Pioneer One "Alone In The Night"

Episode 3 of 'Pioneer One' got finally released. It was a long wait but it was well worth it...

If you have no idea what I'm talking about: Pioneer One is a unique project, the next step in tv-making. It's a dramatic sci-fi series entirely community-funded and released on the Vodo-network as a torrent download. Pretty amazing what some creative minds can do with the support of an audience...

A mysterious spaceship has entered Earth's atmosphere. A US Department of Homeland Security investigation has uncovered a live human being in a Soviet space suit in an unstable condition. A note in Russian, found at the crash site, claims the man is the child of cosmonauts living at a base on Mars. Now quarantined to the Calgary base for two weeks, Taylor and his team have bought time to get answers from the supposed Martian cosmonaut. But who can get him to talk?

The story continues with this new episode 'Alone In The Night', funded and distributed by the online community. Producers Josh Bernhard and Bracey Smith have built on the success of episodes one and two, released through Vodo since June 2010 to an audience of millions.

Episode 4 is expected to be released within a month. Bernhard and Smith have now raised almost $20,000 of the $60,000 they need to finish episodes 5 & 6...


(Looking for more interesting movies and tv? Check out Zenith, a dark and grim sci-fi cyberpunk thriller in 3 free-to-share episodes. Also available for free at Vodo)

The Baller Weekend

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14th place in MiniFTOPS Event #15 (out of over 12000 entries) / playing with The Ultimate Hipster (Huckleberry Seed) in MiniFTOPS Event #20 / crushing 100NL Rush poker on the side

An excellent return on investment

 for a weekend at home on my own...

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The Times They Are A-Changin'

In October 2010, PokerStars announced its partnership with Circus Groupe, making it possible to offer online poker under the regulation of the Belgian Gaming Commission. As a result of this, PokerStars launched its Belgian client today. For now it's only a Beta Testing project but on a later date (probably somewhere in April or May) all existing Belgian players will be migrated to the .BE client...

Due to legal restrictions the minimum age will be 21 and new Belgian players are no longer eligible for a first deposit bonus. (So if you're Belgian and don't have a PokerStars account yet, now's your last chance to sign up and get that bonus...) Belgian players will still be able to play tournaments against .COM players but cash games will be .BE exclusive.

Is this the end of online poker in Belgium or a new dawn? It depends. A regulated poker client will attract new, inexperienced players (aka fish aka more money for the regulars). But real gamblers and degenerates don't really care that much about laws and regulations anyway. Will the new players make up for the .COM cash games we are about to lose? I seriously doubt it. If you're a Belgian cash game player on Stars, you're fucked.

There might be a sparkle of hope, though: Full Tilt Poker.

Howard Lederer, the strong man behind Full Tilt and the most powerful man in poker (Number 1 in Bluff Magazine's Power Top 20), has been running his poker client for years in a legal grey (well, grey at best) area in the USA.
While PokerStars's always first to follow new laws, Full Tilt seem to prefer a more relaxed approach. As long as Belgian players can deposit and withdraw I don't see Full Tilt leaving the Belgian market any time soon. It all depends on how hard Belgium will try to enforce this new gambling law... If it's just another dead-letter-law we will be fine. It's hard to enforce laws online (the PirateBay is still here) and when we don't even have a real government (over 250 days and counting). Belgian cash game grinders probably will have to ship there bankroll to Full Tilt but that's about it for now.

No worries, in my opinion.
We still have Rush poker.

(and if it turns out I'm totally wrong about all this it might be a good time to relocate. Life's much better in the sun...)