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Bwin.party and 888 shares soar after US Poker Sites Crackdown

UK online gaming companies will no doubt be seeing huge wins as a result of the illegal gambling charges being faced by American competitors after their websites were shut following a government crackdown on illegal gambling.

Affiliates and processors are now switching to safer sites and Playtech Holdings shares shot up 8% and 19% respectively while Bwin.party shares shot up 30%, as investors bet on high-value players.  These big wins for the European companies is due to the moves by the US government on Friday, 15^th April, 2011, to lay charges against the establishers of three of the world’s largest online poker companies after the biggest crackdown on electronic gambling since the industry was banned by Congress in America in 2006.  The US government has accused the initiators of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker of money laundering, illegal gambling as well as bank fraud.

Geetanjali Sharma, Execution Noble analyst said “The US-facing operators have been a drain on the profitability of the European operators as their US liquidity drew the non-US poker players. At the same time these operators diverted cash gained from the US operations to gain market share in the regulating territories in Europe. The closure of the main competitors’ operations and the US legal proceedings initiated against them should benefit European listed operators.”

Although non-US players are still able to play poker on the banned sites, the disruption could possibly drive some punters to rival operators.

The day after the crackdown on the illegal websites, Las Vegas casino group Wynn Resorts cancelled an agreement that it had struck with PokerStars three weeks ago and Fertitta Interactive, the owner of Station Casinos, pulled out of its recently announced deal with Full Tilt as well.

888 was also hit last week when bookmaking group, Ladbrokes, withdrew from protracted takeover talks.

Seat at top Poker Tournament Up For Grabs

The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) is back for its fifth year and this year’s tour promises to be the most wide-ranging and value-filled tour yet.   The event is offering the unique Champion of Champions tournaments as a bonus after every leg and thus promises a momentum that should last right through the year, culminating in the Grand Final in December, 2011, which will include the £2,000 World Heads Up Championship.

Leg 3 of this prestigious poker tour is due to be held at G Casino, Walsall, from 25^th April to 1^st May and in celebration of this event, the Sunday Mercury and G Casinos has teamed up and is giving away two wonderful competition prizes.  A statement in the Sunday Mercury a few days ago read “Win a seat at a top poker tournament”.   Anyone wishing to enter need simply answer the question as to whether the GUKPT leg starts on 25^th April, 25^th May or 25^th June.

One lucky reader of the Sunday Mercury will have the opportunity to win a wonderful two-part prize.  The first part of the prize will see the winner being joined with up to nine friends on Wednesday 27^th April, 2011, for a two-hour poker training session.  The lucky winner will also have a seat in the GUKPT Walsall tournament on Sunday, 1^st May, 2011 and enjoy a gourmet meal for two in The Gallery restaurant.

The lucky runner-up in this competition will have an opportunity to win an exclusive seat in gcasino.com’s GUKPT 10% Series online tournament.

As if these prizes are not sufficient, a free place in the GUKPT Champion of Champions event with a £10,000 prize pool will also be earned by the winner of both the on and the offline events.

Players have a chance to qualify for the GUKPT by playing satellite events in casino or online at gcasino.com.  Buy ins for GUKPT Walsall events range between £100 to £1,000 with over £250,000 in prize money created.

Betfair Offering 2011 WSOP Prize Packages

Betfair Poker is following Bwin Poker’s example and has announced that it is also offering dozens of World Series of Poker entry packages through their online satellite tournaments.

The Wild West-themed $70,000 Points Race promotion at Betfair Poker is entitled “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and the site will be putting $15,000 in World Series of Online Poker buy-ins up for grabs.  The promotion started on Friday, 1^st April, 2011 and will run over an eight week span until Friday, 27^th May, 2011.

The four best scores of each player every week during the period of the promotion will determine their overall position on the leader board with the top 3 players being awarded one of 3 $10,000 Main Event seats.  Those players who finish 4^th to 150^th will get to share the remaining $40,000.

