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Posts Tagged ‘PokerStars’
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
One of the biggest poker tournaments of the year will be entering its penultimate day on Wednesday, with a mere 24 players still in contention for the €800,000 first-place prize-money. Leading the final three tables is the Day 3 chip leader, Chris McClung. The Canadian poker pro McClung once again dominated the action, and for the second straight day ended the day with a sizable chip-lead.
In what was another short day at the EPT San Remo, it took the 64 players who sat down to begin the day about seven hours to reach the final three tables, at which point play was halted for the night.
McClung will face some stiff competition on Day 5 of the 2011 EPT San Remo Main Event considering some of the other notable players that also survived Day 4’s action: EPT and WPT Champion Alessio Isaia, PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden, Kevin MacPhee, Barny Boatman, PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis, 2011 WSOPE Main Event Champion Elio Fox, and Mike “Timex” McDonald.
Hitting the rail on Tuesday were 2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst, David Back, John Duthie, and Tyler Bonkowski.
Here is a look at the chip-leaders heading into Day of the EPT San Remo:
- Chris McClung – 3,148,000
- Daniel Neilson – 2,011,000
- Mustapha Kanit – 1,761,000
- Alessio Isaia – 1,524,000
- Kevin MacPhee – 1,441,000
- Barny Boatman – 1,257,000
- Johnny Lodden – 1,227,000
- Jan Bendik – 1,211,000
- Andrey Pateychuk – 1,200,000
- Dimitar Danchev – 1,196,000
Day 5 will see the remaining players play-down to the final table of eight players.
Tags: Bendik, Boatman, Canadian Poker, Dimitar, EPT, Isaia, John Duthie, Johnny Lodden, Mcclung, Mustapha, Niner, Poker Tournaments, PokerStars, San Remo, Seven Hours, Stiff Competition, Table Of Eight, Three Tables, Vanessa Selbst, WPT
Posted in Poker News | No Comments »
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
One of the biggest poker tournaments of the year will be entering its penultimate day on Wednesday, with a mere 24 players still in contention for the €800,000 first-place prize-money. Leading the final three tables is the Day 3 chip leader, Chris McClung. The Canadian poker pro McClung once again dominated the action, and for the second straight day ended the day with a sizable chip-lead.
In what was another short day at the EPT San Remo, it took the 64 players who sat down to begin the day about seven hours to reach the final three tables, at which point play was halted for the night.
McClung will face some stiff competition on Day 5 of the 2011 EPT San Remo Main Event considering some of the other notable players that also survived Day 4’s action: EPT and WPT Champion Alessio Isaia, PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden, Kevin MacPhee, Barny Boatman, PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis, 2011 WSOPE Main Event Champion Elio Fox, and Mike “Timex” McDonald.
Hitting the rail on Tuesday were 2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst, David Back, John Duthie, and Tyler Bonkowski.
Here is a look at the chip-leaders heading into Day of the EPT San Remo:
- Chris McClung – 3,148,000
- Daniel Neilson – 2,011,000
- Mustapha Kanit – 1,761,000
- Alessio Isaia – 1,524,000
- Kevin MacPhee – 1,441,000
- Barny Boatman – 1,257,000
- Johnny Lodden – 1,227,000
- Jan Bendik – 1,211,000
- Andrey Pateychuk – 1,200,000
- Dimitar Danchev – 1,196,000
Day 5 will see the remaining players play-down to the final table of eight players.
Tags: Bendik, Boatman, Canadian Poker, Dimitar, EPT, Isaia, John Duthie, Johnny Lodden, Mcclung, Mustapha, Niner, Poker Tournaments, PokerStars, San Remo, Seven Hours, Stiff Competition, Table Of Eight, Three Tables, Vanessa Selbst, WPT
Posted in Poker News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
On the 2+2 poker forum on Monday, ‘PokerStars Stephan’ posted a brief, but revealing, message in response to the following question posed by 2+2 user ‘MagicMurderBean’, “Did someone mention that they were adding something like Rush or testing it? or am I just dreaming.”The response by PokerStars Stephan simply read: “PokerStars is developing a fast moving ring games product. We expect it to be available for public beta testing in a few months.” Giving rise to the speculation that PokerStars is developing some form of Rush Poker.
The move isn’t overly surprising considering the Rush Poker tables at Full Tilt poker were quite popular, with plenty of traffic –which when coupled with the blistering number of hands that were being dealt meant a huge increase in rake for the site.
