Poker Sites Updates - Latest Online Poker Site Promotions

Poker Sites Updates - Latest Poker Promotions June 13, 2013

Online poker sites constantly have new promotions, tournaments and bonuses on offer to their players. At PokerSites.com you will find a wealth of information to help you choose the best poker site to play at. Below is a weekly roundup of the latest news and promotions.

If you're looking for a new online poker game to play, Full Tilt Poker has recently added Six-Card Omaha to their game selection. As the name would suggest, this is a game with a lot of cards: it essentially follows the same rules as Omaha, but players have six cards in their hand rather than the normal four. This results in exponentially more potential two-card combinations that might be used, meaning that players will frequently have monster hands. While the game isn't brand new (it has been referenced in articles about live poker for years), it does appear to be the first time the game has appeared in an online poker room. Full Tilt will feature the game in heads-up and six-max cash tables (there aren't enough cards in the deck to support a "full ring" game of Six-Card Omaha), and the game will also begin to show up in the tournament rotation on the site.
Two online poker companies have made major personnel changes this week in an effort to cut costs. In their latest move to cut spending, bwin.party has let go three major executives from their payroll, with more departures being possible in the near future. For poker players, the most notable loss is that of Steve Heller, the man who served as the CEO of the World Poker Tour. He is going to be replaced by WPT President Adam Pliska. Meanwhile, Zynga – which has long hosted Zynga Poker on Facebook, and has recently began offering online poker in the UK with the help of bwin.party – cut 520 jobs on Monday in an effort to reverse losses of as much as $39 million this quarter.

Have you ever dreamed of stepping onto the pitch at Old Trafford to test your skills? Well, Party Poker can't help you play football with Manchester United, but they are offering prizes that will let you rub shoulders with some Man U legends. Every day between now and August 4, players can win seats worth $400 in a tournament that will take place at Old Trafford. There are also weekly satellites that are giving away $1,575 VIP packages that include three nights of hospitality and accommodations along with $550 in spending money. That includes a VIP stadium tour and a player party, allowing you to meet some of your favorite footballers before stepping on to the pitch to play some poker!

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow continued his string of strong results in 2013 this week by winning the $5,000 Seven-Card Stud (Eight or Better) tournament at the World Series of Poker. It's the fourth career WSOP bracelet victory for Matusow, who has won more than $3.5 million at the series over the course of his career. Matusow had to beat a small but stacked field of 210 players to earn the title and the $266,503 first price. The final table included several other notables, including Gavin Smith, David Baker and Tony Cousineau. It was Matusow's second notable victory of 2013, as he also won the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship earlier this year.
After all of the hype, controversy and setbacks, the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) has now held their first even at Wembley Stadium in London. Rather than the tens of thousands of players organizers had originally hoped they might get to participate, the ISPT ultimately went off with just 761 runners, though that did include some notable names like Michael Mizrachi and Sam Trickett. The tournament was won by Polish player Jakub Michalak, who won €436,000. The final six players actually reached a deal that guaranteed each played over €200,000 before playing for the final €200,000, which Michalak was able to add to his winnings. The tournament guaranteed €1 million to first place, which meant there was an incredible €589,060 overlay provided by the organizers due to the smaller-than-expected field.

Earlier this year, the poker world was saddened by the loss of Jerry Buss, who was a regular in high-stakes poker games and tournaments in Las Vegas and California. Of course, this loss was felt just as strongly by the members of the Los Angeles Lakers family, as Buss owned the iconic basketball franchise. The World Series of Poker invited Lakers star Kobe Bryant to play in an event as a tribute to the late Dr. Buss. Bryant was forced to decline for medical reasons – he is currently recovering from surgery to get over a torn Achilles tendon – but thanked the World Series of Poker for the invite, saying he'd "be there in spirit, no bluff."

