Microgaming Releases ‘Alaxe In Zombieland’, ‘Jekyll And Hyde’, And ‘Steam Punk Heroes’

Online wagering software developer Microgaming has announced the release of three new Flash based games in ‘Alaxe In Zombieland’, ‘Jekyll And Hyde’, And ‘Steam Punk Heroes’.

Alaxe In Zombieland plays on the popular fairy tale “Alice In Wonderland” and features zombies mixed in with characters such as the Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter. Alaxe tries to get back through the looking glass, searching for big wins.

The game is a 25 payline, 5 reel slot that features free spins, multipliers, scatters, and various bonus rounds and features such as “The Red Queen’s Adventure”.

Footage of the game is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOaEaiGQGk4.

Jekyll And Hyde is a 5 reel 243 way to win video slot that features scatter symbols, and a theme based on the classic story. Triggering the feature mode takes players to a second screen where players can earn big cash prizes.

A game preview of Jekyll and Hyde is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lISFTpfWmMk&feature=relmfu .

Steam Punk Heroes is a 25 payline, 5 reel slot that features characters reminiscent of the H.G. Wells era. The inventions in the game deliver big prizes to punters.

A video preview of Steam Punk Heroes is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-geoRPGWIY .

Two Casino Operators Secure Belgian Licenses

Online casino operators Golden Palace and Win2Day have been granted internet casino licenses by the Belgian government.

Golden Palace’s website in Belgium apparently has no relationship with GoldenPalace.com, as the site is blacklisted by the Belgian Government. The company’s new license covers land based operations in addition to its online business.

Win2Day has been primarily involved with poker in Australia and will be competing with fellow poker sites Casino777, Partouche, and Party Poker.

The two new white listed operators contrast to the twenty new operators that were blocked by the Belgian government. Some of the brands now banned in the European country include Everest, 888, Winamax, and Chilipoker.

Feeling Flush

I’ve caught WSOP bracelet holder and WPT winner James Dempsey at a bad time. Stood in the middle of an  no named train station, he asks me to hold on while he hurriedly buys a ticket back home. ‘The life of a poker player is all glamour,’ he jokes as he umms and ahhs over his ticket selection.

Every few seconds his south coast accent breaks the silence to politely ask me to ‘wait a second… be right with you… almost done’. It’s not your average start to an interview, but then Dempsey is not your average poker pro.

The Brighton legend has been at the heart of the UK’s poker scene since before there was a UK poker scene. He may have burst into the spotlight in recent years thanks to a WSOP and WPT titles, but he has been working hard for ten years to become an overnight success. And as he catches his breath on a quiet train carriage, he explains just how different poker is now from his early days grinding play money tournaments for fun.

‘The style of the poker has changed dramatically and the size of the game is just so much bigger,’ he says. ‘Just look at how many big tournaments there are these days and how many people play them. If you had a 10k with a 15 minute clock it was amazing, now it’s a crapshoot.’

Dempsey’s ten-year love affair with poker has been a mixed bag to say the least. After years of grinding he suddenly found himself a WSOP bracelet winner with a Full Tilt sponsorship deal. And then Black Friday happened.

‘I had a pretty good deal with Full Tilt, and probably as much security as you can get as a poker player. It was something I expected to be so safe. But then it collapsed and I didn’t really believe it. I kept thinking things would blow over. I was gutted. Just when you think you’ve got something sorted, poker comes along and does something else.’

Diamond geezer

After the highs of 2010, with a bracelet win and Full Tilt sponsorship deal, last year was beginning to look a bit of a nightmare. Patch-less and with only a few cashes to his credit, Dempsey had all but written off 2011.

‘My game had been lacking since my bracelet win in 2010,’ he admits. ‘I came second in another WSOP event straight afterwards, but since then I didn’t really have anything going. I felt I wasn’t playing that great. I was always confident I’d get back to the top, but I was maybe trying to force it too much.’

Enter Chris Moorman and an unlikely Vegas trip. Moorman, in Sin City for last December’s Epic Poker League event, called on Dempsey to deliver some grinding money to him. The rest, as they say, is history. ‘I’d always planned on going out to Vegas at some point after the World Series, I always do. Usually, I go in November and come home when the games dry up, but Chris wanted me to meet him so I tried my luck at the WPT Five Diamond Classic. If he hadn’t needed some money sorted, I wouldn’t have been there.’

Dempsey made his delivery and signed up for the $10k major in December. In one week, he joined the likes of Jake Cody and Sam Trickett among 2011’s biggest winners, pocketing $821k after triumphing over big names Vanessa Selbst and Antonio Esfandiari on the toughest WPT final table in recent memory. Throughout it all, the UK’s finest were there to cheer him home.

‘Myself and Tom Middleton went together, Sam Trickett just rocked up out there a few days before and Chris Moorman flew over early to rail the final,’ he says. ‘It was a pretty hilarious night out. In fact the WPT trophy
was brought to a club at one point and dropped. There’s a bit that’s chipped off. I can get it fixed but I think it adds a bit more character really – it’s a war wound.’

Mine’s a water

The aftermath of his WPT win was a mish-mash of boozing and ‘hijinks’ in some of Vegas’ most exclusive clubs, but like most things with The Doctor, it wasn’t your usual night out. A self-imposed hiatus from the bottle meant Dempsey was the sole ‘non-drinker’ celebrating his success.

