Online poker news

20-year-old Brit is EPT latest champ
09/04/2010 - The European Poker Tour stop in Vilamoura, Portugal ended this week in a lucrative victory for 20-year-old Brit player Toby Lewis, who scored an impressive return of Euro 467 000 on his buy-in of Euro 5 350.

Videos heroes in new cross-over poker game
09/04/2010 - Telltale Games has revealed a crossover poker game based on the concept of how its fantasy heroes might play poker against one another.

Betsoft Gaming launches new online poker software
09/02/2010 - Online gambling software developer Betsoft has announced the launch of its new Poker 3 software, describing it as "the world's first true 3D, heads up Texas Hold'em online poker game."

Pokerstars active in Canada?
09/02/2010 - The Toronto Sun publishing an interesting article this week, claiming that online poker site Pokerstars has 'set up shop' in Canada, and that the poker giant's software, which has dealt over 48 billion hands, was developed in Richmond Hill, Ontario by PYR Software, a firm created by PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg in 2000.

Commerce execs responds further to PPA attack
08/31/2010 - The statement claims: "Poker players deserve to know the real facts so let us be clear: We support online poker and we are working hard to make sure it will benefit all Americans. America's poker community should be united in opposing the Frank legislation that would ship jobs, revenue and taxes beyond our communities. We need to work together to keep American dollars at home."

Jungleman lights the fire in new Dwan challenge
08/31/2010 - Daniel 'Jungleman12' Cate, Tom Dwan's latest 50 000 hand challenger (see previous InfoPowa reports), maintained the impetus and excitement of the new challenge this week, confronting Dwan in another almost 7 000 hand hectic session.

Commerce director responds to PPA criticism
08/29/2010 - Tom Malkasian, a director of the Commerce Casino, has responded to the Poker Players Alliance's 'Players Before Profits' campaign (see previous InfoPowa reports) in which the million strong action group urged US players to voice their disapproval of the Californian card room's opposition to federal legalisation of online poker.

Another Dwan challenge
08/29/2010 - With his 18 month long 50 000 hand million dollar Challenge competition with Patrik Antonius still running, internet high stakes maniac Tom 'durrr' Dwan has embarked on another mammoth confrontation.

Internet phenom accused of cheating conspiracy
08/27/2010 - Currently generating a tremendous amount of heated online poker message board discussion (the last time we checked the 2plus2 thread was 42 pages long) is an allegation that puts internet poker phenom Sorel Mizzi under the spotlight again.

PPA accuses Californian card room of putting profits before poker
08/27/2010 - The one million member online poker action group Poker Players Alliance came out with all guns firing this week in a press release criticising the Commerce Casino for its opposition to the federal legalisation of online gambling.

Frankenburger the new legend
08/27/2010 - In our last report on the $5 000 buy-in World Poker Tour Legends of Poker in Los Angeles, the final table of six was down to three handed play between New Yorker and former Wall Street trader Andy Frankenburger, Kyle Wilson and Tom Lee - sole survivors of an original field of 462 entrants, all keen to corral the $750 000 winner's purse.

Cereus online poker network sold
08/27/2010 - Taking many industry observers off-guard late Thursday was a press release from the largely unknown e-gaming firm Blanca Games revealing that it has acquired the interests of the Cereus poker network formerly owned by Tokwiro Enterprises and including well established if at times controversial sites Absolute Poker.com and UltimateBet.com.

Victory Poker move to Cake Network confirmed
08/26/2010 - Speculation that Victory Poker was about to quit the Everleaf Network for Cake Poker Network (see previous InfoPowa reports) has been confirmed by a joint press release from Victory and Cake.

Krause takes the Cyprus Classic Poker crown
08/26/2010 - The six-man final table of the 2010 Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic championship has concluded with Andreas Krause taking the honours and the main prize of $415,780

Legends reaches final table
08/25/2010 - The excitement is mounting at the Bicycle in Los Angeles as the final table of the $5 000 buy-in World Poker Tour Legends of Poker starts Wednesday with a $750 000 main prize awaiting the winner.

RGA slams Dutch findings
08/24/2010 - The Remote Gaming Association has been quick off the mark in commenting on this week's release of a Dutch commission's report on online gambling (see earlier InfoPowa report), criticising its findings because these exclusively recommend that online poker be regulated, but not other forms of online gambling.

Dutch commission recommends legalisation of online poker
08/24/2010 - A Dutch Justice Ministry commission set up by Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin to look into the pros and cons of internet gambling has recommended that the government abandons its "barely enforced" monopoly on gambling and instead licenses a small number of private online poker companies, reports the publication Dutch News.nl.

WPT Legends IX enters day 2
08/23/2010 - The ninth edition of Party Gaming's World Poker Tour Legends of Poker kicked off at the Bicycle in Los Angeles this week, attracting a 66 percent bigger entry field, thanks to a 50 percent reduction in the buy-in (from $10 000 to $5 000). However, whilst the number of players entering surged from 279 last year to 462 this, the prize pool shrank 18 percent to $2.15 million from $2.63 million.