While there are some online gambling bills floating around the chambers of the United States Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that the odds on passing the current crop of bills is slim to none. In particular, Reid dismissed the chances of a bill introduced by Representative Peter King, one that would regulate and allow for poker and a host of casino games to be offered online at the federal level. According to Reid, the lack of political will for widespread online gambling could mean that bills such as this one could hurt the short-term prospects for more limited online poker bills as well, as online poker does have more support than Internet gambling in general – though, as we've seen in recent years, even passing an online poker bill at the federal level would be a difficult task.

Poker Sites Updates - Latest Poker Promotions June 6, 2013

The World Poker Tour has signed a new three-year deal with the FOX Sports Network to broadcast the WPT on the cable network through 2017. The deal will cover nearly 100 hours of programming, beginning with the upcoming Season XII which will begin this fall. A total of five main events will be receiving television coverage in 2013 as part of the tour's 12th season, beginning with the Legends of Poker tournament at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles this August. When the deal was announced, the WPT also announced the rest of their 2013 schedule (the first half of the upcoming season), which includes 11 full tour events and ten more regional and national events.

Are you ready for battle? If so, opt in for The Grand Battle at Titan Poker. Each week in June, Titan Poker will host a points race, with the top 40 players sharing in $5,000 in prize money. Everyone who makes the top 40 will earn at least $20 in cash, while the first place finisher will take home $750 – just for playing in cash games and tournaments just like you normally would! At the end of each week, the top ten players in the race will also take part in a $500 freeroll for a chance to earn even more cash. The first race is already underway, and new battles start each Monday.

The World Series of Poker is officially underway, and as is tradition, the series began with the Casino Employees Event. A total of 898 gaming industry employees participated in the $500 tournament, from a whole lot of poker dealers to some rather notable executives, including Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker itself. But in the end, it was a member of the poker media who took down the title. Chad Holloway, editor at PokerNews.com (which provides live coverage of tournaments for the WSOP) took down the top prize of $84,915 after a long heads-up contest against Allan Kwong. The Casino Employees Event showed a 22% increase in participation over the 2012 edition of this event, which could bode well for the overall numbers at this year's WSOP.
The biggest story thus far at the WSOP has been the so-called "Millionaire Maker" tournament, the $1,500 buy-in event that guaranteed a $1 million first prize. It wasn't surprising that the mix of a low buy-in and a high reward would draw in a huge crowd, but few expected the field of 6,343 players that ultimately took part in the tournament – a field so big that it allowed the WSOP to increase the first prize to almost $1.2 million. The tournament broke records for the largest field in a non-Main Event as well as the largest single day field in WSOP history. The tournament was won by Canadian Benny Chan, who defeated Michael Bennington in heads up play to earn his first bracelet.

Three more big name pros have jumped on the Ultimate Poker bandwagon, helping to promote the site in Nevada (and presumably in other markets as regulated poker expands throughout the United States). Jonathan Little, William Reynolds and Jason Somerville are all now part of the Ultimate Poker team, joining previous members Antonio Esfandiari and Terrance Chan. Jonathan Little is a two-time winner on the World Poker Tour, while Somerville has a WSOP bracelet among many other deep runs at both the World Series and on the WPT. Reynolds is best known as a high-stakes online cash game player, though he's had more than his share of tournament success as well.
One player who has made a big splash – pardon the pun – at the WSOP already is Michael Phelps. The American swimming superstar is best known for having won 22 medals (18 gold) at the Olympic Games, but he's also an avid poker player. And now that he has retired from competitive swimming at the ripe old age of 27, he's ready to spend more time at the poker tables. Phelps made his first appearance at the WSOP in Event #2, a $5,000 no-limit hold'em tournament that he was convinced to play in by Antonio Esfandiari and Jeff Gross. Phelps says that he'll be playing in many events throughout the course of the series.

Given the momentum of online poker at the state level, it was likely only a matter of time before online poker legislation made an appearance at the federal level in the United States as well. Sure enough, two more online poker bills will soon be introduced in the United States House of Representatives, one by Republican Peter King from New York and the other from Joe Barton, a Republican from Texas. While the details of each bill are unknown, they are likely to be similar to previous efforts, and reports say that both will give individual states the right to opt out of any online gambling program.