Rush Poker was advertised as a patented technology by Full Tilt poker, which could be why PokerStars is still a few months away from releasing their own version of the game, and would lead me to believe that the finished product will bear little resemblance to Full Tilt poker’s Rush Poker tables –or perhaps they could simply contact Full Tilt Poker about purchasing the rights to Rush Poker, or even leasing the technology??? Lord knows Full Tilt poker could use the money!
So keep an eye peeled for a major PokerStars software update in the coming weeks, as their version of a “fast moving ring games product” is unveiled.
Tags: Beta Testing, Contact, Finished Product, Full Tilt Poker, Game, Games, Lead, Leasing, Patented Technology, Poker Forum, Poker Tables, PokerStars, Purchasing, Rake, Resemblance, Rival, Rush 2, Software Update, Speculation, Traffic
Posted in Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
It appears that the advertising dollars of many online gaming sites, including sports-books, poker rooms, and online casinos, will now be welcome on Facebook, according to a statement issued by the multi-billion dollar Social Media giant. However, the new rules regarding online gaming advertising does not give the industry carte blanche to market their services. Facebook has installed a number of restrictions on these ads in order to stay on the right side of any local laws.
In addition to demanding all advertisements conform to local laws, Facebook will also restrict precisely who can see the ads based on their location; a process that Facebook will have a final say on.
The final twist is in regards to US advertisers. US-based advertisers (affiliates and such) are allowed to purchase ad-space on Facebook, but their advertisements cannot target US players. Basically, a US-based affiliate will be able to purchase ad-space on Facebook (if they can afford the rumored $30,000 ad-buy) but their advertisements will only be seen by players in countries and locales that are approved by Facebook.
My guess is that many Europeans and Asians will start seeing advertisements for Party Poker, PokerStars, and the larger sites on the iPoker Network, Merge Gaming Network, and OnGame Network in the near future. But I doubt any affiliates can afford –or more aptly, are willing to part with—the $30k fee that Facebook is charging, so even though this is another small step in the right direction for the online gaming industry it remains to be seen if it will have any impact at this point in time.
Tags: Ad Space, Advertisements, Asians, Carte Blanche, Europeans, Facebook, Final Twist, Gaming Industry, Gaming Network, Gaming Sites, Ipoker Network, Media Giant, Online Casinos, online poker, Party Poker, Point In Time, Poker Rooms, PokerStars, Sports Books, Step In The Right Direction
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
After seeing almost his entire yearly profits disappear in the space of a single week, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom kept plugging away at the PokerStars tables, and this past weekend he went on one of the biggest heaters of the year for any online poker player, winning over $1 million in a 24 hour period.
Last week it was Isildur1 who was bleeding chips to fellow high-stakes pros Ilari “Ilari_FIN” Sahamies and Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond, but this past weekend Isildur1 would claim revenge on at least one of those players as $1.4 million came out of the PokerStars account of Ilari Sahamies and found its way into the account of Blom according to highstakesdb.com.
Sahamies and Blom are two of the swingiest players in online poker, so it shouldn’t be too big of a surprise that the pots get very big when the two clash, but $1.4 million is a very scarce number to be able to report on!
Of course, Blom isn’t one to take some time off after a big win and nearly $300k of his winnings has already found a home in other players’ accounts at PokerStars. Sahamies on the other hand decided it best to stop playing and write a blog about his struggles this weekend:
“Just finished the games against Isildur. Came down from $1.3 million in two days and felt really bad already when I was down $200k… Don’t know why I continued after $500k down. Really don’t know. I played weak and it was fair I lost my money,”
You can read Sahamies entire blog post at coinflip.com.
Tags: 1 Million, 24 Hour, Big Win, Blog, Blom, Chips, Clash, Games, High Stakes, Money, online poker, Poker Player, PokerStars, Pots, Profits, Revenge, Surprise
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | No Comments »
Monday, June 13th, 2011
Late last week PokerStars announced the schedule for the upcoming season of the European Poker Tour on their official website. Well, the first half of the schedule anyway, as a total of seven tournaments were listed with venues and dates.
The stops announced come with little surprise as all of the seven tournament series announced have been part of the EPT prior to Season 8, including the EPT London, EPT Barcelona, and EPT San Remo.
Once again on the schedule is the only stop on the European Poker Tour outside of Europe, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure that takes place every January in the Bahamas, and has been included as part of the PT tour since its inception.