A 6-Shooter promotion is also being offered at Betfair Poker where players will have an opportunity to earn as many 6-shooter tournament tickets as they can during this month and May.  Six events in all will be held and each event will award two $5,700 World Series of Poker side event packages to the top players.

The standard $2,500 Welcome Freeroll event that is usually available to new members is to be changed by Betfair Poker.  Whereas the event previously stood as a daily guaranteed freeroll as an incentive for new sign ups, Betfair Poker has announced that the event will occur every two weeks during April and May with a $5,700 prize pool.  This prize pool includes $1,400 in World Series of Online Poker satellite tickets as well as a $3,600 World Series of Online Poker ticket for a side event.

Between 15^th April and 27^th May, there will be weekly freerolls running at the site which is by invitation-only offering a $250 prize pool and a $54 World Series of Online Poker satellite entry ticket.

Players who generate 100 VIP points after making a deposit will also be offered a $2,000 freeroll by Betfair on 3^rd June.  This is also an invitation-only event.

Genting Poker Offering Trips to Vegas

Genting Poker is currently running no less than six promotions at the site, thereby offering players lots of poker action and massive prizes.

Included in the prizes being given away by Genting Poker to lucky winners are exciting trips to Las Vegas.  Winners will be flown to Vegas where they will spend seven nights at the luxurious Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino.   The prize package, which is worth $5,000, includes the flights, transport and $3,200 in spending money.

Genting Poker is offering players numerous ways to get their hands on one of the super prize packages.  One of these is to enter the Online Rake Chase promotion.

The Online Rake Chase promotion guarantees one of these fantastic Las Vegas Packages (worth $5,000) to every player that succeeds in generating over $15,000 in rake and tournament fees.  It will not be necessary for players to opt in for this particular promotion and every single player generating over $15,000 will win the package, no matter how many players reach this criteria.

Players who generate more than $15,000 in Rake and Tournament fees will have an opportunity to earn even more.

Those players who finish in the Top 10 of the table will be awarded additional prizes.  The race commenced on 4^th April and will run until Sunday, 15^th May, 2011.

Another way for players to win the wonderful Las Vegas Package is by playing in one of the big network tournaments from now until Sunday 15^th May. The Las Vegas Package will be added to the winner’s prize.  Winners should send an email to winner@gentingpoker.com who will confirm their extra prize once verifying the claim.

More ways to win a trip to Las Vegas is for players to win one of nine network tourneys that Genting Poker is running between now and 15^th May, 2011, through the Stoke 150 Tournament at the site on 1^st May, 2011 or the Salford 200 event on 7^th and 8^th May, 2011. 

2011’s Top Ten Online Poker Winners

It is any player’s dream to earn big at online poker sites and in order to inspire players a list of some of the biggest earners at winner’s leader-board online poker this year so far has been compiled.

Many of the big names are starting to move to the top of the board and both Phil Ivey and Daniel Cates are now in the top 5.  Guy Hansen is still the biggest winner for the year and has made over $4 million in profits so far during 2011.  Cates is, however, down over $400k under his PokerStarts screen-name of W00ki3z.

.Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galford, was online pokers biggest loser for 2011 through February 2011 and is now just outside of the Top 10 on the winners’ side.  However, he managed to turn a deficit of more than $1 million into a profit of $700,000 in March, ending the month as the biggest winner.

Tom “durrr” Dwan is currently the biggest loser for the year with almost $2 million in losses during 2011 while Full Tilt Poker Pro Patrik Antonius is also down with about $500,000 in losses at this stage.

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom is also $383,965 in the red while Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu is $406,417 in the red. 

At the very top of the list is Full Tilt Poker’s Guy Hansen who earned a whopping amount of $4,097,298 in the first three months of this year.

