Online poker news

Best Poker adds bingo to its offering
08/11/2007 - Gibraltar-based white label specialist St Minver has entered into a partnership with Best Games Holdings Limited in providing a new bingo site as a sister operation to Best Poker.com.

Ladbrokes feeling the heat on internet poker?
08/10/2007 - Online poker operations at Ladbrokes, probably due to an increasingly competitive European business environment, disappointed investors when the e-gaming division of the gambling group released its interim six month numbers to the end of June this week.

Full Tilt Online Poker Series 5 gets going
08/09/2007 - One of online poker's biggest tournament series has started rolling this week with the 5th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) offering a total prize pool of $7 million spread over a series of competitions and 12 days of action.

Texas Dolly to personally launch new online poker site
08/08/2007 - American poker legend Doyle Brunson will be a big attraction at both the European World Series of Poker (see previous InfoPowa report) and the launch of his Microgaming Poker Network online poker site Doyles Room.com next month.

China WPT deal confirmed
08/08/2007 - Earlier reports that the World Poker Tour has clinched a poker sponsorship deal with Chinese authorities (see previous InfoPowa report) have been confirmed.

PPA hints on turning the Congressional recess to advantage
08/08/2007 - Former Senator and Poker Players' Alliance chairman Alfonse D'Amato knows his way around the Washington political calendar, and this week came up with some interesting ideas to turn the autumn recess of the US Congress into an opportunity for online gamblers to let their representatives know how they feel about online gambling regulation.

Fourth poker dream package won
08/07/2007 - They say it takes blood, sweat and tears to make dreams come true. But for one online poker player last Sunday night, it also required a computer and an internet connection.

Final 8 online player teams decided
08/07/2007 - The World Cup of Poker organised by Poker Stars.com is nearing its grand finale, with eight 4-man international teams left in the hunt from team entries that totalled some 75 000 players.

WPT China sign-up imminent
08/07/2007 - Judging by reports in the Asian media and through the Associated Press news network, tournament poker is coming to China despite gambling being officially frowned upon in the country.

Pub playing poker players could be on UK television
08/04/2007 - Multiplatform interactive poker room Sky Poker is stepping out of the television studio and into the British pub by partnering with one the UK's largest pub poker leagues, the Poker Project.

Full Tilt pulls Moscow Poker sponsorship
08/03/2007 - The Moscow Millions poker tournament scheduled for October 20 to 22 this year suffered a serious blow this week when online poker company Full Tilt Poker withdrew its sponsorship and team appearance due to over-full commitments.

Tropical Turks and Caico is first WPT stop
08/01/2007 - The World Poker Tour is making its first stop in the beautiful Turks and Caicos this fall and Players Only.com Poker is giving players a chance to enjoy surf, sand, sun and a shot at fame and fortune at this televised WPT event.

Vote for your faves
08/01/2007 - Top poker magazine Bluff opened voting this week for the 2007 Bluff Magazine Annual Readers Choice Awards

Gamcare accreditation for Pokerstars
08/01/2007 - The United Kingdom responsible gambling organisation Gamcare has accredited Gibraltar-based online poker site Poker Stars.com, acknowledging that the company has "...achieved high standards in player protection and social responsibility and recognises the need to assist their customers to play responsibly."

$50k buy-ins for "The Big Game"
07/31/2007 - Online qualifiers for Party Poker.com's Scandinavian Poker Masters - The Game, Scandinavia's first televised high stakes cash game are currently running at the Gibraltar-based firm's website, with only two semi-final packages now up for grabs.

Private initiative to legalise online poker gets under way
07/31/2007 - From San Diego comes the story of an online poker player, Anthony Sandstrom aka "Tuff Fish" who has decided to do something about the legal restrictions on his favourite pastime and that great American game, poker.

20 000 crowd Pokerstars tournaments
07/31/2007 - Initial reports on the weekend's online poker tournament activity at Poker Stars.com indicate a full and action-packed weekend attended by over 20 000 entrants to popular events such as the Sunday Hundred Grand, the Sunday Warm-up, the Sunday Million and the High-Stakes Showdown.

First Virgin Poker Festival launched
07/30/2007 - The online poker element on the Virgin Games site has big Internet and land crossover plans for 24 to 25 November this year, when the first Virgin Poker Festival will be held in the British city of Birmingham at the Broadway Casino.

Homeless help from Party Poker
07/30/2007 - Party Bets.com has come forward with a useful contribution to the fifth Homeless World Cup currently running until August 4 in Copenhagen.

Top poker execs to speak at World Poker Congress
07/29/2007 - The River City Group organisers of the World Poker Congress (WPC) scheduled for Malta on November 29 and 30 this year have announced that Steve Lipscomb, president of the World Poker Tour, and Jeffery Pollack, commissioner of the World Series of Poker will jointly deliver the opening keynote address.

