Life and getting older, wow, everyone seems to hate it. They abhor it. They deny it. I understand. There are some serious downsides, but some wonderful upsides. Here are a few of the downs that I particularly can’t stand now that I’m a senior, but don’t really feel like one. See if you agree.

Getting called “sweetie” by the young waitress. That’s reserved for the ancient!

That means I’m officially harmless now with no semblance of sex appeal and everyone knows that.

That could ruin any man’s day. Sure, they mean well. When you look older the upside is you look more lovable, perhaps. Rough trade-off.

Another example: when an older buddy of yours says the cliché to you “ain’t it a bitch getting old?”

Okay, Captain Obvious! Just because you’ve thrown in the towel doesn’t mean I’m coming to your Big Mac party! My ego is fighting this chapter cha chi! Lay off and step away from the respirator!

And then strangers sometimes say with a suspicious smile. “You still play any tennis?”

I shoot back, “Of course, I still play tennis! How fucking old do I look?!”

At least I feel like saying that but usually, don’t. I get it. I don’t blame them. I see my deep crow’s feet, my turkey neck, but I can still move on the asphalt court, knee braces and all, I tell them.

Then, I try to engage them with some prop bet on the court to no avail! Yes, I can be pretty pathetic.

Now that I’ve shared some of my ego driven insecurities, here are some of the good things I’ve noticed about getting older.

First of all, and this should be pretty obvious, you are extremely lucky if you get to be a little older! And if you’re still relatively healthy, you’ve drawn out to a two-outer!

Second, it’s great to reminisce and tell stories of what was. Brag to the kids and friends of old landmarks that were, back in the old days, and compare to what’s there now. Also, you gain perspective. You gain a wisdom of life. Time is not such a mystery. You feel closer to the history of the world. You soften on people’s shortcomings and your own. You accept more, and appreciate more, like the last few bites of an ice cream cone.

You fear a little less about the end because you’ve seen so many people you know and love who have gone before.

You cherish life even more and definitely become wiser, if you’re lucky. It’s really all perfect.

Now just don’t call me “sweetie.”

Until next time, play loose and bluff on the river!

Canadian immigrant Daniel Negreanu referred to American President Donald Trump as “repulsive,” but heaped praise on German Fedor Holz’s poker skills in an interview on the Domenick Nati Show, which covers celebrity news topics for iHeartRadio.

Kid Poker is the second poker player to appear on the program recently. Last week, Phil Hellmuth went on the show. The Poker Brat told the host he is teaching NBA star Draymond Green how to play poker.

Afterwards, Nati expressed an interest in also interviewing Negreanu. And he got that opportunity earlier this week. As always, a conversation with the talkative PokerStars ambassador didn’t disappoint.

Negreanu Doesn’t Hold Back

If you expect Daniel Negreanu to sugarcoat his answers, you haven’t been paying attention to his career. And it appears the show’s host wasn’t too familiar with the poker legend – at least his political views – based on his third question.

“Have you ever met Donald Trump or do you have any thoughts on him? I know you’re obviously Canadian. What are your views on Donald Trump?” he asked.

Negreanu, a US citizen since 2016, has never hidden his disdain for the President. He often tweets negative comments about Trump and his supporters. A quick scan of his social media profiles would have given Nati his answer.

Negreanu showed more respect for Fedor Holz in the interview. He praised the young German sensation by admitting that when he sits down at the table, “you have to come at him with a really significant counter-strategy” to neutralize his aggression.

Nati also asked the poker star what he thinks about loudmouths at the poker table, such as Will Kassouf.

“Overall, character is good for poker,” he answered. “[Kassouf] can be annoying in large doses. In small doses he can be funny.”

About Domenick Nati Show

Domenick Nati’s show appears weekly on the iHeartRadio app. The celebrity publicist interviews celebrities and discusses hot news topics.

His list of guests include Bill Cosby, Gene Simmons, Whoopi Goldberg, and of course poker legends Hellmuth and Negreanu.

