Nikolai Valuev, also known as ‘The Russian Giant’, has been noticeable absent from the ring since his loss by points to David Haye in November 2009. Has he been training? Has he been preparing his caveman-ish self for a fresh opponent? Not at all. Not even close. Nikolai Valuev has – apparently – been honing his skills as a professional poker player.

Online poker room PokerStars.com is now home to a page entitled Valuev’s Room, which hosts special tournaments allowing players to share a virtual table with the Russian Giant himself. Now, clearly this will draw ridicule from Valuev’s critics. There will be quips about his gigantic mitts struggling to hold a hand of cards – or, as it is online poker after all – crushing a delicate mouse between his solid steel fingers. Also, cynics are not about to attribute the strategic ability needed to be a successful poker player to the man they call ‘the missing link’ and frequently liken to a Neanderthal or Cromagnon. Well, they have it all wrong.

Firstly, the tournaments at Valuev’s Room are not designed as pure competition as such. Players can either compete against Valuev or coach him through the tournament. That’s right: Valuev is looking to other online poker fans for advice to make him a World Series Of Online Poker champion – and poker fans can pay for the privilege of improving the gentle giant’s game.
Secondly, it does not matter that Valuev is probably not brilliant at poker – if it is in fact himself who competes in these tournaments. The point is that after not entering a fight in ten months and not winning a fight in almost two years, Valuev has manoeuvred himself back into the spotlight. He may not have done it elegantly or in a subtle fashion, but he did it nonetheless.

However, this is not to say that any boxer could have pulled of such a comparatively lame stunt with as much success. Nikolai Valuev is a promoter by nature; his physicality alone makes everything he does something of a spectacle. As an outrageously large man, measuring 7’0” (213 cm), with distinctly caveman-like features, Valuev is nothing short of a modern freak show. For him to turn his shovel-sized hands to something as popular as online poker is a brilliant strategic move; and not only because the idea of Valuev attempting a pokerface is absolute comedy gold.

There have been rumours about Valuev taking on a Klichko brother at some point this year, but they were either untrue or the plan never came to fruition. Perhaps Nikolai was too busy learning poker rules and clicking his night away on the tables…in any case, you now have the chance to get your very own piece of Valuev action on the internet. Whether you choose to go up against the Russian Giant in a non-life threatening way or rather teach him bad habits to corrupt his new career – everyone can join in the fun.

Then again, perhaps we should not make it fun. If you are looking forward to seeing the monster from Saint Petersburg in the ring again, it might be best to ignore his poker efforts. The sooner he is bored, the sooner his anvils of fists will start itching and we will have reason to cheer again.

Every so often we get a reminder of why we are so selective about which brands we recommend here at OnlineGambling.com.

This week a casino is closing down that has been hassling us for months to be listed on our website. But we resisted, as they were new, unknown and we didn’t think they deserved a recommendation yet.

It’s just as well we waited too, because we would have looked pretty stupid recommending a casino that closes its doors! To my knowledge they are taking care of their existing players – there is absolutely no news to report of anyone being left out of pocket or losing their balance. But still, nobody wants to join a casino so it can close its doors on you!

The moral of the story is, we’re always looking out for you guys – you can trust we only list online gambling sites that are worthy of your patronage. Remember our motto – keeping online gambling easy, safe and fun!

I’m going to start replying to some of the questions I get via email here on the blog so everyone can see my answers.

First up Rob from the USA asked.

“I am wondering about 5 dimes casino, is it legit, do they payout, are they reputable to play on?”

Well Rob, that’s a well timed question, because we are just about to add 5 Dimes here at OnlineGambling.com as a recommended online sportsbook.

So your answer is yes, I trust  5 Dimes, and they will be featured here at OG soon as a good place to play. But if you’re signing up to play casino games, I’d take a look at this list of online casinos first. If you specifically want to play casino games at a site that also has a good sportsbook, I’d probably choose Bodog as their casino is excellent and they often run bonus promos related to sports events that are actually worth playing. It’s where I usually play if I feel like playing casino games. Hope that helps.

Question #2 came from Pennie

“I haven’t gambled online in years and now I want to deposit into casinos and play Roulette. But the Casinos I’ve checked out want to tie up my money so I can’t even cash out my own deposit or winnings! I’ve spent the whole day searching for a Casino that will allow me to cash out when I want to and I can’t find one. Can any one here help me?  Can you name a couple good Casinos for me?”

This is a common question. If you’re like me, you probably don’t care too much about bonuses and the terms and conditions that sometimes come with accepting them. At some sites they give you a bonus to lock your money up until you clear a certain amount of playthrough or earn rewards points. Never fear though as this is easily fixed. All you have to do is email the support department and request to become a non-bonus player. Then you will be able to deposit and withdraw at will without worrying about earning points or playthrough. It also helps to use an e-wallet to deposit, as it usually makes withdrawals much easier.

Once again Bodog is a good choice as they run their bonuses differently to most casinos and have a great support department.  You shouldn’t have problem with clearing bonuses there.

Hope that helps Pennie!

I’d just like to add a footnote to that last answer. We can’t look at the casinos as bad guys for adding these terms to their bonuses – they are giving away free money after all, so have the right to determine how it is given away. All the rules that are in place with bonuses these days never used to exist back in the early days of online casinos. Bonuses used to be just like the free drinks at the tables in Vegas – given to anyone playing ! But over time players got greedy and started abusing the bonuses and casinos had to become a lot more savvy about how & when they give their money away. If you look really closely at T&Cs you might sometimes see that residents of certain countries are excluded from bonus offers (like Denmark).  This is because they became so good at manipulating the terms and conditions to obtain bonus money with little risk that the casinos gave up and stopped offering them free money!

Send me some more questions to ed @ onlinegambling.com. I like answering them – it makes me feel useful… lol

You can also friend me on Facebook now if you like. I finally gave in and set up a profile. But I need some friends!