Wexler´s poker bill support growing
07/29/2007 - Florida Congressman Robert Wexler's Skill Game Protection Act, which seeks to obtain a carve-out from anti-online poker laws in the United States has seen substantially increased political support since June 27, with a number of politicians signing up for his proposal as well as that for Congressman Barney Frank's Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act for the regulation and taxation of online gambling.

Top Washington lobbyist hired by PPA
07/29/2007 - The U.S. pressure group Poker Players' Alliance, which seeks to legalise online poker through regulation or securing a "carve-out" from current prohibitionary laws in America has upped its game with the appointment of the registered Washington DC lobbying and law firm Barnes & Thornburg.

Man vs machine update
07/26/2007 - The fourth and final session of the man vs machine contest which pitched top poker pros against a research robot ended in Vancouver yesterday with a victory for the humans - but only just.

Man vs. machine (update)
07/25/2007 - With one more 500 hand session to be played, the issue of whether human poker players are better than bots has yet to be decided.

Atlantic City poker dealers under threat?
07/24/2007 - Following approval to test by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, 11 Atlantic City casinos may now move ahead with plans to test electronic poker and roulette tables, a controversial initiative that could cut down on the number of human dealers necessary.

Man vs. Robot poker
07/24/2007 - Attracting hundreds of column inches in the mainstream press around the world this week is the unusual University of Alberta project to pit man against its Polaris poker-playing research robot.

WSOP bracelet champs lines up for inaugural European poker extravaganza
07/23/2007 - Pre-registration for the World Series of Poker Europe presented by Betfair.com has been open for only two weeks and already some of the biggest names in poker have paid the GBP10 000 entry fee to the main event, a company spokesman announced this week.

Top women poker players head for London
07/22/2007 - The first televised Party Poker.com $3 000 buy-in Women's World Open poker tournament is imminent, starting in London on August 7 and running through to August 10, with 36 top women players vying for a prizepool worth $108 000, with a $50 000 main prize.

A matter of personal freedom
07/22/2007 - The online poker news and information portal Poker News this week carried an interesting interview with Florida Democrat and Congressman Robert Wexler, who is one of four US politicians who have introduced seperate legislative proposals seeking to ameliorate the effects of the prohibitionary Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Betfair gearing up for European WSOP
07/20/2007 - The World Series of Poker action in Vegas may have been centre stage in the media last week, but for UK gambling group Betfair the focus was probably on gearing up for the inaugural European version of the poker epic later this year

PPA membership now over 600 000
07/20/2007 - With a claimed 500 percent increase in membership since the beginning of 2007, the Poker Players' Alliance pressure group for the legalisation of online poker and gambling in the United States appears to be reaching the sort of critical mass that motivates politicians to sit up and take notice.

Another online poker room
07/19/2007 - Latest arrival on the Internet poker scene is a Boss Media powered online poker room branded GPC Poker Room.com, a subsidiary of Universal Gaming Concepts Inc, a firm with 7 years industry experience which includes Global Player.com among its managed gaming properties.

Major revamp for Betdirect online poker site
07/19/2007 - 32Red plc subsidiary Betdirect will be working on major improvements to its online poker service in the coming weeks as part of a complete re-design of the website.

Jerry Yang the victor in 2007 WSOP main event
07/18/2007 - Well after 4am Wednesday morning Vegas time this year's 2007 World Series of Poker main event final table was finally decided at hand 205, and Jerry Yang who has held onto the chip lead throughout and eliminated all but one of the final tablers, is the man of the hour.

24hPoker reports pressure from Swedish Gaming Board
07/18/2007 - The online poker company 24h Poker reports that the Swedish Gaming Board has requested detailed information on all the employees of the firm working in Sweden. According to the Swedish Gaming Board, this is first step to ensure gaming related companies in the country are abiding by the law.

WSOP final tale surprises
07/18/2007 - Temecula, California-based psychologist Jerry Yang (39) has so far dominated play at the World Series of Poker Main Event currently unfolding at the Rio in Las Vegas. Starting with the second shortest stack of only 8 500 000, he adopted an aggressive strategy from the moment former champ Jamie Gold made the "Shuffle Up and Deal" call just after noon Vegas time Tuesday, winning the first 3.43 million pot of the game.

Rest day for WSOP nine
07/17/2007 - The survivors of the last ten days of elimination poker that have involved 6 358 hopefuls, are preparing for the climax of the $10 000 buy-in main event - the final table for the 2007 World Series of Poker. The nine players who will compete Tuesday have a rest day today (Monday) before battle is joined.

Visits to US gambling sites up in June
07/17/2007 - Web monitoring firm comScore Media Metrix has released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for June 2007. The month saw traffic increase to gambling sites in anticipation of the upcoming World Series of Poker (WSOP).

$1.3 Million win for Bellagio poker player
07/17/2007 - Almost lost in the noise and publicity of the World Series of Poker last week was a significant tournament taking place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, in which seriously big money was on the line.

Party Poker upgrades
07/17/2007 - PartyPoker.com has announced an upgrade that includes the opportunity to earn PartyPoints faster; a new level of service and a series of features extending the customer service experience.