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PokerStars Launches Home Games Online
2011-01-12Poker players will be thrilled with the news that by accessing the latest product launched by PokerStars they will now be in a position to bring the informal atmosphere of social, home games to the internet.
The popular online poker site launched its Homes Games section recently which is a fun new concept that will enable players to form their own home game network among their friends and acquaintances by creating and managing their own private poker club. This will give players the opportunity to choose the games that they wish to play, who to play with and the time that they wish to play.
Daniel Negreanu, speaking on behalf of PokerStars, said “You have so many options when you open up your Poker Club and you can customize it anyway you want, just like you would in a home game with friends,” .
Although Home Games will soon be available for real money play at PokerStars.com it is currently only available on PokerStars.net.
A huge range of poker variants is supported by the Homes Games section including HORSE, Omaha, Hold’em and Mixed Games. A club can be created by players by selecting a club name and invitation code. Players then access their own exclusive poker lobby which can be customized with private Home Game tables and tournaments of their choice. Friends can then be invited by sending them the club ID and invitation code. A manager is also appointed to okay the entry of members who indicate their willingness to join the poker room after receiving an invitation.
Players then choose the game they want as well as the stakes and set the date for their online Home Game. All the details will automatically be sent by the system to fellow club members. They then get to compete against one another inside the club with a leader-board displaying the latest results.
Anonymous Online Poker Player Isildur1 is Victor Blom
2011-01-10One of the greatest mysteries of the online poker world that intrigued pokers players in the United Kingdom as well as in the rest of the world was solved this week after Isildur1 revealed himself at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event as being no other than the young Swede, Viktor Blom. This 20 year old “wunderkind” kept the online poker world guessing his true identity since October, 2009.
Isildur1 has been playing high stakes online poker since that date and taken on some of the biggest names in the poker industry, such as Patrik Antonius. His identity intrigued millions, including UK poker players, while his winnings (and losses) totaled millions after he took part in all ten of the largest pots in online poker history last year.
Isildur1 signed up with PokerStars last month in order to join their professional team and it was then promised that his true identity would be revealed in due time. His identity was revealed on Day 1a of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event when a special heads up match was organized between Isaldur1 and Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. There was a brief announcement after Grospellier took his place at the table followed by Isildur1, aka Viktor Blom, stepping out from the shadows and finally revealing his true identity.
The media was very eager to interview Blom and they succeeded in getting him to answer a few questions during the game. Evidently his decision to remain as Isildur1 and keeping his identity secret was because he had no desire for fame or attention. After being asked whether it was a relief to finally have his identity out in the open, he replied “I think a lot of people have
known for a long time who I really am, so it doesn’t make a big
difference to me. But when I signed for PokerStars I felt it was the right time to reveal my identity.” He added “I will now be playing a lot of EPT events and I really want to focus
and win one in 2011. I also think I’ll have some great SuperStar Showdown matches at PokerStars.com now that people know who I really
am.
PADDY POWER POKER RUNNING LEADER OF THE PACK PROMOTION
2011-01-04Gibraltar Rise in Taxes to prove costly for Online Poker Sites
2010-12-30The British territory’s announcement that it will be drastically inflating its taxes on online gambling firms in January, 2011, will probably prove to be very costly for many online poker sites.
At present online gambling companies are paying only 1% tax in Gibraltar with a ceiling of £425,000 but as of next month they will be obliged to pay the same 10% tax rate as what other businesses in Gibraltar pay.
Gibraltar has become something of an “online gambling capital” due to the low tax rate and Poker rooms such as 888poker and PartyPoker have their headquarters there. Online bookmakers William Hill and Ladbrokes also made their move to Gibraltar in 2009 which has resulted in the Treasure of the United Kingdom losing about £12 million per year.
Peter Caruana, Gibraltar’s first minister, said that the tax increase was due to the decision made by the Gibraltar government to confirm to European law. He stated “To comply with EU law, we must phase out the tax exempt company in 2010. However, in order to sustain our successful economic model, we must retain a commitment to a very competitive corporate tax model.”
PartyPoker is owned and operated by Party Gaming from Gibraltar. Party Gaming, who recently announced details of its merger with online gambling giant bwin, stated that it would keep its headquarters in Gibraltar while bwin would continue to operate in Austria. It is not yet known whether or not the news of the tax increase would change those plans but Party Gaming has known about the increase for quite awhile and feels that the tax is still going to be very low.
Although online companies will now pay the standard 10% tax that is paid by other businesses in Gibraltar, they will not be subjected to any Value Added Tax (VAT) and gambling companies will, therefore, still be attracted to Gibraltar.