Here is a look at the first seven stops for Season 8 of the PokerStars EPT:
• August 2 – 7, 2011: EPT Tallinn (Estonia) — €4,000 + €250 Main Event
• August 27 – September 1, 2011: EPT Barcelona (Spain) — €5,000 + €300 Main Event
• September 30 – Oct. 5, 2011: EPT London (England) — £5,000 + £250 Main Event
• October 21 – 27, 2011: EPT San Remo (Italy) — €4,600 + €300 Main Event
• December 5 – 10, 2011: EPT Prague (Czech Republic) — €5,000 + €300 Main Event
• January 5 – 14, 2012: 2012 PCA (Bahamas) — $10,000 + $300 Main Event
• January 31 – February 6, 2012: EPT Deauville (France) – €5,000 + €300 Main Event
Tags: Bahamas, Barcelona Spain, Caribbean Adventure, Deauville France, EPT, France 5, Inception, London England, Main Event, Oct 5, Pca, poker, PokerStars, Prague Czech Republic, Pt Tour, San Remo Italy, Season 8, Surprise, Tour Europe
Posted in Poker News | No Comments »
Saturday, June 11th, 2011
Sorel Mizzi announced the launch of a new charity called Poker Players Against Poverty, which seeks to help alleviate homelessness and poverty. According to a press release issued on Thursday: “With Sorel in the lead, Poker Players against Poverty will recruit other like-minded poker players who will commit service days and percentages of their tournament winnings in the fight against poverty.” Mizzi has committed 5% of his future tournament earnings, as well as a one-time $10,000 donation.
When you mention the name Sorel Mizzi in the poker world you will likely elicit a number of responses, some good, some bad, some indifferent, and some very, very bad. At the forefront of a number of cheating and ethical scandals in his brief poker career, as well as his propensity to make these matters worse by his 2+2 posts, Mizzi is one of the most polarizing figures in the game with his detractors calling him a liar, cheater, and all around POS, and on the other hand his supporters will claim he is simply misunderstood and there is no proof to many of the allegations.
Mizzi, the 2010 BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year is considered one of the top tournament poker players in the game, and has proven his abilities in both live tournaments and online poker tournaments, however it his reputation that has taken a hit over the past few years beginning with a 3-year ban from Full Tilt Poker –as well as a shorter ban on PokerStars—for multi-accounting and buying another player’s account late in a tournament. Mizzi has also been implicated by John Racener in a Chinese Poker cheating scandal where Racener accused Mizzi of dealing off the bottom of the deck.
Tags: Bluff Magazine, Cheater, Chinese Poker, Detractors, Full Tilt Poker, Homelessness, John Racener, Launch, Liar, Many Faces, Online Poker Tournaments, Percentages, Poker Game, Poker Players, Poker World, PokerStars, Propensity, Scandals, Sorel Mizzi, Tournament Poker
Posted in Poker News | No Comments »
Friday, May 13th, 2011
After moving to the very small Yatahay Poker Network in early 2011, the one thing Doyles Room must have known going in was that they would need to update the Network’s software –which was considered slow and unsuitable for multi-tabling by many online poker players. Since the move from the Cake Poker Network to Yatahay, Doyles Room players have complained mightily about numerous flaws in the software, as well as a lack of features that players have grown accustomed to, and have become standard at larger online poker rooms.
With many players leaving Doyles Room, and potential players having reservations about joining the site over software concerns the site had to act. And on Wednesday night we learned that Doyles Room had put the finishing touches on a major software update that includes the following changes:
· Resizable Tables
· Bounty/Knockout Tournaments
· Stable software
· Time Bank
· Bad Beat Jackpot
· Time Based Tournaments
· 7 Card Stud Winnings Paid Immediately
· 32 Card Poker Full Real Time Backend
· Fold/Show functionality
· Improved Late registration
· Straddle Tables
· Bonus Cash
· Chop Pots Auto
· Rebuy Options
· Short Handed Tournaments
· Cascading Tables-Multi-tabling
In the E-Mail sent out to Doyles Room players the site called the upgrade just the beginning, a clear indication that the site will be continuing to make a major push into the US market following Full Tilt Poker’s, PokerStars, and Absolute/UB Poker’s withdrawal from the US market.
Just launch the DoylesRoom software that’s already on your desktop and our system will automatically upgrade you to the latest version.
Tags: Bonus Cash, Card Poker, Card Stud, Chop, E Mail, Finishing Touches, Full Tilt Poker, Knockout, Late Registration, online poker, Poker Network, Poker Players, Poker Rooms, Poker Software, PokerStars, Software Concerns, Software Time, Software Update, Stable Software, Time Bank
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Friday, May 13th, 2011
What a way it would be for Team PokerStars Brazil’s Alex Gomes to join Gavin Griffin and Roland de Wolfe as poker’s only Triple Crown winners should he go on to win the PokerStars EPT Grand Finale in Madrid today –The Triple Crown requires a player to win an EPT, WPT, and WSOP title. Gomes captured a WPT title in 2009 at the Bellagio Cup as well as winning a WSOP bracelet in a $2,000 NLHE event at the 2008 WSOP.
