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Posts Tagged ‘Poker Sites’
Monday, August 15th, 2011
The coaching roster at Bluefire Poker has been growing since the beginning of the year, and despite Black Friday the number of poker coaches at the site has once again increased. Bluefire Poker recently ran a contest to determine their next poker coach, and after tons of feedback from their members, one of the industry’s top poker training sites has decided on adding not one but two new coaches!
Here is a look at the new coaches at the site:
JP Zdancewicz
A Heads-Up and 6-Max No Limit Holdem and PLO specialist who began playing in 2007, JP knows a thing or two about coaching as he drew upon some of the best minds in the industry when he first started out himself. Now JP finds himself on the other end of the player/coach relationship, having already helped 20 students himself.
Coleman Whitsitt
Another Heads-Up and 6-Max specialist, Coleman focuses exclusively on No Limit Holdem and can be found playing anywhere from $2/$4 to $25/$50 when the conditions are right. Coleman received his own poker education from top players like Jay Rosenkrantz and Daniel Cates, and take credit for some of fellow Bluefire Poker coach JP Zdancewicz’s success, having coached his good friend early in his career.
The duo will join an already stacked roster of poker coaches which includes Bluefire Poker owner and founder Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, 2010 WSOP November Niner Jason Senti, Niman “Samoleus” Kenkre, and Martin Fournier Giguere.
For more information on Bluefire Poker or to take advantage of their free 7-day trial you can visit their website at www.bluefirepoker.com
Tags: Black Friday, Coaching, Coleman, Education, Giguere, Good Friend, Jp, Martin Fournier, Niman, Niner, Omgclayaiken, Player Coach, Plo, Poker Sites, Relationship, Rosenkrantz, WSOP
Posted in Poker News | No Comments »
Friday, May 20th, 2011
As the chip-leader heading into the final table of the 2011 $25k WPT Championship, Galen Hall is apparently trying to lock up the Card Player Magazine and BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year Awards before the year is even half over. Hall, who won the PCA Main Event in January, would become the first player in history to win two of poker’s most prestigious tournaments in the same year if he can outlast Scott Seiver, Justin Young, Freddy Bonyadi, Roger Teska, and Tony Gargano at Friday’s final table.
Seiver, who is one of poker’s rising stars in both tournaments and cash games, trails Hall by just 20,000 chips heading into the televised final table is looking for his first major tournament title since winning a WSOP bracelet in 2008.
In previous years both Seiver and Hall would be eyeing not just the prize-money for winning the WPT Championship, but a likely sponsorship deal to boot. Unfortunately for both players, Black Friday has made US poker pros expendable to online poker sites. Should either Hall or Seiver win the title they will likely have lost out on a very lucrative sponsorship deal –just another effect of the US crackdown on online poker.
Here is a look at the final six players’ chip-counts and seating assignments heading into Friday’s final table:
Seat 1: Galen Hall — 5,095,000
Seat 2: Justin Young — 1,750,000
Seat 3: Tony Gargano — 3,550,000
Seat 4: Roger Teska — 3,600,000
Seat 5: Scott Seiver — 5,075,000
Seat 6: Freddy Bonyadi — 2,470,000
Tags: 25k, Black Friday, Bluff Magazine, Card Player Magazine, Cash Games, Freddy, Galen Hall, Gargano, Main Event, Poker Pros, Poker Sites, Prestigious Tournaments, Previous Years, Prize Money, Rising Stars, Seat 6, Seating Assignments, Sponsorship Deal, Teska, Us Crackdown
Posted in Poker News | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
In the wake of Black Friday the poker world has undergone a number changes with everything from US access restricted, to indictments and criminal activity uncovered. Even tournament attendance, and televised poker shows have been unable to avoid the fallout of Black Friday, and the latest news has to do with the PPA, as Poker Players Alliance Board of Directors member Rich Muny announced on 2+2 that both Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer have stepped down as PPA Board of Directors members.
Both Lederer and Ferguson joined the PPA in its infancy in 2006, despite being members of Team Full Tilt Poker –officially Lederer is a consultant of some sort for PocketKings, the parent company of Full Tilt Poker; while Ferguson was part of the team that developed the Full Tilt Poker software. That said; it’s widely accepted that they are involved in the ownership/management of Full Tilt Poker as well, making them both potential targets for the US Government.
Frankly, the involvement of people even whispered as being part of the ownership of a major online poker room was a terrible decision for the PPA’s Board of Directors. Not only does this present a major conflict of interest, but it also marginalizes the PPA’s influence as it pushes forward the online poker agenda.
While a number of Team Full Tilt Poker pros registered for the WPT Championship currently underway at the Bellagio, Lederer and Ferguson were both noticeable no-shows, further hinting that the duo may be fearful of prosecution by the US government, which could unseal another indictment just as fast as the one they blindsided the poker world on April 15, 2011.