‘It’s too easy to get carried away with all the partying, especially with all the young lads around today. They love getting on it. But I’ve been doing that for quite a while now, and quitting wasn’t the worst idea. It’s definitely something I would advise others to give a go.’

Jokingly, I ask how he’s managed to stay friends with so many of the game’s youngsters when he’s always clean and sober. ‘I dunno,’ he blurts. ‘I’m just someone people get on with. I think a lot of players are similar nowadays, and that’s why I’m enjoying it so much. I’ve been around for years, so I’ve got to know a lot of people.’

It’s a typically modest response. As one of the ‘elder statesmen’ of the British game, Dempsey’s had plenty of time to build such friendships. But it wasn’t always chipped trophies and nights out. Dempsey came into poker after watching Late Night Poker back in ‘2001 or 2002’ and was already hooked before the Moneymaker effect changed things forever. ‘When I started I was absolutely diabolical, but luckily so was everyone else,’ he adds. ‘I guess timing is everything.’

‘When I first started playing, I was just playing. I can’t think of a point where it became a motivation and I decided this is what I’m going to do. Luckily, every year has been better than the previous, which is pretty rare. Even if I did cut it a little late last year!’

Dempsey’s career has always been a gradual build. He never took shots or went outside of bankroll. ‘I’m more complete in terms of my playing style and understanding of different types of players than others,’ he says. ‘A lot of people don’t get that. They haven’t been bad players because they learnt so quickly. But because I was so bad for so long I understand how amateurs think.’

Fingers crossed

The overwhelming feeling you get when chatting with Dempsey is that he’s a nice guy who has ended up a lynchpin of the UK scene. He’s famous for his staking (see boxout), but less so for his abilities at the table. While Cody and Trickett were snapping up all of poker’s honours last year, Dempsey was getting it quietly on the live cash scene, and were it not for Moorman’s intervention, he’d still be there. T

here’s an unfussy consistency to his game. And as the phone line struggles to cope with a network of tunnels, I ask whether having to watch the plaudits be lauded on others, while his WSOP win almost faded into history, got to him.

‘Oh no, it was great,’ he says sincerely. ‘Obviously there’s a part of you that is jealous when somebody has a score, that’s just natural. If you weren’t then you’re not going to do very well in the game. But any time a close friend wins, it makes it all seem a lot more realistic. You get the feeling that you could do it again.

‘As long as I’m happy in how I’m playing then that’s all that really matters. It’s great being back. I’ve never been one to travel where all you can do is play poker, like Deauville in the middle of January. But I’ve got the bug again so I’m putting myself through it.’

A major reason for Dempsey’s new-found hunger is the company he keeps. While the Brits have been on top for a few years now, people often overlook the effect having a solid group of friends can have on your win-rate. According to Dempsey, there’s never been a better time to be a UK poker player.

‘The group is fantastic now and ever-growing,’ he beams. ‘Every time I meet someone new they just seem to be really good at the game. I hope it continues. The more the merrier. It makes going away so much more fun. When I first started playing around Europe, there was no one really there, especially in my age group. But now you can have fun at every tournament. When I first popped up it was so much the opposite. Poker was so much newer, and I definitely notice it.’

Taking the Michael

One by-product of such a tight-knit group of UK pros is the constant banter and mickey-taking. And Dempsey can clearly hold his own. When asked whether he uses his new-found WPT fame to wind up Moorman, who, try as he might, can’t seem to book a major live win, he laughs once more. ‘We never stop winding the Moorman up about his second places.’

And that’s James Dempsey in a nutshell. One minute he’s the all-seeing, all-knowing man from Brighton who’s been there since the beginning of the poker boom. The next he’s The Doctor, ready to put down his fellow pros with a one-liner. Throughout our interview he’s never once expressed any regrets. Whether it’s the loss of his sponsorship deal or money lost staking losing players, he’s never wished his career could have taken a different path.

As the phone line begins to crackle, Dempsey gets ready to tell me one final anecdote. But I can’t make it out. Instead a tunnel brings our conversation to an abrupt halt and the last thing I hear is the sound of Dempsey laughing his head off at the memory. It’s not a bad life.

For more poker news, strategies and competitions, subscribe to Poker Player magazine.

Poker Player magazine.Click here and get 3 issues for just £1!”>Click here and get 3 issues for just £1!

• EMAIL TO A FRIEND
• PRINT THIS

Stamkos versus Ovechkin Battle for Supremacy on NHL Hockey Betting Lines

Two of the greatest players in the game right now face off this Monday in an important NHL hockey betting game as the Washington Capitals travel to face their Southeast Division rivals in the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Alex Ovechkin has been widely criticized this season. After a disastrously slow start to the season, many blamed him as the main reason for Bruce Boudreau’s firing. He has picked things up as of late, scoring a goal per game on average, and actually may be a 40-goal scorer. This, somehow, is still likely to be a disappointment.

Steven Stamkos, who reached the 50-goal plateau for the second time in his young career last week, is already approaching 60. The only other player to do that this century is – you guessed it – Ovechkin, when he scored 65 in 2007-08.

The Capitals are desperately trying to make the playoffs and if they do, it will likely be as either the third-seed as Southeast champs, or the eighth-seed. Either way, they will be threatening.

However, based on their current position in the standings, Washington has 35/1 betting odds to win the Stanley Cup on the NHL betting futures list. Bet on the NHL now. Continue..