Online poker news

Mainstream press coverage for WSOP
06/15/2008 - Poker ace and celebrity Phil Hellmuth turned his hand to journalism this week, expanding the media coverage on the 39th World Series of Poker now in its second action-packed week in Las Vegas by writing for the mass circulation newspaper USA Today.

EPT program released by Pokerstars
06/13/2008 - The 5th Pokerstars European Poker Tour will this year start in Barcelona in September and end in May 2009 with a Grand Final in Monte Carlo, according to the schedule released by the company this week. And the good news is that a French stop has been reintroduced to the nine stop program.

Another bracelet for "The Mouth" - at last!
06/13/2008 - A trimmer, fitter and generally better Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow has broken a personal World Series of Poker bracelet drought by winning Event 18 - the $5 000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ rebuys - at the Rio in Las Vegas this week.

Three more bracelets won at WSOP
06/12/2008 - Recent wins at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas have included the $1 000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship, the $2 000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight-or-Better tourney and the $1 500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout.

More big wins at the WSOP
06/11/2008 - The 39th World Series of Poker is now well into its stride at the Rio in Las Vegas, and two more big-money events have been finalised.

PPA active at WSOP
06/10/2008 - The Poker Players Alliance is publicising its efforts to legalise poker in the United States with a booth drawing the crowds at the 39th World Series of Poker currently underway in Las Vegas.

Young guns decide WSOP Event 8
06/08/2008 - The high profile Event 8 at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas was finalised over the weekend by a 5 minute but exciting heads up between 22-year-old Nevadan Anthony Rivera and youthful Missouri phenom James 'Mig.com' Mackey.

WSOP action continues
06/07/2008 - Almost 11 of the 55 events in the 39th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas have now either been completed or are in progress, and the crowds, the vibe and the quality of play has been well up to expectations.

Deal or no deal for PKR
06/06/2008 - Fresh from launching a slew of new poker promotions and an online casino, PKR.com has now partnered with production house Endemol UK to create a licensed 3D-, PKR online-version of the popular television game show Deal or no Deal.

Lindgren breaks his WSOP bracelet drought
06/06/2008 - Full Tilt Poker star Erick Lindgren has won or played in a host of major championships and amassed professional earnings of more than $6 million in a sparkling poker career, but until this week one of the coveted World Series of Poker bracelets has eluded him. His delight at winning Event 4 in the 39th WSOP in Las Vegas can therefore be well appreciated.

Britain described as "poker crazy"
06/06/2008 - Quoting news and rsearch study sources, the Canadian publication Canada Free Press reports that Britain has gone poker crazy, with one in four adults playing last year, one in 14 playing every day and 1 in 7 playing at least once a week.

Entraction signs up Cantor Gaming for online poker room
06/06/2008 - The Swedish Entraction (formerly 24hPoker) online poker network has signed up Cantor Gaming as it's latest licensee in a move that has resulted in the launch of CantorPoker.com this week.

Hinkle takes Event 2 at WSOP
06/05/2008 - Event 2 of the 2008 World Series of Poker currently underway at the Rio in Las Vegas was decided this week, with 27 year old Grant Hinkle winning the $1 500 buy-in No Limit Hold 'em competition that saw a record 3929 entries and one of the longest running non-main events in WSOP history.

Nevada Cancer Institute is this year´s WSOP charity
06/04/2008 - The organisers of the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Harrah's Entertainment, have named the Nevada Cancer Institute as the official charity of the world's greatest poker championship for the third consecutive year.

APT Macau prize-pool hiked
06/04/2008 - The Asian Poker Tour has followed a successful APT Milan tournament with the news that it is to boost the guarantee on the prize-pool for its next outing in Macau to $1.5 million. The hike in the guarantee will ensure that the winner's prize for the Macau event will be around half a million dollars - almost double that of the recent Manila tourney.

New look for Ladbrokes Poker
06/04/2008 - Ladbrokes Poker md Edward Ihre says, "The site has undergone a complete overhaul. We're a major player in Europe and know we need to continue to stay one step ahead of the game. The site is now more contemporary with a lot of great new content including step by step guides for both beginners and our more advanced players."

Congressional poker players
06/04/2008 - The Washington publication Politico carried an interesting story on poker this week, commenting on how many politicians in both the Republican and Democrat camps enjoy a little relaxation by playing the popular game.

Medic wins first of the WSOP 2008 events
06/03/2008 - The first Event of this year's 39th World Series of Poker is over, meeting expectations in terms of the number and quality of players, prize-pool and most of all a great display of poker talent and action. The final table of the $10 000 buy-in World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament lasted nine hours, ending in an exciting heads up between Andy Bloch and Nenad Medic in which the latter truimphed, taking home the main prize of $794 112.

First 2008 WSOP Event final table set
06/02/2008 - The $10 000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em tourney - Event 1 at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas - entered its third day over the weekend with a final table comprised of some of the toughest poker players in the business. With Andy Bloch the chipleader by a significant margin, the table featured Nenad Medic, Mike Sexton, Mike Sowers, Amit Makhija, Chris Bell, Phil Laak, Kathy Liebert and Patrik Antonius.