Poker Sites Updates - Latest Poker Promotions May 30, 2013

It's that time of the year again: the World Series of Poker is back. This year's edition of the world's biggest poker festival will feature a massive 62 bracelet events, including several new tournaments. The new events include the Millionaire Maker – a $1,500 buy-in tournament that has a guaranteed first prize of $1 million – and a couple of events that will continue to support the One Drop Charity, including a much more affordable $1,111 tournament that will let everyone get into the act of giving (while also having a shot at taking down a large prize, too). The Main Event, which promises to attract the year's largest live field yet again, will begin on July 6 and feature three starting days. Stay tuned over the next six weeks for coverage of all the biggest WSOP events.
If you're looking for some summer reading with a poker twist, you might want to check out Ben Mezrich's Straight Flush. This new book chronicles the rise and fall of Absolute Poker, from its early days as the dream of a few college fraternity brothers to its ultimate downfall after Black Friday. Mezrich has previously written on similar topics, with his best known book perhaps being Bringing Down the House, the story of the MIT Blackjack Team. While the book doesn't get into much detail of the "superuser" scandal that rocked Absolute Poker several years ago, it is otherwise a rather thorough look into how one of the more infamous companies in online poker was built.
Bwin.Party will continue its sponsorship agreement with Real Madrid, but the nature of that relationship will be changing in the years to come. Real Madrid jerseys will no longer feature the bwin.party name, with the company instead having its name and logo featured prominently throughout the team's stadium, website, and in other prime advertising positions. The relationship with one of the world's largest football clubs is critical for bwin.party as it attempts to improve its position in the Spanish online poker market. Their site currently stands as the third largest in the country, well behind 888Poker's site and even farther behind PokerStars, which has benefitted from its relationship with Rafael Nadal.

The rake races are back at Carbon Poker in June. Each week, you can participate in the $50,000 Race for Riches, in which the top 250 players who collect the most VIP Points each week will earn cash prizes of up to $2,000. Players can further improve their chances to win by playing in some of Carbon's spotlight tournaments, which will apply a bonus multiplier to their VIP Points that week! The first race begins on June 1st and ends June 7th, so hit the tables this weekend to get your share of the prize money.

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom captured another online title this week, winning the Main Event of the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). It was Blom's third SCOOP title in the last two years, having won back-to-back events in last year's series. The $10,000 buy-in tournament featured a field of 580 players, and ultimately came down to a heads-up battle between Blom and Dutch tournament specialist Noah "Exclusive" Boeken. The two played against each other for nearly an hour before Blom was able to flop a straight and get Boeken to commit all of his chips. Blom, who is now a sponsored pro at Full Tilt Poker, won close to $1.1 million for his victory.
The World Poker Tour season came to a close this week with the conclusion of the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The final table featured some big names, including Chino Rheem and Erick Lindgren, who would ultimately meet up to battle for the World Championship in heads-up play. Rheem had the chip lead virtually throughout the final table, and that advantage held up at the end, as Rheem was able to win the event and capture his second WPT title. Rheem won $1,150,297 for his victory. The WPT also crowned the WPT Player of the Year, with Matt Salsberg taking the honor thanks to his win at WPT Paris and two other final table appearances throughout Season XI.

Rumors are circulating once again that Caesars Entertainment may be making a big push to have their real money online poker site for the Nevada market up and running before the end of this summer's World Series of Poker. The site, which would have WSOP branding, is almost certainly headed for a summer launch. However, it's unclear as to whether that means it will be up and running by the start of the Main Event in early July. According to posts on twoplustwo.com, dealers were told to tell players during the WSOP that the site would be live sometime this summer, but that no exact launch date had yet been determined. Meanwhile, photos have surfaced of promotional materials that seem to be designed to be displayed at the WSOP, telling people that the WSOP site will be up this summer, and that players can sign up for the site at the WSOP festival itself.