Thus far only four of the 11 people indicted on Black Friday have been apprehended, and none of the four are from the poker sites themselves.
Tags: Alliance Board, Bellagio, Black Friday, Chris Ferguson, Conflict Of Interest, Full Tilt Poker, Howard Lederer, Indictments, Muny, Number Changes, online poker, Ownership Management, Poker Players, Poker Pros, Poker Room, Poker Sites, Poker Software, Poker World, S Board, Televised Poker
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | No Comments »
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
According to an E-Mail published at HoldemPokerChat.com, Madeira Fjord, which represents the stockholders for the Cereus Poker Network’s parent company Blanca Games, is preparing to file for bankruptcy. The Cereus Poker Network is of course the parent company of Absolute Poker and UB Poker –so we have a lot of parent companies here.
The E-Mail informs shareholders:
Most importantly, Blanca Gaming has provided notice to our subsidiary Avoine that it is currently unable to make any payments toward its debt obligations. Additionally, Blanca has further advised that there will be no future payments.
Over the past 60 days, the Company has accumulated current debts in excess of $250,000 which are increasing at $100,000+ per month. These obligations are primarily legal and professional fees in Norway.
With no cash on hand and no prospects for any cash flow for the foreseeable future, the Board of Directors is required by Norwegian law to enter the bankruptcy process.
In a related story on MSNBC.com, contributor Mike Brunker also confirmed that the troubled poker network has laid-off approximately 95% of its 300 person workforce in Costa Rica where the poker sites are located. Brunker also reported that the site has not been issuing withdrawals to non-US poker players, which would seem to have been merely a stalling tactic to bring in as much revenue as possible before filing for bankruptcy.
With this news it seems unlikely that the Cereus Poker Network’s players will ever be reimbursed the funds from their accounts, whether they live in the US or abroad.
Tags: absolute poker, Bankruptcy Process, Debt Obligations, E Mail, File Bankruptcy, Filing Bankruptcy, Filing For Bankruptcy, Fjord, Foreseeable Future, Madeira, Msnbc, Norwegian Law, Parent Company, Person Workforce, Poker Network, Poker Players, Poker Sites, Professional Fees, Stockholders, Withdrawals
Posted in Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
It’s now official; every poker site that was indicted this past Friday has now closed its doors to US online poker players. The last holdout was the Cereus Poker Network of Absolute Poker and UB Poker, who at first took a hard-line approach over the weekend to the government seizure of the sites’ .com domain names and accompanying indictments and civil lawsuit. Cereus initially told their customers they would continue to accept US players –although those players would be unable to cash-out for the time being—but did an about face on Monday and officially closed their doors to US poker players.
PokerStars was the first site to pull the plug on its US operations, informing its customers of their decision Friday night. While Full Tilt Poker has banned US players early Saturday morning, any player who has stayed logged in to the poker client, and not downloaded the new software update, can supposedly still play at the site.
This leaves a small number of smaller poker sites and networks still serving the US market, but it remains to be seen if these sites will be able to deal with what is likely even going to be harsher depositing and withdrawal procedures than we have seen over the past few years –since UIGEA became official last year player withdrawals have been hit or miss as far as bounced checks and long waits to receive funds.
Tags: absolute poker, Bounced Checks, Civil Lawsuit, Domain Names, Doors, Friday Night, Full Tilt Poker, Government Seizure, Holdout, Indictments, New Software, online poker, Player Withdrawals, Poker Client, Poker Network, Poker Players, Poker Sites, Saturday Morning, Software Update, Withdrawal Procedures
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Saturday, December 11th, 2010
Every new poker affiliate is recommended to add Google Analytics to their website from the older poker affiliates. Of course being new to the business you have no idea the reason behind this or how to leverage Google Analytics. After getting some traffic most new poker affiliates look at the graphs, say cool, and notice where their traffic is coming from and what pages their visitors viewing.
Google Analytics goes beyond just those steps and learning how to leverage this information to increase traffic levels, monthly sign ups, and income is somewhat of an art. Poker affiliates that know how to use this information are 10 times more likely to become mid level affiliates or super affiliates in the long run.
Once you have Google Analytics installed and set up your goals (very important to track signups) for at least a month or two depending on how bad you really want to review your stats. It is time to review where traffic is coming from.
Traffic Sources Overview
This will tells you the following traffic sources; search engine (free & paid), referring (other websites most likely social media; twitter, facebook, and etc.), and direct traffic (type-in). For the most part you want to focus on your keywords if getting traffic from the search engines is your focus and where the signups came from if you have any.
You will to make sure your bounce rate is less than 75% the lower this number goes the better. You want visitors on your website and not clicking the back button. So knowing which keywords have the low bounce rate may be the keywords to push for if they are converting for you.