A good month?s poker for Bukara
08/22/2010 - Bosnian poker pro Perica Bukara, who is now based in Germany, is enjoying a profitable August, having just taken down the $373 207 main prize in the $25 000 buy-in Full Tilt Poker Cyprus Classic High Roller Freeze-Out event.

Pokerstars achieves Estonian licensing
08/20/2010 - The Estonian Tax and Customs Board has issued PokerStars, the world's largest poker site, an activity license in Estonia.

21 Californian tribes combining on internet poker drive
08/19/2010 - The Morongo Band of Mission Indians still appears intent on cornering the internet poker market in California, and has been joined by another 21 tribes in a consortium designed to claim exclusive rights to intrastate online poker.

Fighting the decline in online poker
08/19/2010 - The independent online poker monitor Pokerscout.com's report for mid-August showed that across the industry, online poker traffic dropped 1.1 percent, with nine of the top ten tracked sites all booking a loss for the week.

PKR celebrates fourth birthday
08/18/2010 - PKR.com, the UK-based 3D online poker website, has come a long way since its historic launch on August 17, 2006 with advanced graphics and innovative proprietary software.

More online poker cash seized in the US
08/18/2010 - Federal prosecutors continue to go after financial processors in their attempts to stifle online poker, reports Forbes Business, revealing that the authorities reached a settlement worth $13.3 million Tuesday with Ahmad Khawaja, together with his firms, Allied Wallet and Allied Systems.

Zynga Poker in Asian moves
08/18/2010 - The San Francisco-based internet social gaming developer Zynga has made its Zynga Texas Poker offering available in China as well as on Facebook in Hong Kong and Taiwan this week, with a localised version playable in traditional Chinese or English - part of a continuing drive into the Asian market, reports Techcrunch.

Norwegian player takes EPT Tallinn
08/17/2010 - The Pokerstars European Poker Tournament's Estonia stop was concluded in Tallinn this week with the surprise defeat of respected French pro Arnaud Mattern, who had entered the final table with a substantial chip lead, but managed only a third placing.

FTOPS ends on a high note
08/17/2010 - The seventeenth edition of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series came to an exciting close this week after 12 days, as an original field of 4 805 players was refined to a heads up between TyboVegas and DQnk that ended with a win for the former but a better finish for the second placed DQnk, thanks to a chop during the action.

Big win for Aussie online poker player
08/16/2010 - Intriguing the InfoPowa staff over the weekend was a report which appeared in online media announcing a big win for what it described as a "South Australian pub league poker player" on the 888poker.com website.

PKR 2.0 is a major upgrade for online poker software
08/15/2010 - The UK and Alderney licensed 3D online poker site PKR.com has undergone a number of software upgrades since it launched in 2006, but the biggest re-development to date has just been completed with the launch of the company?s v. 2.0.

A scandal revisited
08/12/2010 - The hole card cheating scandals at Absolute Poker and Ultimatebet resurfaced in the online media again this week, illustrating the abiding interest of the poker community in this massive fraud, and those who perpetrated it.

Estonian wins Russian Poker Series
08/12/2010 - The draconian bans on Russian gambling have done little to discourage participation in the Pokerstars Russian Poker Series, although it did force the competition into neighbouring Latvia this week.

Online poker player takes LAPT Brazil
08/10/2010 - A 19-year-old Klagenfurt, Austria internet poker player who qualified in an online satellite took home the $247 441 main prize in the Pokerstars Latin American Poker Tour Brazil this week, achieving the lead in the first day's action and managing to hold it through to the end of the tourney three days later.

Cake Poker: Security restored
08/08/2010 - The encryption issue at the Cake Poker network which was picked up by independent poker information website Poker Table Ratings.com (see prevous InfoPowa report) has been successfully addressed.

Final WCOOP 2010 schedule released
08/07/2010 - Pokerstars has released the full and final schedule for its 2010 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), after seeking input from the online poker community.

Dwan and Antonius go at it again
08/04/2010 - The 50 000 hand Dwan Challenge has been active again after lying dormant for almost three months. This week Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius confronted each other online twice in as many days, with Dwan taking down the first clash (see previous InfoPowa report) and repeating his win over Antonius in the most recent confrontation.

FTOPS XVII has started
08/04/2010 - The seventeenth edition of the popular Full Tilt Online Poker Series kicked off this week with 34 events offering a total of $19 million in guaranteed prize pools and plenty of action over an average of three events a day for the next 11 days.

One for the ladies
07/31/2010 - Poker fans among the fairer sex have a new online destination this week as Pokerstars.com launches it's Women's Poker League with the emphasis that this one is strictly and exclusively for the female gender.

WSOP free poker on Facebook
07/28/2010 - The World Series of Poker has launched a new Facebook application called Poker Palace, where fans of the game can play for free and win virtual cash.

Cake Poker manager apologises for security breach
07/28/2010 - Lee Jones, the Cake Poker Network cardroom manager, has 'fessed up to the embarrassing disclosures by Poker Table Ratings Tuesday (see previous InfoPowa report) that the security encryption on the network was not all that it should be.

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer
07/27/2010 - Poker player Justin Grant proved this week that he is not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, showing that he was good at escaping custody but not so hot at evading recapture.