2011 World Series of Poker Dates Announced
2010-12-27The dates for the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker due to take place in 2011 have already been announced.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a set of poker tournaments that is open to anyone from 21 years or older and its 2011 campaign will commence on Tuesday, 31st May, 2011 and run continually for 50 days until Tuesday, 19th July, 2011. WSOP is one of the richest sporting events in the world and continues to attract the best poker players on the planet. The event’s rise to fame came after Benny Binion invited six of the world’s best poker players to play with him at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas in 1970.
The 2011 event will be held in the Convention Centre of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada where it has been held since 2005.
The World Series of Poker Main Event will commence on Thursday, 7th July, 2011 and as usual, will feature four starting days, namely 7th July, 8th July, 9th July and 10th July, 2011. The WSOP Main Event will be the final tournament of the 2011 WSOP with its conclusion scheduled for Tuesday, 19th July, 2011, after reaching the final table of nine players.
There will be a change in the 2011 event with the inclusion of hard stop times for all the bracelet events with players playing a maximum of 10 levels per day. After the completion of 10 levels those players remaining will have their chips bagged and tagged and will return the following day to continue in the tournament. Hard stop times will be enforced after 10 levels of play no matter how many players remain in a tournament.
The full schedule with individual tournaments, dates, times and buy-ins of the entire 42nd Annual World Series of Poker will be released some time in January 2011.
Devilfish Poker Limited Sold to The Weather Lottery Plc
2010-12-23Lottery and gaming firm The Weather Lottery has announced that it has acquired the online poker company Devil Fish Poker Limited, the sole trading subsidiary of Devilfish Gaming plc, in a £330,000 cash and shares deal.
Doncaster-based Weather Lottery plc which describes itself as a company with “ten years of business experience in Lotteries and registered with the Gambling Commission as an External Lottery Manager” on its website will make a cash payment of £40,000 to Devilfish Gaming plc and the balance of £290,000 in Weather Lottery shares.
Devil Fish Poker intends using the funds from the sale to settle its liabilities and to endeavor to keep the company operating while it seeks out other business opportunities. The reason why Devilfish Gaming plc ran into trouble is because after the launch of Devil Fish Poker Ltd., it was not able to acquire the UK’s white-listing approval and it was therefore barred from advertising to its optimal market target. Another factor contributing to Devilfish’s problem was the global economic downturn which resulted in Devil Fish Poker turning over £783,353 for the year ending 30th June, 2010, with a net loss of £106,331.
Devilfish Gaming plc maintains that there is great value in the brand because of its association with the UK’s highest earning poker pro Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott who has won over £5.8 million from poker since 1993 and a WSOP bracelet in 2007 at the $1k PLO event.
The Weather Lottery chairman, Tim Razzall, confirmed that Devil Fish Poker has an established brand name which will compliment the existing gaming operations of The Weather Lottery. He added “We have a growing database of users in both FCBetz.com and FC Lotto some of whom will we believe wish to take advantage of the DFP products.”
After expanding into online gaming in July, The Weather Lottery established the brand name FC BETZ.com in order to complement its established lottery management business.
VictorChandler’s Entraction move completed
2010-12-21Participants at Victor Chandler.com, the Gibraltar-licensed online poker offering, began playing on a new network this month after it moved from iPoker to the Swedish Entraction Network.
The site launched in 2002 and currently has approximately one million registered players.
VictorChandler.com has now announced that it will be holding a series of special freeroll tournaments in order to celebrate the completion of its move to the Entraction Poker Network.
The poker site is holding free-to-enter games, one of which took place on 21st December, 2012 and two more which are scheduled to take place on 26th and 30th December, 2010 from 8 pm UK time. These games will feature a prize pool of €500. The free-to-enter events will be increased by two more €1,000 Festive Freerolls with a buy-in of one player point earned within the previous forty-eight hours on 23rd December and 28th December from the same time.
Andy Horne, Head of Poker for VictorChandler.com made a statement saying that they have moved house just in time for Christmas and are celebrating with a massive schedule of poker presents that will suit all pockets.
Victor Chandler.com has also revealed that its Continuation Bet Cash-Back Bonus is running from now until 31st December 2010 which is rewarding players who were eligible to claim VIP cash-back for the first 15 days of the month and Horne said “Players simply generate an amount of VIP points equal to ten-times their earlier VIP cash-back payment and VictorChandler.com will match that earlier payment in cash.”
Players making a deposit using the bonus code “Speed” between now and Christmas Eve will be rewarded with a 1,000 percent bonus of up to €1,000 and will then be given seven days to release as much of this bonus as they possibly can at a rate of one Euro for every 20 VIP points.
William Hill Poker Launches Football Freeroll Promotion
2010-12-16William Hill Poker has come up with an exciting way to sweeten the holidays with some top football action and top quality online poker action, all rolled into one.
The poker site announced that Poker players at the site can already qualify for William Hill Poker’s “£200 Festive Football Freerolls” promotion.
The site is putting up a prize pool of GBP 2,000 and the promotion is therefore bound to attract many players who would love to get their hands of this super amount to spend during the holiday season.
