Brick and mortar poker rooms, such as Atlantic City’s seven rooms, may have taken a bit of a hit today with the launching of facepokerlive.com, an Internet poker site that uses webcams to inject a little “tell” action into the online game. One advantage live poker still has over the online game is the face-to-face play and staring down your opponent. That could change if players voluntarily put themselves on webcams and allow themselves to be seen while playing.

Still we see some potential problems with the idea. One, online poker players would have to actually get dressed and clean themselves up a little. That should go over big.

Second, if they don’t — well, this could be horrible.

The site comes from a Slovakian company, Tom Horn Enterprise, which despite being named after a famous cowboy and a 1980 Steve McQueen film, may not be entirely geared up to handle American (and English speaking) players. We’ll let them describe their site to you themselves, completely unedited.

“From today the poker online will not be the same as it used to be. All that what once differed poker from its orignal nature thanks to which it was popular in the whole world and played by all social and national groups is now finally created thanks to modern technologies of the 21st century. You dont need to travel anymore, to meet real poker player and play real poker. That poker by which the art to control your emotions is one of the most important conditions to win. That poker by which you need to use all your senses and not only the a calculator.”

The lesson here — never trust those translation programs.

Still, the European version of cardplayer.com reports that the site’s organizers are targeting central European players, though players from around the world can join. The site uses the Adobe Flash platform and works on Macs and PCs, but use of a webcam is not mandatory.

If it catches on, expect poker sites serving the U.S. to take notice.

Carlos Mortensen can now claim the title of the greatest World Poker Tour player ever after winning the Hollywood Poker Open at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg Indiana Wednesday. Yes, Indiana.

Mortensen won $393,000 for his first place cash, but more importantly, it is his third WPT win, tying him with Gus Hansen for most tour wins. He also moves past Daniel Negraneu on the tour’s all-time money list into first with about $5.75 million. First in wins and money equals the greatest, at least for now.

Carlos Mortensen

Mortensen is also the only player to win both the WPT World Championship (2007) and The World Series of Poker Main Event (2001). And yet, there’s a good chance you’ve barely heard of him, especially since his WSOP win predates the poker explosion caused by Chris Moneymaker’s WSOP win in 2003. But slowly and steadily, Mortensen is proving himself one of the elite players in poker.

Mortensen’s win came after a long heads-up showdown with second place finisher Mike Mustafa.  On the last hand, Mortensen was holding a king of clubs when four clubs came out on the board, completing a King high flush that beat Mustafa’s two pair. For a rundown of the final table action go here.

The World Poker Tour stops in Atlantic City at the Borgata Open in the fall. The Tropicana is also offering a World Poker Tour Boot Camp in April. Go here for details.

Coming off its successful Winter Poker Open, The Borgata is going to give the poker treatment to another season with its first Spring Poker Open April 10 through 30. That’s 60 events over the three weeks culminating with the Open Championship, a $3,300 +$200 buy-in with a guaranteed prize pool of more than $1 million.

Online registration for the tournaments began this week. The inaugural open will feature 26 main events, including No Limit Texas Hold’em , 6-Hand Max No Limit, H.O.S.E., Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha Stud events. The tournament will also be filled with super satellites, survivor, and seniors-only and ladies-only events.

One of the highlights is the April 13 East Coast Championship, which actually has a higher buy-in, $7,200 + $300, than the open championship, but only a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Satellites for the East Coast Championship begin April 10 and for the Spring Open Championship April 16.

Some other big days include the April 17, ($1000 + $90) and April 23 ($1,500 + $150) No Limit Hold’em events. The open championship begins over two days April 25 and 26.

The Borgata is offering online reservations for main events through Wednesday, April 7. On-site registration for all Borgata Spring Poker Open events begins Friday, April 9, in the poker room. Go here for info and registration.

Welcome to the inaugural post for The Real Deal, a blog that will keep track of the action in Atlantic City’s seven poker rooms and the world of poker in general. Regular followers of Atlantic City Weekly’s main blog have been seeing our increased poker coverage for the last couple of months as we’ve kept track of The Borgata Winter Open in January and the just completed World Series of Poker circuit event at Caesars. The next big tournament on tap for A.C. is the Borgata’s Spring Open April 10-30.

But for our first Real Deal post, we’re going to look at an offer from the Tropicana that goes to the heart of anyone who plays a regular poker game with friends. I’ve been in a game for about 20 years, and while it’s a lot of fun, hosting a game leads to a lot of chores, not the least of which is shuffling and dealing the damn cards. Ever since seeing the classic poker film The Cincinnati Kid, I’ve wanted Joan Blondell to come to our game as our own personal private dealer Lady Fingers (after Ann Margret and Tuesday Weld show up, of course).

While some poker rooms are willing to accommodate a private game, The Tropicana is offering a special deal for friends to have their own private party and table.
“When you bring your game to the Tropicana Poker Club, you’ll get VIP treatment at a table reserved just for you and your friends, family members or business associates,” said Scott Griffin, Trop Poker Manager. “Because it’s a private game, you can change the game type and limits every thirty minutes.”
The deal includes complimentary beverages from the Tropicana’s servers. While sandwiches are available tableside, you are also welcome to bring your own game night fuel from Corky’s, Hooters or any of the Tropicana’s renowned eateries.
“Best of all, you have the benefit of your own ‘user-friendly’ dealer (probably not Joan Blondell), who will go at your pace and answer all of your questions about game rules, strategy and proper poker etiquette,” Griffin continued. “It’s the best introduction to casino poker in Atlantic City.”
Private tables require a minimum of eight attendees, and can accommodate up to 11 of your friends in total. All private games are subject to a standard collection fee of 10 percent of each hand, up to $4. Groups of ten or more may choose a flat charge of $5 per player, every 30 minutes instead.
For reservations or more information, contact the Tropicana Poker Manager’s office toll-free at 1-800-843-8767, extension 4546. Members of your group must be 21 or older to play. Private poker tables on Friday nights, Saturday nights and holiday weekends may be limited or unavailable.