The list of the Top 10 money winners through March, 2011, is as follows:-

1. Gus Hansen – Full Tilt Poker – $4,097,298

1. Daniel “jungleman12” Cates – Full Tilt Poker –

$1,959,267

1. gav101 – PokerStars – $1,800,648

1. Matt Hawnrilenko – Full Tilt Poker – $1,385,018

1. Phil Ivey – Full Tilt Poker – $1,186,529

1. EazyPeazy – Full Tilt Poker – $1,050,028

1. NoPassaran – Full Tilt Poker – $1,013,530

1. O Fortuna PLS – Full Tilt Poker – $986,969

1.  bixiu – Full Tilt Poker – $907,678

10.  Andreas “skjervoy” Torebergsen – Full Tilt Poker –

        $831,808

UK Online Poker Site Leaves Cake Poker Network

Yet another online poker site has announced that it is leaving the ever-shrinking Cake Poker Network. This time, the UK-facing online poker room, Gutshot Poker announced that it will be defecting the network and joining the iPoker Network instead.  The move will be almost immediate and players will be able to find new poker action from the beginning of this month already.

In a brief statement, Gutshot Poker said: “Here’s the news you’ve all be waiting for: Gutshot Poker is moving to iPoker, the world’s largest poker network, on April 4th!”

Gutshot Poker joined the Cake Poker Network in 2008, after transferring over from Microgaming’s poker network. 

The Cake Poker Network has been seeing the backs of too many online poker sites of late, beginning with Doyles Room which left in January to join the rival Yatahay Poker Network.  There are still unconfirmed reports that Victory Poker, which currently resides on the Cake Poker Network will be jumping ship to join the Cereus Network (home to UB.com and Absolute Poker).

 Late last month, Cake Poker entered into a strategic alliance with Poker Listings poker portal, and a press release from the network read: “A notable aspect of this partnership includes an ongoing commitment from Poker Listings to drive a minimum of 2,000 new depositing players per month to the Cake Poker Network, which will have a significant impact on the number of recreational first time depositors.”

“This partnership adds considerable strength to the position of the Cake Network by ensuring a steady stream of new depositing players every month, which will soften games and increase liquidity across the network,” concluded the group in its press statement.

New Manager for GUKPT

The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) has announced that it has hired a new tour manager for the 2011 season. Jeff Leigh, who has many years experience in the poker world, will be the new manager for GUKPT 2011 and he gave a recent media interview on the exciting and challenging task ahead of him. Leigh joins the tour after working for many years as the Senior Card Room Manager at Victoria Casino in London.

He said in the interview that he was exctited about his new job. “Despite my many years in poker and at the Vic, I am still enthusiastic,” he said.

“Russel Tamplin has done a fantastic job as director, and now as national poker manager – I want to build on what he’s done.”

Leigh said that while one person was needed to make the final decision, there are a lot of people “on the route”, including customers, dealers and staff with their own opinions and ideas who ultimately contribute to the process of the tour.

The next stop of the GUKPT is on April 24th in Walsall. The Main Event of the Walsall GUKPT stop will be held on April 29th, featuring a GBP 1,000 buy in at the Grosvenor Casino. The tour will also make stops in Dundee, Brighton, Plymouth and Bolton, before moving on to Southampton, Sheffield and Luton. The tour will round off in Coventry and Blackpool before the final event in London on November 21st, 2011 at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino.

Leigh was philopsophical about his new role. “Poker players are a certain breed,” he said. “It’s like being a football manager, you’re only as good as your last game. You’re only as good as your last decision.”

Poker Stars Joins Forces with Wynn Resorts

One of the leading online poker sites in the world, Poker Stars will join forces with Wynn Resorts, the Las Vegas based casino conglomerate, founded and headed by billionaire casino tycoon, Steve Wynn.  The two entities will work together to push for changes in gambling legislation in the United States and will create a new online poker brand, to be known as PokerStarsWynn.com once these changes come about.

