Israel Poker Tour
While you may not have ever considered the idea of Israeli poker before now, there are actually quite a few famous and well known players who hail from Israel and have seen a lot of success. You can find plenty of places to play the game in this country, where the pros hone their skills to make sure that they are ready to take on the world. You can also play online if you are visiting the country yourself, as you can find some of the best deals and table limits here, as well as the chance to take part in poker tournaments on a global scale without ever leaving your hotel room.
There are a few big names in Israeli poker that you ought to get acquainted with when you are looking to play the game in this country. David Levi is certainly one of them, a former paratrooper and soccer player who was born in Tel Aviv but now lives in Las Vegas to be close to all of the really major casinos in the world and the tournaments that go on inside them. He has won nearly $3 million in live poker tournaments to date, making him an incredibly successful player overall, with more than $360,000 of that won in the World Series of Poker against the world’s top professional players. He even once defeated the World Poker Tournament Champion Alan Goehring, and has won the $3100 No Limit Hold’em Event at the Bellagio.
Another notable winner poker player from Israel would be Eliahu Ilan Elezra, known more commonly as Eli Ezan or Mr Vegas, as player who also now lives in Las Vegas to be at the heart of the international poker community. He was a lieutenant in the Golani Brigade when he was injured in the leg, forcing him to start playing poker while he was unable to walk for entertainment, something which developed into a true talent and passion. He has won a World Poker Tour event in the 2004 championship, where he won over $1 million for that single event, and also holds a World Series of Poker bracelet for the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low after defeating Scotty Nguyen heads up in 2007, with his career live tournament winnings being in excess of $2 million so far.
Another Israeli player you should know the name of is Rafi Amait, born in Holon, who has played a few times in the World Series of Poker. Although his career earnings may not be as impressive as the other two, he is nevertheless often to be seen at WSOP matches, with eight money finishes to his name and two bracelets – one in 2005 for Omaha, and one in 2007 for Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball.
Now that you know a few of the really key figures of Israeli poker, you can play more confidently with the knowledge that you have concerning the country. Perhaps if you are lucky enough you might come across the chance to play against one of them!
While Israel does have legal gambling, it’s far from wide open here by any means, and in fact it’s quite restricted overall. Still though, it’s located in an area of the world, the Middle East, where there are a lot of very conservative Islamic countries which allow very little or no legal gambling, and some don’t have much gambling to speak of going on in their country, legal or otherwise, so compared to those, Israel is fairly progressive.
Israeli courts have ruled in the past that poker is a casino game and, therefore, it is prohibited to take place within the country’s borders. In this way, it is still not possible to find poker rooms across Israel, only in the Casino Cruises that operate near the port cities when in international waters. Israel Poker Tour Cup 4 is won by Israeli Amir Hillel: http://bit.ly/1N6UUwp.
The legal gambling options here include both the lottery and state-run sports betting, and it’s actually a little curious that they allow sports betting but no poker, we can imagine that casino games could be seen as more games of chance and perhaps more predatory, given that there is very little or no skill involved, and the odds are stacked against players who are destined to lose money over time regardless.
Poker on the other hand is certainly a game where skill plays a significant role, especially in the long run, as luck evens out over time and one’s results become achieved due to the amount of skill a player has at playing the game.
Sports betting is also a game of skill predominantly, and there doesn’t appear to be a good reason why this is allowed and poker isn’t, based upon principle at least, and the real reason may be that it’s just easier for the government to roll out sports betting rather than poker, although it may be the case that poker is simply viewed as a less desirable form of gambling.
The lottery is very popular here, run by a state-run company called Mifal HaPayis, which was set up in 1951 to help build a new hospital in Tel Aviv, and is still going strong today, with annual revenues of about $4 billion. (1)
The Israeli Sports Betting Council oversees the sports betting side of things, and this is rolled out through two separate offerings, Toto, the original sports betting company set up in 1968, which is now quite behind the times and only offers weekly betting, and Winner, the more modern sports book which allows fixed betting on sports on a day to day basis, like commercial sports books do. (2)
Both of these operations offer both land based and online wagering, and they are the only two companies in Israel that are specifically permitted to offer online betting. All other gambling operations, besides these two forms, are prohibited by law from being offered either at a brick and mortar location or online.
Israeli gambling law does not specifically refer to online gambling, as the section of the Israeli Penal Code that applies was written back in 1977, before online gambling even existed, but based upon the rulings of the courts here, the law is being interpreted as applying to online gambling as well.
Israel does have a total of 4 casinos though, but the gambling all occurs onboard ship outside the jurisdiction of the government of Israel, and all sail out of Eilat. The government has been considering changing the laws and building a land-based casino in Eilat as well, but this has yet to be approved. (3)
Playing Poker in Israel
Israel used to have online gambling sites that were based out of the country, in the early days of online gambling, and this was a time where it wasn’t exactly clear whether or not this was permitted under law, but almost all of these sites became shut down by the Attorney General of Israel back in 2005.
There was one site though that wasn’t shut down by the government, an online backgammon site, even though other online backgammon sites were closed. The explanation given for not shutting down Israel based backgammon site Play 65 was that the site was “the unique circumstances of the site’s activity,” although that didn’t do much to clarify things. (4)
The fact that they are open to looking the other way toward a backgammon site is at least a start, and perhaps some day the unique circumstances of some online poker sites might be seen to qualify as well. It’s more likely that an actual change in the laws here is going to be needed to one day see licensed and regulated online poker in this country.
So there’s no live poker rooms in Israel either, and the cruise ship casinos don’t offer it either, as they do offer casino poker but no forms like Texas Holdem or Omaha where players compete against one another, rather than against the house, in formats such as Caribbean Poker.
There are some home games that run here and there is at least one decently large underground poker club in Tel Aviv, but you really need to have the right contacts to even find places like this, so only those who are really motivated and don’t mind the risk of playing at illegal poker games are going to become involved. (5)
Other than that, players can play at one of the online poker sites that are located in other countries. Unlike other countries in the Middle East, poker is very popular in Israel and it’s estimated that 500,000 Israelis play the game. Given the very limited options for live poker here, almost all of this occurs online.
Online Poker in Israel?
Players from Israel are welcome at all of the major online poker sites, in spite of the fat that the Israeli government clearly prefer that they confine their online gambling to the two government run sports betting sites, and therefore that they play no poker at all online, since they don’t offer it.
Israeli authorities have tried to block online gambling and online poker websites, as governments tend to do elsewhere, and the ISPs who were ordered to do this ended up refusing, and the matter went to court. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled that the authorities do not have the authority to block these websites, so for now at least, online poker players in Israel continue to have access to their favorite online poker sites.
The Israeli government responded by discussing a bill that would provide them with this authority to block these sites, but nothing has been passed as of yet, and when it does, we’ll still have to see whether the courts allow it.
Poker is felt in Israel to be primarily a game of luck rather than skill, and this has likely played a role in their not being too fussy about allowing it, putting it in the same class as casino betting. Should this view loosen up, or their view toward gambling loosen up, we may one day see regulated online poker in Israel, although given the fact that players can play all they want anyway, so at the present time at least, it really doesn’t matter when.
For the time being, the only legitimate poker site that I would recommend playing at would most likely be PPI Poker, which accepts Israeli’s and offers 35% rakeback to ALL players. They also have the lowest deposit fees at any poker skin on the GG Network. It was founded by poker players and also run by veteran iGaming businessman.
References:
Israel Poker Tour
1. Mifal HaPayis
2. Online Sportsbooks in Israel
3. Israeli Casinos and Gambling in Israel
4. Online Gambling
5. Poker in Tel Aviv
Israel Poker Tournament
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