Cool, same terms updated to Jan 1 2016 assuming I (and by definition we all) win - 100 charity donation @ end of year by whoever loses.

Also the Carbonpoker thing is old news I believe its because its operated in Australia so cant service Australians or would risk being shut down

Bad beats happen everywhere. It isn't rigged. I've seen literally everything. It's still not rigged.

I would recommend either 888 for the softer level of competition (although the site itself isnt as good as Stars and its been having some disconnect issues, see 888 thread in Internet Poker forum), Titan which has been pretty good lately i'm enjoying playing there or Party Poker although imo Party sucks but thats just personal opinion.

I don't know exactly what this means but Carbon have closed my australian account as of 19th Dec. Got this from support "Regrettably, due to restrictions in you jurisdiction, we no longer offer online gaming services to members in Australia, so your account was closed. We thank you for your business and sincerely hope that in the future we'll be able resume offering services in your area."

Carbon for a long time hasnt offered services to Australians because theyre based in Australia or something

Strange, was playing on it month or two back.

Hooray, i'm helping save us all from Ebola by forcing Richas to donate $100 he was probably going to donate anyway!

Shippage!

Also, it's January 1 2015 and to celebrate still being able to play on Pokerstars today I won a tournament. So that was cool.

The sweat starts again but I think we're safe for the remainder of Abbott's first term; he's too busy trying not to say or do anything so that Australians might forget that we hate him more than Labor and re-elect his government for a second term; I don't think we'll be seeing any controversial legislation for the remainder of the first term. In annoying news Xenophon is apparently recruiting candidates Australia-wide but i'm hoping his appeal is limited to South Australia the same way Katter's Australia Party failed to get any support outside of regional QLD. Maybe I should put my hand up as Xenophon's QLD Senate candidate so I can be a trojan horse and vote against any bills restricting gambling and make his head explode. Either that, or run the worst campaign imaginable to ensure his party loses in the QLD senate race.

I'm not a conservative on many issues, but i'm loving the status quo for poker in Australia. Here's to more of the same in 2015! (although ideally with the Americans rejoining us on Stars at some point, but that seems unlikely)

I doubt Abbott will get a 2nd term. He's just lucky he was leader when the ALP had to be voted out. A monkey could have defeated Rudd.

Abbott has done poorly but he would have to have two more years like 2014 to get voted out. One term governments are very rare in Aus, it's more likely that they switch to Turnbull, Bishop or even Morrison before the election if Abbott remains unpopular. If it weren't for the ALP's knifing of Rudd, Abbott could well have been ousted himself by now.

Yeah I don't think it was a great move by Xenophon. Part of his successful brand is being independent and not subject to influences inherent in party politics.

Katter will do much better at the next fed election imo. Palmer pinched all his votes last time round and has been an unmitigated disaster. There will also still exist a fairly hefty protest votes against the Libs and ALP at the next election imo.

Congratulations. Never have I been happier to lose a prop.

Today's exchange rate makes it £64 but I rounded it up to £75 :-)

If anyone wants to join in the celebration you can donate from here by card or paypal:

http://www.dec.org.uk/appeals/ebola-crisis-appeal

I threw my end of year donation a different way via BBZ's charity drive, but maybe next year (hopefully not, as that would mean I lose our recurring bet which would mean poker gets banned in Australia and it would also mean Ebola is still a major threat, which it hopefully isn't)

We're looking surprisingly good for Abbott to be a 1-termer, it's rare historically but the signs are there - no recent Labor incompetence to remind people of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd era and Abbott, Hockey and co. stumbling from one blunder to the next

If I had to guess we're probably a -500 favourite to be alright on Jan 1 2016 with the status quo, and even money on new legislation affecting online poker in Australia (which could be good or bad) by Jan 1 2020 (no, that's not an offer for more bets)

How could there be any Labor incompetence in opposition?

