The Luck of the Irish. Think Leprechauns and rainbows and four leaf clovers and, best of all, pots of gold. I think it is that last one that is in the minds of gamblers when they think of Luck of the Irish: a nice big pot of gold. Or at least a metaphorical pot of gold. I doubt that online casinos and brick and mortar casinos are handing out cast iron cauldrons with a bunch of gold coins in them.

Naturally considering that the phrase is ‘Luck of the Irish,’ most seem to think that the Irish are the luckiest when it comes to casino games and sports betting. They just have some lucky thing in their genes.

Well, let me tell you, as someone who is half Irish in her heritage, I can say personally that the Luck of the Irish is iffy at best and not there most of the time. But do not take my word for it.

Ladbrokes, in well known bookmaker, actually made a study, a survey if you will, of Irish sports betters as compared to British sports betters, and the results just might surprise you.

The study surveyed 56,246 punters. ‘Punter,’ for our non-British readers, is a British term for a person who gambles. More specifically a gambling person who places their wagers against the bookmaker. Of those punters, 5,902 British punters won more than 40% of the time they made wagers. Now compare that to the 3,471 Irish punters who won more than 40% of the time. So it would appear that the Brits will win more often.

But do not throw your lot in with the British and the dispelling of the popular gambling myth just yet. The British only win more often. We have not yet talked about the amount of money won. Overall the Irish win an average of £40.16 more than the British. The puts the Irish as winning 167% more than what the average British punter wins.

So on one hand we have the British who win more often, but on the other hand we have the Irish who win more money than the British. David Williams of Ladbrokes said, “The results of the survey are staggering and have exposed as a myth one of the most widely- accepted sayings in betting history.” Personally, I think he just does not like the Irish too much. After all if the survey is correct Ladbrokes would be paying on average 167% more to their Irish punters than to their British punters despite the British winning more often. And if you were the bookmaker you would be rooting for the group that you pay less money to.

From my stand point I think the myth of the Luck of the Irish is a fun thing to think about it. Neither group really pulled ahead of the other. The British may win more often, but the Irish win more money. So take your pick of which side you want to go with. It is obvious that Williams is rooting for the Brits.

Check out the Big Winners at Popular European Online Casino, Europa

It’s always good news to hear about big winners at the online casinos. The only thing better is actually being the big winner! I personally have never won a huge jackpot, but have been working in the gaming industry long enough to know that it happens all the time. I raise my hands and bear witness! Give thanks to the Jackpot Gods!

Seriously, just check the Recent Winners Pages at any of the best USA online casinos or best euro casinos, and you will find multiple daily wins in the thousands-of-dollars. In my book, I like to call these big wins. And yet there is another class of winner’s which I like to call jackpot wins – you know the one’s in the hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars spawned from wide-area internet progressive jackpots.

As a matter of fact, one such jackpot win went down less than two months ago at OCS reviewed Europa Casino – one of the top rated euro casinos here at OCS. Worth over half-a-million dollars ($526,713 to be exact), this was certainly a life-changing win for Jocelyn Sirois, who hails from Canada. Not long after the jackpot was verified (hit on the Beach Life progressive video slot), Jocelyn said she would be leaving her job and taking an extended vacation in Arizona to play some world-class golf. Hey, whatever floats your boat – that’s what I say. The lucky lady also said she would be trying to “reinvest” some of the money back at Europa. Sounds great to me – just don’t gamble it all away Jocelyn!

Jackpot wins like this actually happen more than you might think. The number of millionaire’s made from the online gambling industry is in the double-digits, with some online casinos now guaranteeing million dollar slots tournament prizes. Some of the most popular progressive jackpot video slots, like Microgaming’s Mega Moolah, actually have reset jackpot values of $1 million. In fact, Mega Moolah paid out nearly $9 million in 2009 from just three hits (to three winners).

In the case of Europa, their progressive jackpot network is powered by Playtech Software. Beach Life is actually one of Playtech’s most loaded and generous slots. In 2009, it came close to the tally produced by the aforementioned Mega Moolah, paying out $8.2 million from three hits (an average of $2.7 million per hit). And then there are other progressive jackpots like SafeCracker, which despite having a lower average hit amount ($60,000), paid out $10.2 million from 174 hits. In other words, SafeCracker spreads the wealth more.