Nati has worked in radio since 2012. His show has been featured on CNN, NBC, TMZ, and CBS.

The World Poker Tour is wrapping up an additional successful year of thrilling texas hold’em events that were held at beautiful poker locations around the world. And with completion of the year coming close to rapidly, the time has definitely come for one of WPT’s most popular annual occasions– the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

The celebration has actually currently started at the host casino site as well as will run all the way through December 15. This year, its schedule consists of 30 different competitions with various structures and also a rich buy-in range.

The exhilarating celebration was opened up on November 29 with a $1,100 Seniors No-Limit Hold ’em. An additional Seniors event happened on December 4. The 5 Diamond World Poker Classic’s schedule likewise features Turbo No-Limit Hold ’em events, a Pot-Limit Omaha one, and a variety of high rollers.

Followers of high roller action will certainly have the ability to go into competitions with buy-ins of between $15,000 and also $100,000. The Bellagio $15,000 buy-in high roller is starting tomorrow, December 7. Three $25,000 buy-in events will certainly occur within the event, with those running on December 8, December 10, and also December 14. WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic festivities will certainly end with a $100,000 extremely money player that is set to happen on December 15. December 15 will additionally see completion of the Main Event, the festival’s indisputable highlight tournament.

WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event

This year’s edition of among one of the most exciting and also busiest WPT competitions will certainly run from December 11 with December 15. Fascinated players will need to pay a $10,400 buy-in charge in order to have the ability to join the prestigious Main Event. There will also be multiple satellites to the tournament over the course of the festival.

The official six-handed last table of the Main Event will be live-streamed with a 30-minute hold-up. That last of the competition will certainly happen on December 15 from noon neighborhood time.

In 2014’s version of the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic drew in a formidable area of 812 entrances. The massive interest in case led to the creation of a $7,876,400 prize swimming pool. The top 81 finishers obtained a share of the cash, min-cashes beginning with $19,691. Each of the six final tablists was guaranteed a minimum cash of $271,736.

Ryan Tosoc, a player from Chicago, Illinois, bested the area of the Centerpiece at The Bellagio. The player obtained just under $2 million for his superb run in the competition, which was and also still is his occupation’s largest in-the-money finish in a real-time event. It is to be seen whether Tosoc will certainly go back to The Bellagio and attempt to win a back-to-back Five Diamond World Poker Classic title.

Last week, the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL) announced that they had formed a partnership with a nearby Native American gaming resort.

The Snoqualmie Casino, located about 25 miles east of Seattle, will now be able to use the Seahawks logo for advertising and promotional purposes.

“We can’t imagine a better way to cap our 10th anniversary than by announcing an updated alliance between two premier Seattle brands,” said Snoqualmie Casino CEO Brian Decorah. “We have been a Seahawks sponsor and suite holder since we opened in 2008, so we are looking forward to the enhanced opportunities our newly expanded partnership will create.”

Snoqualmie is just the latest casino to partner with an NFL team. While Major League Baseball(MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL) have all signed deals with MGM Resorts, the NFL as an organization has yet to dip its feet into gambling waters.

Instead, individual NFL teams have been permitted to pursue these sponsorship deals, the first of which went to the Dallas Cowboys, who partnered with the WinStar World Casino in September. Caesars Entertainment even went ahead and linked up with the Las Vegas Raiders, which won’t officially become a team until 2020.

Here is a look at the NFL teams that have formed partnerships with casino companies so far.

Poker pro Patrik Antonius was among the celebrities invited to the 10th anniversary celebrations of Indian online poker and gaming company, Delta Corp Ltd.

Taking place on the Deltin Royale casino cruise ship in water off of Goa, the event featured a mixture of Bollywood performances and gaming action. Being India’s only listed poker and casino company, Delta Corp. invited some of the country’s top high stakes players for three days of revelry between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2.