Other stats to look at are your page views for the given keyword, you want the visitors to view more than one page. The longer they are on your website the more likely you going to convert them into players. This should get you to build backlinks for these keywords to bring in more traffic for the website.
Map Overlay
This are the stats that tell you what country are your visitors are in. This can be very useful if you want to focus on one or more countries as well as discover new markets to focus on. Also, this can help with your keyword research to find out how many searches are being done in that given country.
Content Overview
Now these stats are by far my favorite for a few reasons. You can learn which page visitors went to or came from as well as the keywords or other traffic sources. You can also see what internal links did the visitors clicked on. So much information to help you change your website to perform better and be a lot more user friendly to shorten the visitors path to sign up for online poker, rakeback, deposit bonus, and whatever other promotions you are running like rake races, rake chases, and etc.
Closing Statement
This is just the beginning of what you can do with Google Analytics. You can do a lot more with all the stats that are given and push your website to new highs when it comes to traffic, signups, and income.
Tags: Amp, Analytics, Bounce, Facebook, Google, Graphs, Keyword, Mid Level, Page Views, Poker Affiliates, Poker Sites, Search Engine, Search Engines, Sign Ups, Traffic Levels, Traffic Map, Traffic Sources, Traffic Type, Traffic Website, Ups
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
In the blink of an eye Full Tilt Poker has gone from being one of the most lucrative rooms for rakeback poker players, to being one of the least!
Full Tilt Poker has announced a change in the way they calculate their rakeback. Previously, Full Tilt Poker used the dealt method of calculation. That means that every player dealt into every hand of poker received a credit for the rake paid during the hand. Spin around those Rush Poker tables for about 8 hours a day, and you’ll realize what a big chunk of change that is.
Full Tilt will now be using not the just the contributed method, which splits credit for rake among players that contributed to the pot (including the big and small blind, anyone that called preflop etc.) but they’ll be taking it a step further!
Full Tilt intends to do an entire 180, and now pay using the weighted-contributed calculation method. That means player will only get credit for what they put into the pot.
If the player folds on the turn, they won’t be seeing credit for action on that street or on the river!
This is going to make a major change to the way your earnings are calculated for Full Tilt Poker players. For instance, all those grinders, multi-tabling tight games all day, their earnings just took a nose dive.
Dealt Rakeback Rooms:
- Cake Poker
- Red Star
- Players Only
- True Poker
- Power Poker
- Doyles Room
- Gutshot Poker
If you’re interested in promoting a new selection of dealt rakeback poker sites via one of the best rakeback programs there is, look up at the nav-bar, and click ‘sign-up’, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
Tags: Blink Of An Eye, Chunk, Click Sign, Earnings, Full Tilt Poker, Grinders, Nav Bar, Nose Dive, Poker Players, Poker Room, Poker Sites, Poker Tables, Pot, Power Poker, Rake, Rakeback, Red Star, Rush, Star Players, Tight Games, True Poker
Posted in Poker Affiliate Business | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Only a few years ago, it was next to impossible for a gambling affiliate website to be included in Google News. Today, more and more sites are included on a daily basis!
There’s still a bit of mystery shrouding the topic however, just how does one go about submitting their website to Google news.
The answer that question is actually an easy one. Just visit the Google News submission page and ask for inclusion.
Actually getting included is a bit trickier than that though!
Here are a few steps that you can take to ensure a successful Google news submission and subsequent inclusion.
Write News to be included in Google News
Be sure that your website has plenty of news articles on it. Start by writing 50 real news stories. Not promotion articles, but news stories. What’s going on in the industry, industry law, etc. What’s really goin’ on in the poker affiliate industry?
If you writing news isn’t really your thing, check out the rakeback affiliate programs forum here for professional rakeback affiliate writers. If you’re a writer, looking for work as a news writer, you might want to visit that section of the rakeback affiliate forum as well.
The occasional promotional news piece is fine, but when you’re submitting, you really want to keep things on a professional level.
Add an About Us page that introduces at least 5 affiliate news writers.
It’s a good idea to point out on the ‘About Us’ page that several views are expressed on your website. That your writers opinions are their own, and that they’re free to express them. Google likes to see several points of view when they include a new news site, and their especially finicky when it comes to new poker affiliate news sites.
All right, I admit it, five’s a number I came up with randomly, it seems to work though. Want to be different? Go with 6! Write a couple paragraphs about the experience of each writer, and what they bring to the news reading world. Pictures go a long long way to bringing your authors to life. This is good for a few reasons, Google likes to see the different point’s of view, and, creating a presence for each of your writers is going to create overall stickiness for your website.
