lead but he never surrendered it. When 2005 WSOP Main Event winner and fellow Australian poker player Joe Hachem announced “I think it’s about time an Aussie took home the title, get your acts together!” it must have seemed like a distant hope. Scott played solid poker throughout though and thoroughly deserved his win.

Going into the final table here were the chip stacks:

• Seat 1: Zach Gruneberg – 1,355,000
• Seat 2: Barny Boatman – 349,000
• Seat 3: Elliot Smith – 1,120,000
• Seat 4: Richard Ashby – 658,000
• Seat 5: Stewart Scott – 4,520,000
• Seat 6: Peter Rho – 2,420,000
• Seat 7: Rajkumar Ramakrishnan – 2,050,000
• Seat 8: Sam Capra – 1,161,000

Scott admitted in an interview after the tournament that his nerves did start to get the better of him with about 4 players left. Hands were getting harder and harder to win and there was a lot of money at stake. Congratulations to Australian poker player Stewart Scott for becoming the first Aussie in to win this prestigious tournament.

Here all the final places and earnings of each player:

1. Stewart Scott – $2 million
2. Peter Rho – $1 million
3. Elliott Smith – $700,000
4. Rajkumar Ramakrishnan – $400,000
5. Sam Capra – $300,000
6. Zach Gruneberg – $210,000
7. Richard Ashby – $150,000
8. Barny Boatman – $100,000

An unprecedented 8750 players made the money, allowing for many of the players to take something away from the event that lasted for around 9 and a half hours.

PokerStars certainly look to be turning up the heat on their competitors in the online poker market. On the same morning they also held a massive Sunday tournament that had a prize pool of $3.2 million for the $215 buy-in. Things only look to be getting bigger and better over there, as the team keep putting on these displays without a hitch. Perhaps the only disappointing thing about the tourney with 35k entries was that it was capped and was full the night before. Many players missed out which would have made it an even bigger event.

We have been in contact with the team over at PokerStars and they have assured us that in the very near future they will be holding a similar event that won’t be capped so everyone can have a chance at playing. They said that the reasoning behind capping it was because of the way it was structured and they couldn’t change it.

From all reports, it was a great tourney that was well run and enjoyable for all. Here all the final standings of the event:

1. stan34powa – $30,000
2. meiky777 – $20,000
3. rumred14 – $15,000
4. Goldman007 – $10,000
5. Nekochan48 – $7,500
6. gustave44 – $5,000
7. n0ideahh – $3,500
8. alepolice – $2,500
9. ONE_TIMEE – $2,000
10. FuFish – $1,500

Make sure you get your PokerStars marketing code.

The day began with Tom Rafferty heading to the rail when he was all in with a nut flush draw vs Antonio Fazzalari’s top two pair. He couldn’t improve and was sent to the rail in 9th place and recived $39,200 AUD. Next to head to the rail was local Australian poker player Hai Bo Chu who made a move on Martin Rowe at the wrong time tabling only a gutshot draw vs the overpair of Rowe. He finished in 8th place and won $53,200. 7th place belonged to Daniel Kowalski when he was out kicked with his A9 by Fazzolari who tabled AQ on the ace high board. 7th place was worth $72,800.

Former tournament leader Frank Saffioti was knocked out when his AQ suited gave him top pair and nut flush draw. The only problem was Jason Gray flopped a set, but Saffioti still had outs and had even more when a Queen can on the turn. He couldn’t catch up on the river however, and headed to the rail in sixth place to collect his $108,800 AUD pay cheque.

Playing in his first major poker tournament, Timothy English made the most of it as he won $140,000 AUD for fifth place. He bet strong with AK when he missed the flop, and Rowe called his all in chasing an open ended straight draw. He hit a pair of Jacks to knock out English and continue his dominating run towards victory.

Antonio Fazzalari, the chip leader at the beginning of the day was the next to head to the rail when he ran A2 into Martin Rowe’s AK. he couldn’t improve and took home $182,000 for fourth place. He was closely follwed by Tony Basile who unluckily ran his AK into Jason Gray’s KK. He finished in 3rd place for a cool $266,000 AUD.

With the field now down to the final two players, Martin Rowe was in a dominating postion over Jason Gray. With player contuning for over two hours they eventually got it all in pre-flop where Rowe had AQ vs 9 5. Rowe’s AQ held up and he won the 2008 APPT Sydney.

Victory is sweet for the Sydney man as he pockets $1 million dollars just in time for Christmas. Martin Rowe was ruthless as he went from strength to strength during the final table and clearly dominated the final hours. He fully deserves this title and the team here at Pokershark wpuld like to pass on their congratulations to him and wish him all the best in his future endeavours. We look forward to following his progress carefully in the following poker tournaments.

Australian poker player Jason Gray also finished the day in a strong position with over 1.1 million in chips. Other Australian poker player Hai Bo Chu, whol also did well in the 2008 WSOP Main Event is also in with a chance. He is the short stack of the final table so he could find it difficult. But it was Antonio Fazzolari who stole the show on Day 3 after accumulating over 1.7 million chips.