Patrik Antonius Star Power

Topping the bill in terms of poker talent was Antonius. The long-time pro from Finland might be used to nosebleed games in Las Vegas and Macau, but he found there was no shortage of action on board the floating Indian casino.

For those in attendance, blackjack, baccarat, and local game teenpatti were on offer alongside a selection of poker tournaments. Hosted by the poker site Adda52, the games were a chance for people to see how online gaming has changed since Delta Corp launched its first games on Casino Royale back in 2008.

Online Poker in India Advances

In hosting a lavish birthday celebration, the Indian poker and gaming company has shown once again that the local industry is growing. From a fledging market in the late noughties, India is now home to a host of homegrown and international poker brands.

As well as famous faces like cricketer Chris Gayle supporting Adda52, PokerStars entered the market April. More recently, at the tail-end of November, Hippo52 and PokerHigh announced a merger.

Describing the changing state of the industry, PokerHigh founder Mithun Rebello said that mergers and acquisitions will become more common as India’s online poker market evolves.

“Having been in the game from the early days, we’ve always believed that consolidation would be a natural next step for the industry in the years to come, and we saw this as a great opportunity to further cement our position in the market,” Rebello said.

Although poker in India is far from mature, it’s on its way to fulfilling the potential insiders have talked about for the best part of a decade. With a population of 1.3 billion and the seventh largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, India has the capacity to become one of the top gaming markets in the world.

With Patrik Antonius helping to shine more light on Delta Corp’s achievements and the industry as a whole, further growth in 2019 is almost inevitable.

November was a fairly good month for casinos in Macau. Gross gaming revenue (GGR) increased by 8.5% year-on-year, reaching just under $3.10 billion. This is better than the 2.6% seen in the previous month, even though October was the best month in four years, with casinos reporting GGR of $3.39 billion. For all of 2018, GGR has risen by 13.7%.

Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen expects casino GGR to be a little more than 13% by the end of the year, with December coming in at a 7% increase to $3.0 billion. Part of the reason for any decline would be due to the fact that the month has one less Friday. Govertsen adds that GGR growth in the first quarter of next year should be around 3%, and that the combined growth for January and February will be more than 4%.

The analyst adds that GGR for all of next year will be in the “mid-single-digits.” He explains, “[It] is important to keep in mind that as VIP continues to shrink as a percentage of total GGR (now run-rating at ~45%), the traditional big holiday months like Jan/Feb and Oct will be less dramatic than in years past World Gaming Expo Monaco scheduled for next month postponed – for an entire year.”

Govertsen continues with his analysis, predicting that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau (HKZM) Bridgewon’t have an impact on GGR. He asserts, “Importantly, and despite what we believe could be robust visitation datapoints, we do not believe the bridge has had a material impact on GGR. It will take many quarters, if not years, for the bridge to begin to have a material impact on Macau’s gaming industry and we continue to believe it will most likely be in the form of a more robust MICE market. With respect to our comment about datapoints, there has been a certain dynamic in the early days of operations that seems to have led to a fair number of mainland visitors entering Macau for the sole purpose of taking the bridge in order to get to Hong Kong. Put another way, they’re in Macau for only a matter of minutes before departing yet they will be counted within the visitation statistics. Setting that aside for a moment, our on-the-ground observations still suggest continued modest growth in mass market visitation.”

Any changes in forecasts and numbers could come from the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China. However, the current ceasefire between the two countries could help ease tensions in Asia, at least in the short term.

It’s official. PokerStars has been granted permission to operate in Pennsylvania once the state’s poker sites go live, likely in 2019.

A date hasn’t yet been set for an online gambling launch in the Keystone State. Last year, lawmakers finally passed legislation to legalize internet casinos after coming close the previous couple of years.

But Pennsylvania residents are still waiting to play. Many anticipated a summer or fall launch, but the licensing process has taken longer than expected.

PokerStars in Pennsylvania

Currently, New Jersey is the only state PokerStars operates in. But the world’s largest and most popular online poker site might soon have a larger presence in the US.

