Would you play a pair of Oscar Queens?

If you are one of those online poker players who will go all-in with a pair of Queens then I have good news for you – betting all your money on Dame Helen Mirren to walk away with the gold Oscar is a safe bet.

The 79th Academy Awards Ceremony will take place on February 25, 2007. This 'night of the stars' is not only an exciting time for movie fans, the paparazzi and red carpet enthusiasts, but also for online casino gamblers.

Immediately after the 2007 Academy Awards nominations were announced William Hill, one of the largest bookmakers in the UK, made Helen Mirren a 1/12 favourite to win the Best Actress award. This is the shortest odds they have ever offered at this early stage of the pre-Oscar build up.

With a Golden Globe, Bafta and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award already in her pocket for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the movie, The Queen, the odds do seem to be in her favour. This is not the first time that this British actress has played her Queen Card. She was first nominated for an Oscar as Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George and she also won an Emmy for her role as the Virgin Queen in the TV drama Elizabeth I.

Many online poker players will tell you that Lady Luck could favour anyone especially with the stiff competition in the Best Actress category from other British actresses like Dame Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and ol' time American contender, Meryl Streep. With so much Brit talent involved, Hills expects a record turnover in the betting market.

While online casino bookmakers don’t have much to loose with their winning strategy of betting on entertainment events, time will only tell if Dame Helen Mirren’s golden pair of Queens will hold or fold.

For the love of Online Poker

In my single days, I always referred to Valentines Day as: “The unimaginative, consumerist-oriented and entirely arbitrary, manipulative & shallow interpretation of romance day.” Now that I’m older, and have finally found my suited pair, I’ve come to appreciate this day a little more. Don’t get my wrong I still don’t support the marketing aspect and as one person put it on Postsecret – the fact that "Hallmark stole all the romance from this day."

What I do treasure about Valentines Day is its history. It reminds me of poker and the current challenges the online industry is facing. We shouldn’t loose hope and should take the Valentines Day story below as inspiration that online Poker will overcome all the odds and we’ll be playing it happily ever after….

St. Valentine's Story....

Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. Claudius wanted to have a big army and he expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. This made Claudius furious. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! Being a priest one of my favorite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing secret marriage ceremonies. One night, I was caught and thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.

Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love. One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirits up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, "Love from your Valentine."

I believe that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day. It was written on the day I died, February 14, 269 A.D. Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship. And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh - because they know that love can't be beaten!