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Partypoker Launches Progressive Knockout Tournaments and Fast Five Cash Games

Partypoker is giving its tournament and cash games players an opportunity to enjoy an exciting new format by adding Progressive Knockout tournaments and Fast Five cash games to the site.

Progressive Knockout tournaments, that are also known as Progressive Bounty tournaments, offer players an opportunity to win huge amounts of money without being required to cash in the actual tournament and are, therefore, a popular variant in the online poker world.

The tournaments see each player commencing the tournament with a bounty on their heads which increases each time they eliminate an opponent, making that particular player a more attractive target for the remaining players at the time.  The player who wins the tournament is awarded the first-place prize as well as their own bounty, which could be quite large by this stage.

Partypoker will be running Progressive Knockout tournaments three times per day to begin with but will probably be adding more to the schedule within the next few weeks.

Monday to Saturday Schedule

Fast Five cash games are six-handed no limit hold’em cash games that lead to fast and furious action with players sitting down with only five big blinds.  Several of partypoker’s rivals who also offer this cash game variant call theirs “Push or Fold”.

The Group Head of partypoker, Tom Waters, commented on the new poker games by saying that they have launched two new products on partypoker that will suit both tournament as well as cash game players.  He added that Progressive Knockout tournaments are a popular format in the poker community and it was, therefore, important to respond to feedback and offer these on partypoker.  Waters also said that Fast Five is a fun, fast-paced cash game, suitable for players with only a short amount of time but wanting quick action.

Partypoker Sign Boris Becker as Ambassador

GVC-owned partypoker has revealed that it has appointed German tennis legend Boris Becker as a brand ambassador to its online poker service, as it endeavors to expand its poker offering in Germany.

The six-time Major Singles winner and former World No.1, who left his role as coach of World No. 2 Nova Djokovic earlier this week, has signed up as the newest brand ambassador for the online poker site.

This year alone, partypoker has signed Roberto Romanello, Natalia Breviglieri, Beata Jambrik, Patrick Leonard, Sam Trickett, Jackie Glazier and Joao Simao as ambassadors or sponsored pros as it looks to expand its reach into countries around the globe.

Becker not only has legendary status within the tennis community but can also boast some impressive live tournament results.  Becker finished 40^th in the $25,500 WPT Five Star World Poker Classic for $40,855 in 2009 and also more recently fell in 13^th place for £15,000 after putting together a deep in the inaugural Devilfish Cup.

Partypoker will be running a tennis-themed promotion called Beat the Ace, in order to celebrate Becker’s signing, giving players an opportunity to play in four $5,000 free-rolls with the overall winner taking on Becker heads-up, live in Germany, for a prize of up to $25,000.

Becker commented on his excitement of signing for partypoker by saying that he is equally competitive at the poker table as he was on the tennis court and is, therefore really excited to be partnering with partypoker and taking on players around the world.  He went on to say that he learnt to play poker a long time ago and, being a game of skill and perseverance, he is hoping to use his experience on the tennis court to his advantage.  Becker added that partypoker has some world class tournaments coming up and he is eagerly looking forward to playing online as well as live at the partypoker MILLIONS in April.

Tom Waters, partypoker’s Group Head, welcomed Becker to his team saying that it is great to have Boris on board, as he is one of Germany’s, and indeed the world’s most notable sportsmen.

Becker previously served as brand ambassador for Tangelo Games (formerly ISISFriends), Youwin.com, Global Poker Index and PokerStars.

Partypoker Sign Sam Trickett as an Ambassador

Partypoker is thrilled to reveal that it has signed a deal with Sam Trickett that will see the professional poker player become a brand ambassador.

Trickett, who is also known as “Tricky”, has already won more than $20.5 million from live poker tournaments since arriving on the scene in 2007.  Winning a £110 buy in tournament in May 2007 for £3,610 was the beginning of great things to come for the Nottingham based pro.

After finishing fourth in a $5,000 no-limit hold’em event at the World Series of Poker for $245,927 in 2008, Trickett followed up that impressive result with a victory in the £1,060 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Luton Main Event for £109,050 a few months later.