The announcement on Friday regarding Wynn’s decision to partner with Poker Stars was seen as particularly dramatic, since the billionaire has been very vocal in the past regarding his opposition to the legalization and regulation of online poker. However, it seems that even a man as powerful as Mr. Wynn can do nothing to stop the tide of support for changes in the US legislation governing online poker, and for him it was simply a question of’ if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them’.

“After much study, we are convinced that the lack of regulation of internet gambling within the United States much change,” said Wynn in a statement. “We must recognize that this activity is occurring and that law enforcement does not have the tools to stop it. As a company that has safely conducted gambling in the US for more than 40 years, we believe that the same can be done for poker on the internet.”

Poker Stars added in the press release: “PokerStars.com is closely regulated in many European countries and it has been endorsing the adoption of the same approach in the United States for years, with this alliance representing a critical step in that direction.”

It was only a few days ago that another Vegas giant, Caesars Entertainment  announced that it would be partnering with 888 Holdings, the London trading online gambling company, in a bid to expand to the UK market.

Jamie Flynn Wins Paddy Power Poker Student Masters Competition

An eighteen year old student has proven his poker prowess by winning the Paddy Power Poker Student Masters Competition this weekend. Jamie Flynn took part in the tournament on Saturday March 19th at the Jackpot Card Club in Dublin, Ireland and came out on top out of a field of 127 players. His efforts were definitely worthwhile after he took home EUR 3,000 in cash, which will certainly help him as a student at the University of Limerick, as well as the most coveted of all prizes – entry into the Irish Open 2011 tournament that is set to take place next month in Dublin.

Flynn will proudly represent Paddy Power Poker at the Irish Open and try and get as far as possible in the competition that is set to attract 700 players from Ireland, the UK and the rest of the world. The prize pool in this competition is a staggering EUR 2.2 million and Flynn is hoping that his experience in the Student Masters will be enough to get him deep into the tournament.

The Student Masters tournament began on Saturday, March 19th and players pitched their skills in order to get their hands on a piece of the EUR 12,000 prize pool, as well as entry into the Irish Open 2011 which was added by Paddy Power Power.  Players paid EUR 100 + EUR 10 to enter the Student Masters – a fair price for such a good sized prize pool and the chance to enter the Irish Open.  A total of 12 players won cash in this tournament.

Second place in the Student Masters went to Gary Clarke who won EUR 2,400, while John Allan won EUR 1,800 for third place.

PKR Poker’s ‘Main Event’ Proves to be Very Popular

PKR Poker’s new promotion, the Main Event, is proving to be extremely popular with online poker players. Last weekend’s first Main Event saw 1,400 players land at the site in a bid to enjoy the inaugural meeting of this promotion. The event was spread over two nights of non stop poker action so as to accommodate players who want to enjoy quality poker but need to get up for work the next day. The Main Event was played over Sunday and Monday night with a buy in of $35. Players were given a 10,000 starting stack and  30 minute blind levels.

“These tournaments showcase the innovative and affordable choice we provide to our players,” said Simon Prodger, the Marketing Director of PKR Poker. “By continually evolving our schedule, we have ensured old favorites such as the Masters and new additions like the Main Event offer every player a great value poker experience.”

As noted by Prodger, the ever-popular PKR Masters featured a $100,000 prize pool last weekend. The event kicked off at 8 pm on Saturday evening and was eventually won by Twister86, a poker player from Luxembourg who pocketed over $26,000 for his efforts.

The new Main Event started off with a $25,000 guaranteed prize pool, but with 1,403 players taking part in the competition, that number was soon pushed up to $44,896.  The player, known as McLash80 who hails from Ireland, eventually went home with top prize of $8,441.

“Congratulations to the weekend’s winners,” said Prodger.

PKR players added their comments about the new Main Event, with the majority of them being extremely positive. Miragedrum, for example, wrote: “Excellent tourney guys. Very well put together,” while almackpool said: “Enjoyed this immensely as it’s right up my street.”  Rocafella summed it up by saying: “Brilliant tourney. The praise is deserved. Look forward to the next one.”