WSOP Event 1 now down to 70 players
06/01/2008 - The marching band sounds of "Viva Las Vegas" and Doyle Brunson's "Shuffle and Deal" call for Event 1 in the 39th World Series of Poker (see previous InfoPowa report) have faded into history as the initially 352 player field for the $10 000 buy-in World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament has been whittled down to 70 players on Day 2.

Fantasy WSOP at PKR
06/01/2008 - The PKR.com online poker site marketers have come up with a novel promotion to tap into the excitement that the annual World Series of Poker in Vegas always generates - fantasy WSOP.

Billion hands for Titan and iPoker
05/31/2008 - Playtech-powered Titan Poker.com, the biggest online poker room on the iPoker network, dealt its billionth hand on May 27, sending Finnish player "wootrigged" home with a prize of $55 000. The other five players playing at the same table received $5 000 each for participating in hand number 1 000 000 000.

Big start for 2008 WSOP
05/31/2008 - Friday saw the start of the 39th World Series of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas, replete with marching bands in the Amazon Room, crowds of players and spectators, merchandising and characteristic American enthusiasm and razzmatazz.

Anti-Bot software introduced by Bwin
05/30/2008 - The Vienna-listed online gambling giant Bwin has taken another significant step in player protection by ordering anti-cheat software from the Swedish data mining and predictive database analysis firm ICU Intelligence. Bwin will introduce the firm's Botguard product to detect players using cheating software on Internet poker sites.

Club Bluff launched by media company
05/30/2008 - The always innovative poker company Bluff Media launched a new venture this week in the shape of Club Bluff.com, a subscription based online poker room. Rival publisher CardPlayer magazine beat Bluff to the punch this time, launching its own subscription-based online poker room earlier this year

Tokwire breaks silence on Ultimate Bet
05/30/2008 - After months of silence and amid a growing uproar in the online poker player community over alleged cheating by player NioNio, the owners of Ultimate Bet.com, Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, issued a statement this week.

All geared up for WSOP 2008
05/29/2008 - It hardly seems possible, but another year has passed and on Friday the 39th World Series of Poker launches in Las Vegas, attracting thousands of players from all over the planet who have the buy-in cash for one or more of the many events, or who have qualified for seat sponsorships in the numerous online promotions surrounding this major poker event.

First 2008 WPT event taken by the Ghost
05/29/2008 - Casper "Poker Ghost" Hansen lived up to his nickname at the Casino Barcelona in that Spanish coastal city this week, taking a large entry field of 253 by surprise to win the first WPT event of the year, the World Poker Tour Spanish Championship.

Pokerstars for China Earthquake relief
05/28/2008 - The online poker website Pokerstars.com has put together a multi-layered scheme through which its hundreds of thousands of members can make aid contributions to the victimes of the Chinese earthquake catastrophy.

Sky Poker launching two new shows
05/28/2008 - The multi-platform online poker firm Sky Poker is launching two new TV shows, "Stacked Up" and "Sky Poker Unlimited" for UK pokerheads soon.

Poker pro takes inaugural Full Tilt Heads-up Championship
05/28/2008 - The weekend saw plenty of online poker action at Full Tilt, where the new $25 000 buy-in Heads-up Championship took place, with pro player David Singer and Emil Patel in a tense final heads up in which Singer prevailed, taking home the main prize of $560 000. For his second placing Patel collected a check for $320 000.

Poker software upgrade at Pacific Poker
05/26/2008 - The much anticipated online poker upgrade at 888.com's Pacific Poker has been completed, with players currently offered bonus incentives to take the improvements for a test drive.

Stars turn out for Partouche charity poker
05/26/2008 - Don Cheadle and Annie Duke are not the only stars to turn out for charity poker, judging by reports from InStyle and other celebrity publications recently.

Hungarian player takes LAPT San Jose
05/26/2008 - The second tourney in this years recently introduced Latin American Poker Tour took place in San Jose, Costa Rica this week and was won by a 24 year old Hungarian player, Valdemar Kwaysser, following a heads up with Max Steinberg. The young Hungarian collected a $274 103 paycheck for his victory.

Advice for a million
05/23/2008 - The million member Poker Players Alliance and poker superstar Daniel Negreanu combined this week to announce a new member service - professional poker tips from the master himself.

Online poker firm managing Macau poker room
05/23/2008 - The largest online poker operation in the world, Poker Stars.com is applying its years of gaming and tournament expertise in a new direction this week, announcing that it is managing a land poker room in the world's biggest gambling centre - the island of Macau off the coast of China.

UltimateBet online poker scandal grows
05/23/2008 - Almost halfway through the year, the cheating accusations involving online poker site UltimateBet.com (see previous InfoPowa reports) have still to be brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and this week simmering player anger was again evident on leading Internet message boards such as 2+2 and Casinomeister.

Negreanu´s virtual poker coaching
05/23/2008 - International poker pro Daniel Negreanu reveals the secrets that have led to his $10 million in tournament winnings this week with the launch of his interactive virtual training platform at PokerVT.com.

Poker pros turn out for World Series of Golf
05/23/2008 - The novel idea of combining the excitement and skill of two great games - poker and golf - worked out well for a Michigan car salesman this week when he beat the pros to win the inaugural World Series of Golf.

Big tourneys and new games at pokerroom.com
05/21/2008 - Poker Room.com are pulling out all the stops this week with the announcement of a special 25th edition of the Grand Tournament and the launch of 23 new games on Casino Room.com.