And that’s good news for the online poker industry in America. However, some lawmakers in certain states have fought to keep the poker site out. That includes California, a state that won’t likely pass internet gambling legislation in the near future. Some politicians in the Golden State oppose approving a license for any poker site that operated in the US prior to Black Friday, which would eliminate PokerStars.

Pennsylvania lawmakers took a different stance. On Wednesday, the Keystone State approved a license for the online poker giant. The Stars Group, along with Mohegan Sun Pocono, were granted permission to launch gaming sites. No launch date has been set but many speculate early to mid 2019.

The new PA law requires that only land-based are eligible for iGaming licenses. But that won’t stop PokerStars because the poker site is partnering with Mount Airy Casino, which is located in Mt. Pocono.

The Stars Group also recently announced a partnership deal with Nevada-based Eldorado Resorts, which could bring the poker site to more states in the future.

Name Recognition

When PokerStars entered the struggling New Jersey online poker market in 2016, many expected it would lead to a revival. Some even felt the other poker sites in the state would take a hit given the new competition.

But that hasn’t been the case on either front. Not only is PokerStars failing to dominate the New Jersey market, the world’s largest poker site hasn’t done much, if anything, to help the state increase online poker revenue.

So, it’s tough to predict the impact PokerStars will have on Pennsylvania’s poker industry. In May, New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada agreed to a WSOP.com player pool merger hoping to spike revenue for each state. Thus far, revenues have remained stagnant.

PokerStars has not been approved for a license in Nevada, which is nearing five years of offering legal online poker in a state previously dominated by their unregulated rival.

Online poker is a difficult industry to predict.

The events of the 2018/2019 WSOP Circuitstop at the Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina have been in full swing for more than a week now.

Since November 22nd, the Harrah’s Cherokee casino has been home to the latest stop of the live poker series. A total of 13 gold ring events are included in the stop’s schedule, along with a Ladies Event and two Seniors Event, all worth $250. Some of them have already been brought to an end, with a crowned winner having emerged, and some of them are yet to begin, with the last event of the stop – the $400 NLHE Double Stack event – set to start on December 2nd with a $75,000 guarantee.

As always, the WSOP Circuit offers a great variety of events with different buy-ins and guaranteed prize pools. Undoubtedly, the Main Event is the most expected event included in the poker series’ schedule. The Main Event will kick off on November 30th with the first of its two starting flights, followed by another Day 1 on December 1st. Then, two more days will follow, on December 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Players can enter the Main Event in return to a buy-in of $1,700 to try and win a share of the massive $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Eight Events Already Over at Harrah’s Cherokee

For now, eight events of the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee stop are over, with seven gold rings having found their new owners.

The first event of the series stop in North Carolina – the $400 No-Limit Hold’em event was conquered by Elilton “Tom” Gouveia, who also grabbed the lion’s share of the $750,090 prizepool and took home a prize of $104,807. Then, another $400 NLHE event took place, with Keldon Smith emerging victorious, getting his first WSOP Circuit gold ring. Apart from that, Smith also scooped $36,403 of the event’s $169,290 prizepool.

November 26th saw another WSOP Circuit winner after Blake Whittington took down the $600 No-Limit Hold’em Big Blind Ante event and grabbed the winner’s title, a gold ring and a $46,000 cash portion of the overall prize pool of $209,090. Then, Event #4 ended on November 27th after Daniel Statman emerged victorious from a total of 539 entries. Statman won the NLHE 6-Handed event gold ring and the largest portion of the $177,870 prizepool.

One day later, the fifth event in the series ended, with Chris Trotter conquering the title and scooping a $22,256 portion of the $92,730 prizepool. Another gold ring went to James Burns who won the $400 NLHE 8-Handed event and took home a $43,260 portion.

Most recently, the $400 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack saw its winner crowned, with Martin Ryan grabbing a $70,226 first-place prize and a gold ring after emerging on top of a 1,166 player field.