The final table players and chips counts at the APPT Sydney 2008 are as follows:

Seat 1: Martin Rowe – 995,000
Seat 2: Jason Gray – 1,188,000
Seat 3: Tony Basile – 863,000
Seat 4: Timothy English – 945,000
Seat 5: Daniel Kowalski – 959,000
Seat 6: Frank Saffioti – 790,000
Seat 7: Tom Rafferty – 1,101,000
Seat 8: Antonio Fazzolari – 1,775,000
Seat 9: Hai Bo Chu – 781,000

There were a lot of stars eliminated on day one of play with that trend contuning into day 2. With the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Gavin Griffin, John Juanda and Australian poker player Van Marcus all eliminated. Lee Nelson, author of popular poker tournament strategy book ‘Kill Everyone’ was amonst the casualties as was Brisbane’s Mark ‘pokerbok’ Vos.

In one of the biggest pots of the day Marlon Goonawardana had 99 and put Andrew Meldrum all in preflop who showed pocket aces. A nine spiked on the river to give Goonawardana the massive pot and move him into 4th place on the leader board. As players go into the 4th day they will start playing for some serious cash as they all compete for the $1 million AUD first prize. The action will certainly be heating up when players reach the tables at 12:30 AEST at the Star City Casino in Sydney.

The leaderboard going into the 3rd day of the PokerStars APPT Sydney 2008:

Frank Saffioti – 619,000
Brendan Edmonds – 508,000
Phil Willcocks – 390,000
Marlon Goonawardana – 370,000
Jamie Pickering – 360,000
Tony Basile – 355,000
Antonio Fazzolari – 342,000
Ray Lapitan – 330,000
Mamouni Smain – 320,000
Timothy English – 310,000

The big names that fell on Day 1c of the 2008 APPT Sydney at the Star City Casino didn’t stop there as the former APPT champions found the going tough as well. The APPT Seoul champion Yoshihiro Tasaka was the first to be eliminated out of the champions. APPT Auckland champion Daniel Craker didn’t last much longer when Josh O’Brien turned a set of trips against him. Eddy Sabat was a late elimination during the day which left Van Marcus the only former APPT champion in with a fighting chance.

Day 1c attracted the most players out of all of the first days play, with 197 players hitting the felt to make the total field size 477 players. Going into day 2 the action will only get hotter as they play down to see who will be the PokerStars 2008 APPT champion.

The chip counts at the end of Day 1c are as follows:

Manish Sansi – 103,600
Patrick Carron – 98,300
Wang Che Jung – 95,300
Dory Zayneh – 81,200
Jay Huxley – 72,900
Anthony Rafter – 68,600
Shane Moran – 68,100
Karim Jomeen – 66,800
Frits Van Beek – 65,800
Thadd Wolff – 62,900

Sadly, for those that are a keen admirer of Billy ‘the croc’ he was knocked out in sensational fashion. On a flop of A 10 6 his pocket 6’s weren’t good enough to stand up against his opponents’ 1010. Losing with set over set is even more painful for him as he had a 10k prop bet with Peter Eastgate that he would last longer than him.

Other notable exits from the Australian poker tournament include Peter Aristidou, Jeff Lisandro, Raymond Rahme and 2007 champ Grant Levy.

The pace setter of the PokerStars tournament so far though is Jason Gray who amassed 185,000 chips and is miles ahead of his nearest competitors. he won a massive hand early when he called a raise with rags and then a bet on the flop. He turned a straight and his opponents over pair didn’t improve.

In second place on the leader board for the day is team PokerStars pro Gavin Griffin. He finished the day with 1300,000 chips to place himself in with a fighting chance for the rest of the tournament.

Mark Vos has also performed very well on the first day. He was dealt pocket aces in quick succession and managed to double up on both occasions shooting him up the leader board. He lost some chips late in the day but still managed to finish 4th on the day with 74,000 chips.

The top 10 chip counts at the end of play on Day 1b in the PokerStars APPT Sydney are as follows:

Jason Gray – 185,000
Gavin Griffin – 130,000
Andy Meldrum – 78,000
Mark Vos – 74,000
Sam Korman – 73,000
Marlon Goonawardana – 68,000
Andrew Scott – 61,000
Suzy Khoueis – 45,000
Assadour Assadourian – 45,000
Jamie Pickering – 42,000

Last year’s winner Grant Levy was at hand to give the honours of starting play with the famous words of “shuffle up and deal”. Notable exits on the day included Australian poker player David Saab who made it deep in this year’s 2008 WSOP Main Event, Jay Kinkade, Vanessa Rousso and James Obst.

Phil Willcocks ended the day on 120,000 chips and one of only two players who finished with over 100k in chips. He holds a commanding lead over the rest of the pack, but with plenty of action still to come there is plenty of opportunity for the field to catch him.

The top ten chip stacks of the day are as follows:

Phil Willcocks – 129,000
Steven Musca – 103,200
Daniel Kowalski – 98,500
David Lovell – 92,500
Greg Cook – 85,100
Kevin Wagler – 78,900
Ray Lapitan – 77,200
Daniel Ginnane – 69,200
John Cordue – 69,100
Michael Russell – 66,900
Derrick Wall – 66,700

Day 1b is in full swing today and we will give you a full recap of the action that took place when it is over. Stay tuned for the latest news on your favourite players!