All they have to do is seemingly shut up and Abbott's own lack of approval ratings will take care of itself.

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Remember Simon Crean and co? Labor can be incompetent in opposition. So far even though Shorten isn't very likable he does come across as a capable leader so there's that. LNP are also stuck with Abbott as if they replace him they'll be mocked as hypocrites over their relentless criticism of Labor during the Rudd/Gillard era.

Also, Gillard would have lost the first time if the LNP had put up someone other than Tony Abbott who is a bit more prime ministerial (Turnbull, even bringing back Costello would work)

I don't think Abbott finishes up as a three termer. He might get two, maybe, but even that depends on him getting his final year of his first term right; he was behind in the polls pretty much all year. There's no way Labor isn't gaining seats at the next election barring something major (9/11 style) or Shorten turning out to be a child molester or something, it's just a matter of how many seats Labor will pick up and whether it's enough to form government.

Another interesting one is whether Campbell Newman is a one termer, his personal seat looks gone in QLD and while the LNP are still small-medium favs for reelection just due to sheer size of their last win they're going to be without their leader even in victory most of the time.

We definitely have a sweat with Xenophon forming a party, hopefully it flops. I suspect he lacks the money to buy seats like Palmer and his personal appeal only extends to South Australia I think in enough numbers to pick up seats.

That's when oppositions tried to look like they were a credible alternative. These days oppositions are either sitting back and letting the government put its own nails in its coffin or they are attacking government policies without having any real alternative policies themselves.

Nice one. If Ebola is under control DEC will surely have something else to appeal on, when the bet was first made it was their Syria appeal, they had a Gaza appeal and Ebola was current by the end of the year....

Again the main threat is not Aus gov action, it is the internationalisation of regulation.

People have realised that in general voters don't vote for the opposition they vote against the incumbent ,in which case there is absolutely no upside in putting out policies

Yes which contributes to the poor state that politics is in atm.

No party wants to stand for anything that isn't popular nor ultimately sound for the country.

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Maybe what would be useful in this thread would be to have a list of current status of all providers of poker to Aus? I'll start, maybe just add as you know (must be current)

Pokerstars - full availability (exception of itunes app)
FullTilt - full availability (mobile app unsure?)
888 - full availability
Carbon - recently withdrawn from market (was active up till early Dec)

feel free to quote/edit etc as you see fit.

almost all ipoker skins besides winner i think are unavailable

nah a fair amount of ipoker skins work, barely any of teh good ones though (betfair/will hill/paddy etc)

worth noting full tilt casino games are NA

Hello!

Im going to Australia(Perth) for a few months.Sorry, Im too lazy to read all comments. If i go, can i play there at pokerstars.eu, or the online poker is segregated?

Thank you very much.

lol, yes u can play m8.

I assume your from Australia posting in this thread but correct me if im wrong.
Do you find that Titan has good traffic during the evenings? I have an account but cashed out around the time that everything switched to euros which for some reason I didn't like the sound of.

I actually had a Lelia from customer support ring my mobile (seemed odd for a poker site) and ask about my inactivity and if I would like to make a deposit, $5 bonus cash, SNG Master chase etc.

I have been playing on 888 for about 3 months now and find the site incredibly soft even for a casual player like myself but the software and random ddos attacks are pretty tilting. So I guess my question is do you think it would be worth it for me to redeposit on Titan and give them another chance or just stick with 888?

You might want to stick with Titan. If I'm putting the pieces together correctly, with william hill in talks to buy 888, if that deal goes through 888 wont be available to us in Australia.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...888-a-1510059/

IIRC, the William Hill ipoker skin was taken away as an aussie option shortly after WH purchased the Tom Waterhouse site. Someone help me with the legalities here, but I don't thing they will risk running a poker site when they have a far more profitable bookmaker site based here.

Please someone tell me I am wrong, its my site of choice, and it going would means stars or titan(saturday/sunday mornings) would be my only options.