On October 29th, leaders of both land based and online poker rooms will gather in Budapest, Hungary at the Budapest Marriott Hotel for the beginning of the Third Annual World Poker Congress.
The World Poker Congress is one of the few gatherings that looks at similar issues between the traditional “brick and mortar (B&M)” casinos and poker rooms and their brethren that exist online. The two day conference draws top leaders in poker from around the world to discuss these topics.
The list of speakers at this year’s event demonstrates the WPC’s reach into both the live and online worlds, with several topics on the minds of many in the poker community today: the ongoing debate regarding the legality of online poker in the United States and, specifically, the initiative in California to have a state-run online establishment will be discussed by Lloyd Levine, California state assemblyman from the San Fernando Valley, and Jim Tabilio, the president of Poker Voters of America.
Marcel “The Flying Dutchman” Luske and 2007 World Series of Poker final table player John Kalmar will be the leaders of the yearly discussion of player issues that have to be addressed. Luske will be performing double duty as, along with his fellow member of the Federation Internationale de Poker Association Michelle Lau, he pushes for standardization of tournament poker rules worldwide. Former WSOP tournament director Matt Savage, who has worked as tournament director for nearly every prestigious poker tournament in the world, will discuss how to host poker tournaments as well.
The keynote speakers at the conference are Hendrik Knopp, the head of poker marketing at bwin.com, and Steven Lipscomb, the founder and CEO of the World Poker Tour. These gentlemen will discuss the future of poker from both the online and live sides. Other topics of interest during the WPC will be the growing Asian and Latin American poker scene, consolidation of online poker rooms, the usage of electronic poker tables in casinos and the ongoing debate of the “skill or chance” question of poker.
In its short three years, the World Poker Congress has been able to demonstrate that there are more similarities between the traditional poker rooms and their online counterparts and that, through conferences such as this, improve both areas to the maximum of their possibilities. For more information on the WPC, be sure to visit worldpokercongress.com to learn more.