Gomes finds himself near the bottom of the leader-board entering the final table, but as we saw on Day 4 of the tournament, anything can, and usually does happen! With 24 players remaining Andrew “azntrackr” Li found himself at the bottom of the chip-counts, but a few early double-ups landed the Supernova Elite player at PokerStars amongst the chip-leaders for the rest of the day.
A second Team PokerStars Pro also made the final table, Juan Macerias. The Spain native will obviously be the favorite amongst the hometown crowd, and I can only imagine what the celebration will look like should he go on to win the EPT Grand Finale!
Here is a look at the each player’s chip-count heading into the final day of play in Madrid, Spain:
1. Ivan Freitez — 5,995,000
2. Juan Maceiras — 3,150,000
3. Andrey Danilyuk — 2,645,000
4. Eugene Yanayt — 2,420,000
5. Torsten Brinkmann — 1,875,000
6. Alex Gomes — 1,670,000
7. Tamas Lendvai — 1,655,000
8. Andrew Li — 1,210,000
Tags: Alex, Andrew Li, Brinkmann, Celebration, Chip Count, Elite Player, Grand Finale, Griffin, Hometown Crowd, Ivan, Leader Board, Madrid Spain, poker, PokerStars, Rest Of The Day, Roland, Triple Crown Winners, Ups, WPT, WSOP
Posted in Poker News | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
After a number of press releases addressing everything from raided offices in Costa Rica, Bankruptcy filings, laying-off 95% off their workers, the dismissal of their entire roster of sponsored pros, and even mafia style E-Mail exchanges where people are threatening to go to the authorities there was actually a positive development coming out of Absolute Poker on Wednesday as the site announced it had reached an agreement with US Department of Justice that would allow them to start facilitating withdrawals to US players.
Before any UB Poker and Absolute Poker players start jumping for joy it should be noted the site stated they “Unfortunately, the Company still faces several legal issues which must be navigated before funds can be paid out to US players… Player funds, therefore, will not become immediately available for withdrawal as a result of today’s agreement with the DOJ.”
Another interesting statement from the press release is that the DOJ is not returning the domain names as they did for Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.
Here is a look at the entire press release issued by Absolute Poker:
Absolute Poker has reached an agreement with the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”). Under the agreement, the US Attorney’s Office has agreed to provide all necessary assurances that third parties may work with Absolute Poker to facilitate the return of funds, currently held by third party processors, to players located in the US. This provision is an important step to returning US player funds.
The Company has also notified the SDNY that it has closed its US-facing operations, and it has agreed to the cessation of real money poker play in the US. As such, Absolute Poker has not requested the return of its worldwide domain names, www.AbsolutePoker.com, www.UltimateBet.com and www.UB.com, and today’s agreement does not provide for their return. The agreement also provides for the appointment of Monitor, approved by the US Attorney’s Office, to assess the Company’s compliance with the terms of the agreement.
Absolute Poker’s top priority has always been, and remains, the refund of account balances to its U.S. players. Unfortunately, the Company still faces several legal issues which must be navigated before funds can be paid out to US players. The Company’s US attorneys, Blank Rome LLP, continue to work diligently to resolve these issues, which is a necessary further step to facilitate the return of funds to players. Player funds, therefore, will not become immediately available for withdrawal as a result of today’s agreement with the DOJ.
A Company spokesperson said: “Today’s signing of the agreement with the DOJ is an important step towards the safe and efficient return of funds to our US players. We can now move as expeditiously as possible to collect player monies from third party processors as a prelude to establishing proper mechanisms for the return of funds to our US players. As previously announced, we have already taken specific actions to exit the US market by closing our US-facing operations. Blank Rome LLP will continue to engage in discussions with the SDNY in order to complete the necessary agreements for the final transfer of frozen fund balances to our US players. This remains our highest priority. We will continue to update our players and the poker community, as we move forward to resolve outstanding issues.”
Tags: absolute poker, Bankruptcy Filings, Cessation, E Mail, Entire Press, Full Tilt Poker, Mafia Style, Mail Exchanges, Necessary Assurances, Party Processors, Poker Players, PokerStars, Real Money Poker, Sdny, Southern District Of New York, Ultimatebet, United States Attorney, Us Department Of Justice, Withdrawals, Worldwide Domain Names
Posted in Poker Industry News | No Comments »
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