While all of these big jackpot wins can theoretically be hit at any online casino tied into their respective progressive jackpot network, Casino Europa certainly has its fair share of winners. Just take a look at the Europa Recent Winners chart above. There have been more big winners since the $523,000 jackpot mentioned in this post (including two worth over $40K already this month), but as shown in the Winner’s chart, there have been at least six multi-thousand winners every month at Europa. Makes sense when you consider Europa’s overall payout percentage for December 2010 was 96.54%. Read the OCS Europa Casino Review for more information.

Do you remember a couple of days ago or so when I wrote about online gambling funnies and talked about that online casino in New Zealand—the one let a banned player play and then refused to pay him when he won a jackpot? You do? Good. The last I had heard was that the gentleman in question was still fighting it out with the casino. Well this morning I can finally say what happened to the gentleman.

First let’s meet the guy now that more information is being released. The gentleman in question is Sothea Sim of New Zealand. Sim had himself voluntarily banned from Sky City Casino all the way back in 2004. He cited his concern about the amount of money he was gambling as his reason for wanting to be banned. And I have to applaud Sim. It takes a lot of backbone to admit that you could have a problem and to take the steps on your own to keep yourself out of trouble—that takes a lot of discipline. So six years later Sim creates an account at Sky City Casino. Whether he thought the ban would have expired or whether he forgot that he had himself banned has not been stated, but the point is that Sky City let a banned player create a real money account and gamble for real money.

Somehow I do not think Sky City would have had a problem with Sim gambling online at their casino had he continued to put money into their virtual hands. But, no, Sim had to go a win a $60,000 jackpot with a straight flush in Caribbean Stud Poker last August. “Honestly I was jumping with joy, could not believe my luck…Everyone surrounded me, patted me on the back and stuff,” Sim said about when he won the $60,000 jackpot.

It was then that Sky City remembered that Sim had asked to be banned and they refused to pay him. I am not surprised, no one wants to give up money if they can get out of it—it is not just an online casino thing, it is the common denominator with just about any business. No one wants to let go of their money if a way around paying a customer can be found. And because of Sim’s ban request, Sky City feels that this is a perfectly good reason not to pay the man.

Now Sim describes “The day I won…was the best day of my life and it turned out to be the worst day of my life…I am pretty gutted about everything.”

Naturally Sim feels that this is not a good reason considering that his self-requested ban was six years ago, and began talks with the gambling inspectors in New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs. At first the gambling inspectors were in agreeance with Sky City that Sim’s ban should be upheld. But they then had a change of heart it seems; now the Department of Internal Affairs is on Sim’s side saying that the ban should have expired.

On their own side of hanging on to $60,000, Sky city of course disagreed with the Department of Internal Affairs. They believed that the grounds and conditions pertaining to a ban and a ban’s expiration differed from the opinions of the Department of Internal Affairs; in short, Sky City did not believe that Sim had met reentry requirements to end his ban. But what I want to know is if that was the case—if they felt that he had not met the requirements—then why was he allowed to create a player account and gamble with real money? Seems rather convenient to me—he was allowed to play with real money and it only became a problem when they had to pay him.

Sim’s next step was to seek legal help to get Sky City to pay him his $60,000 jackpot. And finally Sky City is giving up the fight, saying that they have no desire to go to court over the issue. So finally, five months after winning the jackpot, Sim is going to receive his $60,000.

Normally I would not give too much thought to the world of brick and mortar casinos and their happenings. But every now and then brick and mortar happenings pop up on my radar, and I feel compelled to say something one them.

CardPlayer’s Player of the Year is one such blip on my gambling radar. Typically CardPlayer will name their Player of the Year based on a variety of things, in addition to points players in the point race earn through playing throughout the year. Those other things where a player places in a tournament and at the final table; the buy-in amount they make for a tournament; as well as the number of players they are up against in a tournament.