The results enjoyed by Trickett since 2010 are as follows –

• Second place in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em eventat the 2010 WSOP for $505,725
• Fourth place in the €5,300 EPT Vilamoura Main Eventfor €139,681
• First place in the $10,000 partypoker World Openfor $200,000
• First place in the A$100,500 High Rollerat the 2011 Aussie Millions for A$1,525,000
• Second place in the A$250,000 Super High Rollerat the 2011 Aussie Millions for A$1,400,000
• First place in the €8,500 Partouche Poker Tourfor €1,000,000
• Seventh place in the HK$258,000 Super High Roller in Macaufor HK$7,750,000
• First place in the A$250,000 Challengeat the 2013 Aussie Millions for A$2,000,000
• Second place in the $125,000 partypoker Premier Leaguefor $254,000
• Fifth place in the €50,000 Super High Rollerat the 2014 EPT Barcelona for €288,400

Trickett is at present competing at the Caribbean Poker Party in Punta in the Dominican Republic.

The English high roller will represent partypoker at global events throughout 2017 as part of his duties as a partypoker ambassador.

Trickett will also host the soon-to-be launched “Trickett’s Cash Games” online at partypoker which will be for high stakes and are invite-only with partypoker players having an opportunity to win a seat on one of these tables and rub shoulders with the winningest poker player in the UK.

Tom Waters, Group Head of partypoker, said that it is testament to the recent success that such an esteemed player like Sam was eager to join the team.  He added that Sam will be a great addition to partypoker, hosting new and exciting high stakes cash games on the site, that he is sure will make great viewing for the players.

Unibet to Host its Largest Main Event in Bucharest

The Unibet Open has been a sought-after poker festival for both recreational and professional players ever since its very first event was held in the year 2007.

The series will be closing out 2016 with what it expects to be the biggest and best Unibet Open in its entire history, stopping in the beautiful city of Bucharest, Romania for the first time.

Bucharest will host a €500,000 guaranteed main event for the Unibet Open Poker Tour 2016 from Thursday, 1^st December to Sunday, 4^th December 2016 with the season finale in Romania capped at 800 players and organizers estimating a record-breaking event.

Nataly Sopacuaperu, Head of Live Events at Unibet, commented on the season finale by saying that they have worked with Pokerfest Romania for a number of months in order to put everything in place.  She also said that they are extremely happy to up the cap to 800 and GTD half a million.  Sopacuaperu went on to say that this is the biggest event that they have ever done.

Players will be treated to the well-known Unibet hospitality and will be staying at the luxurious Marriott Hotel.  They will be welcomed with drinks, players’ party and a host of activities away from the poker table.

The poker festival will kick off with the €220 NLH – Six Max, featuring a 20,000 starting stack and blinds increasing every 20 minutes.

Players are all attracted to the four day €1,100 Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event featuring a massive guaranteed prize pool of €500,000.  Players will be competing in this tournament during two separate opening flights with 30,000 chips and blinds increasing every 60 minutes on 1^st and 2^nd December 2016.  All the surviving players will compete on Saturday, 3^rd and Sunday 4^th December 2016 until such time as the latest Unibet Open Main Event champion is crowned.

The record currently lies with the 2010 Unibet Open Budapest that saw a Dutchman, Anthon-Pieter Wink beat a field of 460 players.

It will, however, not surpass the highest prize of $305,326 paid to Finland’s Thanh Doan in 2009 when the tournament buy-in was set at a much higher £2,750.

888poker to Celebrate Fifth Mega Deep Anniversary

The $215 Mega Deep is one of 888poker’s most popular tournaments on its busy Sunday schedule.  The Mega Deep usually has a guaranteed prize pool that ranges between $100,000 and $150,000.  However, the tournament that is scheduled to be held on Sunday, 27^th November 2016 will feature a massive $500,000 guarantee in celebration of the Fifth Mega Deep anniversary.

Launched on 1^st January, 2012, the Mega Deep has maintained its popularity in the almost five years that 888poker has been hosting the tournament and has grown into a sought-after event for a number of the most proficient online poker players in the world.

The Mega Deep that took place on Sunday, 13^th November 2016 saw a total of 660 players exchanging amounts of $215 for the chance to become the tournament’s champion.  These players managed to create a $132,000 prize pool that exceeded the guarantee by an amount of $12,000.  “que_te_crio” emerged triumphant on that day and banked a whopping $24,750.  However, the winner of the Fifth Anniversary Mega Deep being held on 27^th November 2016 will be taking home a much more substantial cash haul.

Players entering the anniversary special of the Mega Deep will receive 10,000 chips for their buy-in of $215, get to play to 20-minute blinds and also have the option to make one re-entry, giving them a second chance to win the massive amount of $500,000.

