Daily Rewind: Poker Rules, PokerStars on Skill Verdict, WPT News, $250K Tourney

In today's Daily Rewind we check poker's official rules, see what PokerStars think about poker being a skill game, marvel at the Royal Flush Girls thanks to WPT's charity auction and get the latest high roller news, plus Mike "Timex" McDonald's thoughts on them.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we discovered the following topics for you:

Poker gets a new rule book

The Rules of Poker

The first attempt to formerly codify and publish a universal set of rules for poker has just been released by the International Federation of Poker.

Unlike other major activities, poker has a variety of rule variations across the world.

While some of the game's most respected figures and tournament directors have worked to establish a general set of rules, nothing has yet been put into print, until now.

The Rules of Poker has been put together by David Flusfeder, Devanir Campos, Roy Houghton, Thomas Kremser and James McManus in order to address the problem.

Speaking about the book, Anthony Holden, president of the IFO, said:

"One of the key roles of any sport's governing body is to establish clear and consistent rules throughout the world."

He went on to say: "It is a sign of the growing maturity and popularity of poker that we have taken this step."

PokerStars support skill verdict

Following on from yesterday's news that a New York judge had ruled poker a game of skill, PokerStrategy.com was able to obtain an exclusive statement from PokerStars on the decision:

"The ruling in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York that poker is a game of skill and not illegal gambling under the Illegal Gambling Businesses Act (IGBA) confirms the position that PokerStars has long supported. We are gratified that this is the outcome from the first time a U.S. federal court has decided whether poker is a game of skill."

Read more on the verdict, here.

WPT tournaments and auctions

The WPT's trip to Malta is just a few weeks away and already the game's most high profile players have been perfecting their table talk.

In a tweet yesterday, Phil Hellmuth confirmed his attendance before firing a warning shot at Tony G:

Phil on form

Unsurprisingly Tony hit back with a tweet of his own a short time later:

While the Tour looks towards its next tournament in the sun on September 16th, the organisers have also been busy doing their bit for charity with the help of the Real Madrid football team.

In conjunction with Charity Buzz, the WPT out together an auction where you can bid on one of four signed Real Madrid shirts.

In addition to the shirts, you’ll also receive a signed photo of the Royal Flush Girls.

Look as good as the girls with a signed shirt

Low profits for high rollers

The largest Super High Roller event outside of the One Drop looks set to take place next week in Macau.

Although not affiliated with any poker tour, the $250,000 one rebuy event will be hosted by The Neptune Casino and Pokerace.tv.

According to Tom Hall, CEO of Asian Logic, the tournament has been approved by the Macau DICJ and already there are "26 players registered".

While this will become one of the biggest Super High Roller events in history, one player that probably won't be attending is Mike "Timex" McDonald.

In a recent series of tweets the young Canadian outlined his reservations about the rise in popularity of large buy-in events; noting that of the 199 players that have played in them since 2005, the 55 who've played three or more are down a combined total of $5 million.

Mike is reluctant to share the exact results but it seems as though the proliferation of these events is benefiting the railbirds more than the players.

"Timex" doing the math

High stakes corner

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom's downswing continued yesterday after he dropped $446,275 over the course of 2,653 hands.

The previous day saw the Swede lose over $600,000 to Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky and yesterday's loss now means he's virtually wiped out the $1 million profit he made at the end of last week.

Two of the main beneficiaries of Blom's demise were Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond and Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies.

Both walked away with over $400,000 in profit, with Galfond scooping the largest haul with $444,977.

Daily Signoff

With the Royal Flush girls expertly modelling the Real Madrid shirts, we thought we'd finish today with them wearing something a little more revealing.