But this year’s CardPlayer of the Year is no ordinary poker player. Thomas Marchese started out as an online poker player, playing in online poker tournaments. This year saw Marchese make the leap from anonymous online poker play to face to face tournament play. And what a year it has been for him indeed.

At the £5k North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Deep Stack Extravaganza Marchese took home $827,648. And then he snagged a fourth place finish in the €25k NL High Roller Event. That fourth place finish brought him $350,125. In fact the only months out of the last twelve that Marchese did not take home any cash was in May, July and December. Not too shabby. There are probably a lot of professional poker players out there that would love to have a year like Marchese.

When the time came to add up Marchese’s total payouts for the 2010 year it was discovered that he had a total of $2,115,160 in payouts. And this is from the sixteen poker tournaments that Marchese played in this year. He amassed another $479,854 from the online poker tournaments he played in this year. And while the $479,854 does not seem like a lot when compared to the more than $2 million Marchese won in live tournaments, it is a lot of winnings from online poker tournaments as such tournaments do not offer up as much.

In talking about his year and his transition, Marchese is quite pleased and he does not feel he is at a disadvantage: “It has been good for me. In previous years I have had issues with patience and things like that. I finally ironed it out and I have a more consistent and patient game. For me, since I come from cash games online and then going to tournaments where there is a lot of deep stack play I have an advantage over online tournament players, who are used to much shorter stacks. I feel like I have a good skill set for live and it has worked out so far.”

And chances are high that this year’s CardPlayer Player of the Year will continue to do well in live tournament player. What I find so extraordinary is that Marchese was not only able to make the jump from online poker tournaments to live poker tournaments, but that he was so successful with it. Many online poker tournament players try to make the jump from online to live, and while they eventually make some success with it, it takes them longer than a year mostly because of the difference in stacks—online tournaments, like Marchese said, have smaller chip stacks to play with, especially when compared to the chip stacks in live poker tournament play.

We here at OCS send our congratulations to Mr. Thomas Marchese and wish him many more successful years of poker tournament play, be it in online poker tournaments or in live poker tournaments

“It is like the most beautiful day of my life.”

So says Jonathan Duhamel, the twenty three year old Canadian who won the 2010 WSOP Main Event. And he was even against the current holder of the WSOP $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship bracelet Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. Mizrachi also holds two World Poker Tour titles and twenty three WSOP cashes.

Quite the competition Duhamel was up against when you compare it to his two WSOP money cashes and one European Poker Tour. It is like the David and Goliath of poker.

Back in the beginning of July, our young Canadian poker hero started out as just another poker player in the sea of 7,319 poker players. All with such a small record on his back! Nobody really give this kid much thought over the last few months. After all he began as only one in 7,319.

But the closer the Main Event got the more Duhamel began to shine until he became one of the November Nine. But he was not just any member of this year’s November Nine. He came in holding thirty percent of the chips in play.

For those of you who do not know, thirty percent of the chips at this point is more than five of the other players’ chips added together. That is a good number of chips.

Holding thirty percent of the chips in the November Nine made Duhamel a favorite, rising from the obscurity he sat in at the beginning of the WSOP. The chips then went up and down a few times before it came down to Duhamel and John Racener. But Duhamel was still the favorite simply because he held 86% of the chips on the table at that point: 188,950,000 chips versus Racener’s 30,750,000 chips. Forty three hands later Duhamel was the victor.

So now Duhamel has a place in poker history as the first Canadian to win the Main Event of the WSOP. He comes away from the tournaments with $8,944,138 and the diamond encrusted WSOP gold bracelet. Not bad for only being twenty three.

When I was twenty three I was still working on a college degree and working full-time. Duhamel definitely has the more exciting story. Not that I have anything against college mind you. But if you were going to listen to two twenty three year olds tell their life stories up to that point which sounds more interesting: the twenty three year old that is balancing a full-time job and college classes or the twenty three year old that not only won the WSOP but who also made poker history as the first Canadian to do so? No contest, I know.