Poker Sites Updates - Latest Poker Promotions May 23, 2013

PokerStars took a big loss in the courtroom this week, as a New Jersey judge overturned the temporary restraining order that had been placed on the Atlantic Club until the issues between the casino and the Rational Group (the parent company of PokerStars) could be worked out. Earlier this year, the casino agreed to a sale to the Rational Group for $15 million, the lowest price ever agreed to for the sale of an Atlantic City casino. However, the casino and parent company Resorts International Holdings backed out of the deal while PokerStars' regulatory approval to purchase the casino was still under review. While PokerStars claimed that this was in violation of New Jersey law, the court found that the contract between the two parties gave both sides the right to back out at any time regardless of the status of any licensing applications. Worse still, the deal left PokerStars out more than $11 million, as they had been picking up the operating expenses for the Atlantic Club while the deal was pending. Those payments were intended to be credited towards the eventual purchase price of the casino.
The practice of "ratholing" – players winning money at a no-limit table, leaving, and then returning with a small stack – has long been a frustrating one for poker players, as well as a difficult one for poker rooms to deal with. PokerStars is reportedly implementing a complex formula that will help deal with ratholing without preventing players from leaving tables when their stack has gotten to a size that they're simply not comfortable with. The method, which is expected to be implemented later this year, will involve tracking player stack sizes and only allowing players to buy-in for similar sizes for a short period of time. However, there are many exceptions and variations on this concept designed to make it fair for all players, and the final details have yet to be determined.

Want to experience a taste of the World Series of Poker without putting up thousands of dollars to pay for your buy-in? You might want to check out Titan Poker's "Titan Go Live" promotion. All you need to do is join and make your first deposit at Titan Poker anytime between now and June 1st. That will earn you an entry into a freeroll held on June 2nd, in which the winner will earn a $4,000 WSOP Experience Package that includes accommodations, flight, spending money, and a buy-in into a $1,500 WSOP tournament!

The World Poker Tour's World Championship is underway, with 146 entrants combining to create a prize pool of over $3.5 million. That's actually down from last year, but only slightly: the 2012 edition of this tournament featured 152 players. The eventual winner will take home a prize of $1,150,297. Players had to put up $25,000 to participate in the final event of the WPT season; players also had the opportunity to win a seat by winning any of the events during the last season (with $25,000 coming out of the prize pool to pay for the "automatic" entry). After four days of play, it's Chino Rheem who leads the eight remaining players at the top of the chip counts, having nearly double the stack of Erick Lindgren, who is currently in second position. Other notables who are still in contention include Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Roy and Rocco Palumbo.

Could Caesars have their Nevada online poker site up in time for the World Series of Poker? It would certainly be a big win for the company, as their WSOP-branded poker room would gain an incredible amount of exposure by being advertised during the festival itself, especially in the Main Event. That would help Caesars and partner 888 Holdings overcome the advantage Ultimate Poker gained by being the first to the market at the end of April. While Caesars hasn't announced an official launch date for their Nevada site, and they haven't specifically said that getting the site up during the WSOP is a priority, they have said that they fully expect the site to be offering real money poker sometime this summer.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Americans with outstanding balances in their Full Tilt Poker accounts could be waiting quite a bit longer for their expected refunds. According to a poster on the twoplustwo.com forums, conversations with the Garden City Group – the firm that will be administering the FTP remissions – have revealed that it could be as much as one or two more years before the cash is returned to American players. In addition, poker news site Pokerfuse reported that they have received an email from GCG that stated, among other issues, that the Department of Justice had yet to determine exactly how player claims should be calculated. One issue could be how to weigh account balances against "e-check" deposits that were never actually taken from American accounts in the months before Black Friday. It's also unknown whether refunds will be based on account balances, deposits, or some formula that takes both into account.