888poker is already running online satellites and commence with buy-ins from only $0.01, thus giving everyone an opportunity to get involved in the celebrations, no matter what their bankroll or skill levels are.

888poker Ambassador Chris Moorman, known as Moorman1 and 888Moorman online, will be playing in the $500,000 guaranteed Mega Deep.

Moorman revealed in 888poker’s online magazine that with the amazing structure that allows for great flexibility of play, the Mega Deep has always been one of his favorite tournaments of the week.  Moorman went on to say that upping the prize pool to half a million dollars makes this a must-play for any aspiring or professional poker player.

888Live Rozvadov Festival Heads to King’s Casino in January 2017

Following the overwhelming success of the inaugural 888Live Festival held at Aspers Casino in London, 888poker is once again getting ready to run another amazing festival at the end of January 2017 at the King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. The 888Live Rozvadov Festival will take place over the course of 10 days and feature 12 tournaments with combined guaranteed prize pools of €600,000, a slew of live satellites and cash games running around the clock.

Although the tournaments at the 888Live Rozvadov Festival have huge guarantees on them, they are extremely affordable, with buy-ins ranging from €35 to €888.

Those players who frequent high buy-in events can avail themselves of a €5,300 buy-in High Roller or manage to win their way into the €100,000 guaranteed tournament via one of the live satellites at King’s Casino.

888Live Rozvadov Festival Schedule

In an endeavor to give as many people as possible an opportunity to play in the Opening Event and Main Event, 888poker is running satellites that starting as low as $0.01 around the clock.  Players can climb up the satellite steps from $0.01 buy-in direct to the $30 Opening Event Qualifier or $109 Main Event Qualifier.

Americas Cardroom’s Next Million Dollar Sunday

Americas Cardroom, a leading US-facing online poker site, has announced that it will be hosting the next $1,000,000 guaranteed Million Dollar Sunday event on Sunday, 18^th December 2016.

The online poker site hosts the popular weekly feature event, the $115,000 guaranteed Sunday Special that is open to players from the United States and frequently runs tournament series that offer some awesome prizes.

Americas Cardroom will also be holding its eighth Online Super Series (0SS VIII) between Wednesday, 7^th December and Sunday, 18^th December 2016.  The seventy-six event series spans twelve days with a minimum of $2.5 million in prize money and the feature event being a $1,000,000 guaranteed Million Dollar Sunday on Sunday, 18^th December 2016.

Americas Cardroom launched its first Million Dollar Sunday event two years ago.  The early events were hampered by DDos attacks which gave people the impression that the site had been too ambitious.  Proponents of regulated US online poker also criticized the events, claiming that $1,000,000 prize pools drew players away from joining the cause for regulation.

However, Americas Cardroom proceeded with its aspiring Million Dollar Sunday tournaments, astounding both naysayers and critics and the last few events have attracted more than enough entries to exceed their guarantees.  Winners of the last few Million Dollar Sundays have taken home over $200,000, except when deals have been made at the final table.

It is expected that the next Million Dollar Sunday will be just as successful as the events that were held earlier this year.  The $540 buy-in tournament will kick off at 4.00 (ET) with five hours of late registration, during which time eliminated players will be given an opportunity to re-enter.  The winning player will be awarded a sterling silver bracelet to mark their achievement in addition to the $200,000 first prize.

Although Americas Cardroom has not yet released the full satellite schedule for the Million Dollar Sunday, the online poker site has revealed that it will be hosting three Mega-Satellites over the weekend of the tournament in order to assist as many players as possible in qualifying for the target event.  Sub-satellites and Freebuy satellites will also feed into the Mega-Satellites making it possible to qualify for the Million Dollar Sunday event for free.

World Poker Tour to Air in the UK on Free-to-air Channel Front Runner

Fans of the World Poker Tour (WPT) will be pleased to learn that they will have the opportunity to watch all the action from the latest tournaments which is now airing in the United Kingdom on the free-to-air TV channel, Front Runner.

Front Runner TV broadcasts lifestyle and documentaries from the worlds of Snowballing, Boxing, Comedy, Motorcross, Surfing, Cage Fighting, X Games and now the World Poker Tour and is currently the only free-to-air dedicated sports channel in the United Kingdom.

The WPT is immensely popular in the United States with its televised events hosted by Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton being very well received by viewers in the country.