As for the rest of this year’s November Nine, none of them went home empty handed. Each one of them took home something for making it that far in the WSOP. Here is the breakdown of who won what:

1st place: Jonathan Duhamel, $8,944,138
2nd place: John Racener, $5,545,855
3rd place: Joseph Cheong, $4,130,049
4th place: Filippo Candio, $3,092,545
5th place: Michael Mizrachi, $2,332,992
6th place: John Dolan, $1,772,969
7th place: Jason Senti, $1,356,720
8th place: Matt Jarvis, $1,045,743
9th place: Soi Nguyen, $811,823

OCS extends its congratulations to Mr. Duhamel, who says that winning the WSOP “Is a dream come true right now.” Right now? Sounds like the Duhamel does not intend to exit the poker scene. And nor would I if I were him. At twenty three he has a long, long time left in his poker tournament playing days.

Visit Go Casino to become the next big winner!

Go Casino, Go Casino, Go Casino, Go! In case you couldn’t tell, 1) that was my rendition of being a cheerleader; and 2) I am all giggles for Go Casino. So why all the praises and cheers? Well, how does a $990,529.74 jackpot sound? And no, I don’t just mean the jackpot by itself – I mean a jackpot winner, ie., someone who gets to spend all that money.

Technically, I don’t think you can say this was a millionaire’s jackpot, but come on – I don’t think another $10,000 is going to keep the lucky winner (Catherin M. from California) from retiring, paying off her mortgage, buying a new house on top of that, a new car or two or three, taking a vacation around the world and putting her kids, grandkids and great grandkids through college. Well, maybe not the college part. Did ya hear? Tuition is reeeedonculous these days!

When asked what she plans to do with the money, Catherine M. said she would be buying a house for herself and her mother, who is getting on in years. Catherine also happened to mention that she is a bookkeeper by trade, but is currently out of work. Out of work and gambling online? Now that’s the American Spirit!

Anyhow, so yes, Go Casino just churned out a millionaire and turned an out-of-work American into an out-of-work American with a whole lot of money. Obviously, this was a progressive slot jackpot that paid out such a large sum. Specifically (and fittingly) it was the “Red, White and Win” slot machine that dished out the precise combination of symbols at the exact nanosecond Catherina M. clicked the Spin button with her mouse (all on a $7.50 bet, mind you). FYI, the other progressive jackpot slots offered at Go Casino are Mega Money Mine, Pay Dirt, Treasure Trail and Win Place or Show.

For anybody who is unfamiliar with Go Casino, they are one of a handful of well known online casinos who accept wagers from U.S. players (apparently). Being powered by a lesser known, albeit highly respectable software platform – Vegas Technology – one might be inclined to wonder where all this money came from. Well, that’s where the benefits of doing business in the US come to play. With an increasing number of larger software developers dropping out of the US market, that means there is more money being funneled into the few remaining online casinos smart enough to keep doing business in the States.

And Go Casino certainly deserves the business. With a proven track record paying out U.S. players, Go Casino knows how to get things done. Furthermore, unlike some operators preying upon the desperation that many U.S. residents have just in finding a place to successfully process real money deposits, Go Casino takes the opposite stance and willingly goes one step further to ensure player trust.

They do this by submitting to a monthly audit carried out by the highly respect, third-party Certified Fair Gambling (CFG). By reviewing actual deposits with paid out winnings made to players, CFG is able to determine the payout percentage on all of Go Casino’s games. Visit the Go Casino Homepage and click on the CFG logo at the bottom of the screen to see for yourself. If you’re too lazy to do that (sheeeesh people!), take it from me….errr… from me, from CFG. September 2010’s payout for Slots was 93.45%, for Blackjack 97.58%, for Video Poker 96.84%, for Table Games 96.2% and for all games averaged across the entire platform the payout percentage was 95%.

Needless to say, that there’s some damn good payout. As for Catherine M’s big win, since this was a progressive jackpot across a wide area network of multiple online casinos, Go Casino can’t use these numbers to figure October’s payout. However, since I am a betting man, I’m betting they will be just as good if not better, than September. Oh and one more thing – if you are actually thinking about signing up at Go Casino, they also are guaranteeing over $410,000 in tournament winnings this month. And that’s the norm. Like I said, Go Casino is a very popular place.