Live games seem off limits in Portugal until at least May. Also, there is not much going on around the Luxembourg area either and traveling to anywhere where cards are in the air still seems a little bit far-fetched for now. Sticking to online games looks like the legit option and I am preparing a series of work sessions about satellites for the coming weeks.

If you hav a routine of playing online on Winamax and you have not been able to play since yesterday morning, you should read what follows before tilting further.

As a matter of fact, it has been impossible to connect to the French online Poker market leader servers since roughly yesterday 10:30am. The reason is somehow unusual as some key Orange telecommunications installations have been vandalised bringing down a huge part of the South Paris area Internet network including two French departments. The damage happens to be so severe that the Internet provider initially announced that it would take them until Saturday afternoon to bring back online thousands of clients including private individuals and many companies among which Winamax with its servers that happen to be physically located in that area. By now, there are maybe hopes to get everybody back online for Thursday night as Poker News France reported but it seems the situation is already improving today.

Every online Poker traffic analyist site is going nuts these weeks! Spring has been amazing this year ... not necessarily the weather although it has been very nice here in Luxembourg over the duration of my already +six-week self-isolation (6 weeeeeeks?! - OMG!!).

As a non-stop traveling Poker player, photo reporter and film maker, this has been an experience I had not tested for 10-15 years. I cannot really tell but it has been longer than I can spontaneously remember since I stayed for so long in the same spot and I am not even mentioning the fact of staying in the same house. As a homeless rounder, the movement restrictions brought a lot of interrogations about myself. Not only was I (and I still am very much) worried about the future of my projects in the film and photo industry, I also had to face the prospect of not being able to go back to the live Poker tables ... potentially for months ...

So it's official now! There will be no Poker party in the Nevada desert this summer. The mother of all Poker festivals has folded yesterday. Officially, it is postponed to fall or winter 2020, talks and rumors about an online edition of the 51st annual World Series of Poker are being mentioned here and there but many believe that we are more probably heading towards a plain and simple cancellation of the world championship of our favorite game.

I am stuck in Metz after the Beer Fest :) I guess I needed some rest after this crazy weekend of beer tasting, partying and shooting photos. Apart from randomly resting after a tough mission, there are actually good reasons for me to be stuck here :p

My Metz Beer Fest hosts are some of my all-time best buddies that I used to spend a lot of time with during my studies here so it's a pleasure to meet all those people again over these last days. What is more, I was on the go with Ady last night who had a screening and a Q&A for our film project, SAWAH. We have published photos and info in his blog today. You'll also find a link to all the photos in the photo section.

Who said that no administration is getting anything done over the summer months? :) It might have taken them since spring to come over and check the servers of the Belgian Poker app developer Days of Poker but the Belgian Gambling Commission finally dropped by and everybody is now waiting for final validations to come.

In the meanwhile, we have been fine tuning the app's features and I have been working on additional translations as the real money feature will be available in numerous countries.

Find details and the app of course under daysofpoker.com.

That's it, folks! Summer is gone. At least in the BeNeLux area :p

I skipped the Cash Game Weekend Tbilisi in late August after the Spa's Poker Festje as I have been working on some film and photo projects throughout the summer. I am also looking forward to setting a foot in the cinema business this fall. More updates will follow up soon I guess.

More news will also follow regarding the next Cash Game Weekend set to be back in Batumi in late September.

From a Poker point of view, I am still on the low profile side of the Poker media action with a few shootings here and there but I keep playing myself quite a bit. Still cash games. Still PLO! Online, I have not been achieving much ...

L’intelligence artificielle a le vent en poupe ces dernières années et on ne peut plus vraiment parler de ‘gadget technologique’ ou de science-fiction lorsqu’on aborde le sujet. De nombreux projets scientifiques les uns plus surprenants que les autres nous laissent entrevoir un avenir automatisé avec d’innombrables applications en vertu de la facilitation de notre quotidien et, même si le chemin à parcourir reste a priori encore long, chaque année apporte son lot d’avancées fascinantes faisant l’actualité de ces nouvelles machines intelligentes.

L’intelligence artificielle fait déjà partie de notre quotidien que nous le voulions ou non et, plus inquiétant, que nous le sachions ou non. Il y a évidemment les fameux assistants personnels comme Alexa et Siri. Ils mettent à jour nos agendas, répondent à nos questions, règlent nos réveils ou gèrent nos achats en ligne. Les robots sont également en train de faire main basse sur le monde automobile et les projets d’intelligence artificielle comme ceux de Tesla, par exemple, élèvent désormais le fantasme futuriste de la voiture autonome en projet réaliste à court ou moyen terme.

Et le Poker? Il faut se rendre à l’évidence! Si les robots savent gérer les stocks de sites de production industrielle entiers, le flux de passagers des plus grands aéroports de la planète, conduire des voitures dans un trafic dense ou piloter des navettes spatiales se déplaçant à plusieurs dizaines de milliers de km/h, il y a de fortes chances qu’ils sachent aussi check-raise sur board wet ou set mine hors position dans un pot 4-way :)

Pokersites.me.uk s’est penché sur la question de l’émergence et du développement de l’intelligence artificielle dans le Poker en produisant cette infographie complète et plutôt bien faite. Vous y trouverez bon nombre d’anecdotes et de statistiques intéressantes.