The William Hill £200 Festive Football Freerolls will begin on the 26th of December 2010 and continue until the 5th of January, 2011 and players will be offered the opportunity of winning £200 at each of the ten tournaments that are included in the promotion. Due to the fact that the promotion is football themed, every one of the ten tourneys is to be named after a soccer match that is being played out on that particular day and the winners will be awarded with £200 in cash. Players will be delighted to enjoy football this Christmas with a chance to score such a whopping amount.
The first stage to qualify for this exciting event entails Opting-in for the freerolls. This can be done by clicking on the green “Click Here to Opt-In” button that is featured at the William Hill Poker website on the page of the promotion.
The second stage is for players to accumulate points at William Hill Poker so as to be granted entry to the freerolls. In order for players to fully qualify and be awarded with entry tokens they need accumulate only one point which must be done any time between now and 5th of January, 2011.
New players at William Hill Poker are offered a whopping £400 bonus when signing up to the site for the first time.
William Hill Poker is part of the iPoker Network which is powered by Platech.
PKR POKER LAUNCHES CHRISTMAS CRACKER PROMOTION
2010-12-14Following on the success of previous years, PKR.com, the graphic rich 3D leading online poker site, has announced that it will once again be launching its Christmas Cracker Tournament this year.
The Christmas Cracker Promotion proved to be extremely popular among online players in the past few years and this year’s tournament promises to be even bigger and better than before, with a total of $238,000 in expected prize pools up for grabs.
The very popular tournament is scheduled to commence on 23rd December, 2010 and will feature thirteen events over the festive season giving players an opportunity to win state of the art technology prizes in the Santa’s Grotto Freeroll which, according to PKR Poker, will help to add extra sparkle to the festive season.
500 chips to the Santa Grotto Freeroll will be handed out by PKR Poker for every Christmas Cracker event that players participate in. Except for the coveted PKR Masters, all the other events feature direct buy-ins. The Poker room has been running satellites for the Masters throughout the month of December.
A press release by popular PKR Poker read: “The nights are drawing in and that means one thing for PKR.com players…Christmas is on the horizon and the Christmas Cracker is back with a bang”
Neil Wright, Cardroom Manager for PKR, said “We look forward to welcoming the Christmas Cracker back to the tournament schedule this year. With nearly two weeks of fantastic events, the festival offers something for everyone”.
As always, PKR rewards its players with many generous promotions and rewards. The site uses their advanced gaming technology to serve the game of poker and enhance the player’s experience in ways that no other poker room can possible do. Players on PKR can interact and engage with each other and with the game in a one-of-a-kind game feature in a way that is personal and very entertaining.
Few More Weeks Left for Paddy Power Pantsdown Promotion
2010-12-11Paddy Power Poker.com has been giving away stacks of extra cash to its players during the past few months though its popular Paddy’s Pantsdown promotion.
In September this year, due to the promotion’s popularity the Poker site decided to extend the series until the end of this year stating at the time that the popular poker site would be giving away in excess of $100,000 to poker fans in prize money in the months leading to 31st December, 2010 with money added tournaments each and every day.
There are now only a few weeks left for players to enjoy multiple tourneys with buy-ins starting from a mere $1.
Players participating in multiple money-added tournaments in any single week are automatically entered into a special Friday’s Play-Off Freeroll each of which feature a $2,000 prize pool.
The tournamental giveaway includes prize pools with up to $400 added at a time.
The weekly Paddy’s Pantsdown tournament schedule is as follows:-
Monday 7.45 pm $2 buy-in ($200 added)
Monday 8.30 pm $4 buy-in ($400 added)
Tuesday 7.45 pm $1 buy-in ($200 added)
Tuesday 8.30 pm $3 buy-in ($300 added)
Wednesday 7.45 pm $2 buy-in ($200 added)
Wednesday 8.30 pm $4 buy-in ($400 added)
Thursday 7.45 pm $1 buy-in ($200 added)
Thursday 8.30 pm $3 buy-in ($300 added)
Friday 8.00 pm Qualifier Freeroll
($2,000 added)
Saturday 7.45 pm $1 buy-in ($200 added)
Saturday 8.30 pm $3 buy-in ($300 added)
Sunday 7.45 pm $1 buy-in ($200 added)
Sunday 8.30 pm $3 buy-in ($300 added)
New players who open an account with paddy Power Poker are currently being offered a whopping $600 bonus which is in the form of a 150% match bonus on their first deposit.
Paddy points are awarded to players each time they play at the Paddy Power Poker.com site and the more they play the more points will be earned.
Players who earn points are part of the C*A*S*H* army which enables them to earn different rewards depending on their rank. These rewards include free entry in exclusive VIP freerolls offering up to $1,000 in prize value as well as monthly cash bonuses of up to $800.
