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GBP 790 MILLION TAKEOVER APPROACH AT EMPIRE ONLINE
Published: 2005-09-19
 Newly listed online gambling company is a tempting dish....
Hot news this week was an announcement that Empire Online, which in June became the first internet poker operator to float in London, had received a 270p-a-share offer valuing it at GBP 790 million.
The company, formed in 1997 by Israeli entrepreneur Noam Lanir, said talks about the cash and share offer were at an “extremely early stage” but it had been forced to make the announcement because of a sharp rise in the share price. The initial announcement did not disclose where the approach had originated, but later in the week Sportingbet confirmed that it was the suitor, and there was unconfirmed speculation that arch rival and poker market leader Party Gaming might also be interested. The Sportingbet interest is rooted in its Paradise Poker property.
A company spokesman said: "Empire Online notes the recent movement in its share price and announces that it has received an approach from a party interested in merging its business with that of Empire Online via the acquisition of the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the Company."
The shares, which first traded at 175p had risen to 228p by the middle of August with the whole sector fuelled by market enthusiasm for internet gambling stocks.The Empire Online stock jumped another 12 percent by the close of trading on Thursday.
In early trading today (Friday) they rose again to 270p.
Empire also announced that it has appointed Andrew Burns as chief financial officer in place of Yossi Pereg, CFO since 1999 who is stepping down for personal reasons. Pereg will resign from his position as CFO and COO and from the board of directors with immediate effect but remain as a consultant to the company and will conduct a thorough handover process.
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Exploit an opponent's tell
Published: 2005-09-11
 Given one ''TV table'' for ESPN at the 2005 World Series of Poker, who would you choose to play on that table: Table A with Mike ''The Mouth'' Matusow and nine unknown amateurs, or Table B with Hall-of-Famers Phil Ivey and John Juanda, alongside great players Can Hua and Farzad ''Freddy'' Bonyadi? Not surprisingly, ESPN chose The Mouth and the nine amateurs.
Poker is about entertainment these days, and whether or not Matusow ever reaches the Hall of Fame, he is certainly entertaining to watch. You never know whether he will laugh or break down and cry, needle someone else, do the now famous ''Matusow blow up'' (giving away all of his chips in one fell swoop after days of great play), or get in a verbal fight with another player, resulting in a 10-minute penalty for him and the other player.
Despite Mike's eccentricities, let's not forget his good heart. Not to mention that he was the only great player to make the final table, finishing ninth in a field of 5,600 players.
And although Table B would have shown much more advanced poker play, that doesn't guarantee it would have been exciting to watch on television. Much like professional wrestling, excitement and personality are appealing elements in poker.
During his 2005 WSOP run, Matusow noticed a key tell on a fairly new brick-and-mortar player named Dustin Woolf. Although Woolf is relatively new to the brick-and-mortar game, he is a legend in the Internet poker world. Ironically, Woolf's name at UltimateBet.com is ''Neverwin,'' but believe me when I tell you that Neverwin has won millions of dollars playing online poker.
Still, the difference between playing online poker and playing brick-and-mortar poker, face to face, is like night and day.
One key difference is that you do not have to disguise yourself online and worry about tells. After all, when you are in your den, it's just you and your computer with no one to look you in the eye when you're attempting a bluff. Thus, when Woolf had a strong hand in a real poker room he always threw his chips into the pot in a splashing sort of way. Imagine a stack of chips falling over when an opponent flings them into the pot.
But when Woolf had a weak hand, he always said ''I raise,'' and then carefully placed the chips into the pot.
Matusow picked up on this tell and was ready to take advantage when the time was right.
Later, one player called the $10,000 bet, Matusow called with Qh-Jh, and then Woolf raised it up, making a big raise of about $80,000. Woolf said ''I raise,'' and then carefully set the chips down into the pot.
So Matusow picked up on this weak tell and thought he could take advantage of it. But rather than re-raise right immediately and win the $100,000-plus pot, Matusow thought, ''Let me call this and then wait for him to bluff on the flop as well.'' The flop was a good one for Matusow, giving him and open-ended straight draw with a board of K-10-4. Now Woolf bet out $250,000, saying, ''I bet,'' and setting the chips into the pot carefully. Matusow, though, decided to let Woolf bluff one more time (on the next round of betting) and just called the bet. With a six on the turn, Woolf checked, and now Matusow said, ''I'm all-in.'' Woolf folded his hand lightning fast, and Matusow put the extra $330,000 into his stack.
Let's see, that's $330,000 for Matusow simply because he had a strong tell on Woolf, and had the skill and panache to take full advantage of that tell. Maybe Matusow was a good choice for the TV table after all.
I, for one, look forward to seeing that hand again on ESPN soon. (You can see all of the action next month during ESPN's coverage.)
Phil Hellmuth is a nine-time World Series of Poker champion and the author of Play Poker like the Pros and Bad Beats and Lucky Draws (both published by HarperCollins). His column appears Sundays in Tropical Life.
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