A privacy Page is a Mandatory Component to a Successful Google News Inclusion
Add a Privacy Page and adhere to it, simple right? Really it is, but before you get started, take a moment to think about how you actually use email addresses that you collect.
Your privacy page should simply disclose how you intend to use email addresses you collect. For instance, if your site is created on a WordPress installation, and users input their email address to make a comment, what do you intend to use the email address for?
If a new rakeback player signs up on your rakeback affiliate site, and discloses their email address, will you be sending them a newsletter? Will you be using that email address after they’ve given it to them. Google doesn’t so much care what you do with the email address, they care that you disclose that intention.
Random Numbers for News Posts
When I first submitted a Google news website for inclusion, unique numbers were required in each URL, that’s not the case now. It’s an option. But it’s not a required option. Just for the sake of argument however, adding a custom URL structure via WordPress will get you the numbers in question.
/%post_id%/%postname%/ gets the job done, as do many other variations
In lieu of, or in addition to the unique identifier, develop an RSS feed or sitemap that is dedicated solely to your news posts. Again WordPress offers a plugin for this. Once this is done, submit the sitemap, or feed, or both, to google via webmaster tools.
Look at your site before you request news inclusion, really look
Remember when you were new to the industry? When you visited a poker affiliate site, and were inundated with banners? It was confusing! Look again. Have you built a site cluttered with spammy and confusing banners? When a staff member from google visits, and a real live staff member WILL visit, are they going to think your site is a spamfest upon first glance?
Remove excessive banners, after all, blue links are the latest and greatest in conversions, the world’s gone banner blind. Get rid of any unnecessary clutter.
Tags: Affiliate News, Affiliate Programs, Couple Paragraphs, Daily Basis, Google, Google News, Inclusion, News Articles On, News Site, News Sites, News Stories, News Writer, News Writers, Poker Sites, Professional Level, Promotion Articles, Real News, Several Points, Write News, Writing News
Posted in Affiliate Tips | No Comments »
Saturday, August 28th, 2010
If you’ve been following along with our guide to maximum SEO for poker affiliate web sites, you have certainly learned by now that back-links are a nutritious part of this complete SEO meal! Back-links are an off-site SEO technique that tells Google and other search engine just how important everyone else thinks your poker affiliate site is.
More back-links = more importance = higher search engine indexing!
So you’ve set up a bunch of back-links and you’re pretty happy with your progress thus far. The next step is to keep an eye on those back-links, checking them for quality and accuracy on a regular basis. If your back-links start the fall apart without your knowledge, you could start losing position on Google and never even realize why.
It’s important to keep in mind when checking your back-links that they are not going to appear instantly. In fact, it can take a back links checker just as long to include a new back link as it can take a search engine to re-index your site according to your back link SEO optimization. That’s anywhere from a few days to several months.
How to Check Back-Links
Checking your back-links is pretty easy. There are plenty of online sites that will run the check for you, requiring only that you enter your URL in a text box and click “OK”. The only problem is that no back-link checker actually hits all of your back-links.
To get the most accurate results, you’ll want to use a few back-link checks at a time. It’s best to check on your back-links about once a week to ensure all is going nice and smooth.
Back-Link Checkers
Our favorite back-link checker is found at Yahoo, called the Site Explorer Tool. It’s incredibly fast and easy to use, and offers the best overall results.
To use Yahoo Site Explorer, do the following:
- Go to http://www.yahoo.com
- Enter the following text in the search area: “site:www.yourdomainname.com”
- When you press enter, the Yahoo Site Explorer loads. Under the search area, two tabs appear. The first is Pages (shows the number of pages in your domain) and the second is “Inlinks” (shows the number of back links pointing to your site from other pages). Click “Inlinks”.
- You now see a complete list of all the web pages with a link back to your web site. Note that just by looking at the “Inlinks” tab, you see the number of pages with back links to your web site.
- You can also see how many back links are pointing to a specific page on your web site by entering the search terms: “site:www.yourdomainname.com/yourpage.html
LinkDiagnosis: Another great back link checker is found on www.LinkDiagnosis.com. This web site will give you back-links in order of their Google Page Rank (PR) quality. Unfortunately, this site only works with a FireFox web browser. If you’re running IE or Safari, either go download FireFox or don’t bother trying.
BackLinkWatch: www.BackLinkWatch.com is another good back link checker that offers you more extensive information, like the anchor text and no follow data for each back link.
Tags: Accuracy, Accurate Results, Affiliate Web, Back Links, Backlinks, Checkers, Explorer Tool, Few Days, Google, Link Checker, Link Checkers, Link Checks, Optimization, Other Search Engine, Poker Affiliate Site, Poker Sites, Search Area, Search Engine Indexing, seo, Yahoo Site Explorer
Posted in SEO Tips | No Comments »
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