Poker boom in Russia

| Published on September 22, 2008

Soon people will be able to play poker also in Russia's Zavidovo, where poker is becoming very popular. Russia's government considers poker playing a sport, like soccer or baseball. The fact that poker has been declared a sport facilitates the game in so many ways that had been such a struggle in so many other countries. The event at Zavidovo is also sanctioned by the government.
Not just Zavidovo is the only place where poker is getting popular. In Moscow, casinos are opened almost every month and they are very luxurious. Casinos like Golden Ring Club can be visited only by invitation. The Shangri La is open to everybody and it's offering tournaments daily with $ 500 buy-in and unlimited rebuys. And several clubs are open to those who are new at the poker scene and can't spend a big amount in big buy-in events.

Korona and Metelitsa are the most popular poker clubs in Moscow and 100 of players come there every day. John Kockbek, who's Australian, owns Korona and he was one of the poker poneers in Moscow, but he's not the only one who makes poker business in Russia's capital. Reese Jones, from New Zealand, is the general manager of Poker House club and Tony Powell, from England, is one of the owners of the Poker Club Management Company. Though in Russia, poker is officially recognized as sport, several poker-only clubs have been opened. Le Poker Club is one of these and recently it organized its first â€“ever poker tournament and the game was live broadcast.

Some of the biggest international poker names will play at the Zavidovo resort. The economy in Russia is really booming and that also because of the casinos of course. One of Russia's best poker players, observed a pot-limit stud game, which is not a frequent game in the US. The ante of this special game was $ 2,000. The pots in some pot-limit games can exceed $ 1 million. Tony G, a big poker player, once won a single pot of over $ 3 million. Tony G will also participate at the event at Zavidovo and also the players Patrick Antonius and Phil Ivey will be there. The event at Zavidovo will probably have about 90 participants and it will be the biggest event in Russia. All biggest names in Russian poker will take part at Zavidovo in the event: WSOP record-holder Nikolay Edvakov, WSOP 2008 final-tablist Ivan Demidov, bracelet winners Vitality Lunkin and Alex Kravchenko. The biggest online poker rooms, like PokerStars started sponsoring Demidov and Kravchenko, because the Russian poker market is starting to be very attractive.

There will be also many holdem events in Zavidovo, beside the Main Event. The Main Event will last for 5 days and on the last day, the tournament will be televised.

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