Thanks to Front Runner TV, poker enthusiasts in the United Kingdom now have the opportunity to watch the latest televised WPT events from the comfort of their own homes, and for free.  The action from the WPT can be watched by viewers from midnight Monday through Saturday, while a marathon showing is broadcast from midday to 6.00 pm. on Sundays.

Ryan Scarrat of Front Runner, revealed that they are extremely excited to be bringing WPT to free-to-air TV in the United Kingdom.  He went on to say that they know that there is a vast audience out there in the poker world, and they are sure that they will enjoy watching some of the best in the business.

Fans will be able to find Front Runner TV on the following channels –

• UK DTT (including Freeview): 091
• YouView (BT, TT & PN): 091
• Freesat: 250
• Sky (SD): 468
• Sky (HD): 468

Front Runner is, however, not available to Virgin Media’s approximately 13 million subscribers but it is hoped that this will change in the near future so that the excitement of the WPT can be spread.

With the choice of poker on TV in the UK being very limited with only the European Poker Tour having aired since The Player Channel, also known as PokerChannelEurope, which was acquired by Ginx TV in October of 2013 and shut down a month later, the addition of WPT coverage on Front Runner is bound to be very well received by the poker community in Britain.

Dates and Venues for 2017 GUKPT

Grosvenor Casinos has revealed the main dates for the 11^th season of the long-running Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) as well as for its popular 25/25 Series for 2017.

The tour is scheduled to return to the GUKPT Leeds leg which, despite being on the 2016 schedule, was cancelled due to ongoing repairs at the Grosvenor Casino that was very badly damaged by the destructive floods endured by the city at the end of the year 2015.  The 2017 schedule is, otherwise, almost identical to its 2016 counterpart, with the exception of Edinburgh which is now the third leg instead of the seventh.

The Schedule for the 2017 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) is as follows –

The schedule includes key dates of 45 of the Grosvenor 25/25 Series events, £220 buy in tournaments with guaranteed prize pools of £25,000.  These events are scheduled to take place up and down the United Kingdom and are bound to be very popular with locals of the casino that they visit during next year.  Players are given an opportunity to play for big money and with an amazing blind structure for a fairly low investment with these tour stops.

The 2017 UK Student Poker Championships (UKSP) is due to be held between 19^th and 23^rd April 2017 with a £36 buy-in 2017 Main Event while the £250,000 guaranteed Goliath Main Event is due to return to the Grosvenor Casino in Coventry between 27^th July and 6^th August 2017

2016 Poker Hall of Fame Members Announced

The Class of 2016 has been announced by the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council and sees the addition of Carlos Mortensen and Todd Brunson to the Poker Hall of Fame which is poker’s most exclusive club.

Mortensen and Brunson will be the 51^st and 52^nd inductees into the club and comes through public nomination and a 44-person panel vote consisting of a Blue Ribbon Media Panel and existing Poker Hall of Fame Members

What makes this year’s class quite unique is the fact that Mortensen will be the first truly international and European member of the Hall of Fame and Brunson will be joining his father, Doyle Brunson, in the Hall of Fame.

Mortensen commented on the announcement from the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council by saying that he has been playing poker professionally for more than 20 years and that the game has given him so many things that he has come to cherish.  Mortensen went on to say that he has always wanted to be included among the great players who make up the Poker Hall of Fame and that to be included with the legends makes him very happy.  He thanked his friends, the poker fans and all the people who voted for him and added that he takes this honor very seriously.

Brunson commented on the announcement by saying that it is a true honor to be inducted by his peers into this prestigious institution.  He also said that he literally grew up attending these ceremonies and has always admired and respected its members and to join their ranks is the honor of a lifetime.

The official induction is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 26^th October at the Binion’s Gambling Hall in Las Vegas, kicking off the November Nine festivities shorty before the World Series of Poker Main Event final table which will be held between Sunday, 30^th October and Tuesday, 1^st November at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

Included in the other finalists remaining eligible for future induction are Humberto Brenes, Eli Elezra, Chris Moneymaker, Matt Savage, Chris Bjorin, Bruno Fitoussi, Max Pescatori and David Ulliott.

The Poker Hall of Fame was established in 1979 and currently has 27 living members and a total of 52 members.  The club was acquired by Harrah’s Entertainment (now Caesars) with the World Series of Poker in 2004.