Online poker news

A better deal for Danish Poker
04/01/2009 - The contentious area of Danish land poker, which has in the past seen police raids on tournaments, messy court decisions on the skill vs. chance issue, and even messier ruling reversals on appeal, could be about to see some legislative improvements, according to Danish media reports.

Finland´s RAY to open online poker site?
03/31/2009 - Raha-automaattiyhdistys (RAY - the Finland Slot Machine Association) will be branching out into online poker soon, according to the Finnish minister for Sport and Culture, Stefan Wallin.

Massive bad beat poker jackpot cracked on Cereus
03/28/2009 - It's been a few weeks since a really significant Cereus Network poker bad beat jackpot was hit, but it was back with a vengeance mid-week when an Absolute Poker veteran from Florida using the handle EMILIE14 triggered a massive $807 543.95 windfall.

PPA welcomes new poker study
03/28/2009 - The US based poker legalisation pressure group Poker Players Alliance has endorsed a new study titled "Statistical Analysis of Texas Hold 'Em" released this week, which provides raw data showing the outcomes of games are predominantly determined by the players' decisions, and not just chance.

Another online poker training site
03/27/2009 - World Series of Poker champions of the calibre of Annie Duke, Greg Raymer and Erik Seidel are the well known faces behind a new online poker training website branded ProPlayLive which launched this week with the tagline "The Poker School that Never Closes."

Round 10 of Dwan vs. Antonius
03/27/2009 - Tom 'durrr' Dwan and Patrik Antonius got it together for another 460 hands in their 50 000 hand million dollar Intenret poker competition last night, bringing the total number of sessions played to date to 7 093, with Antonius taking a late lead to finish the game $92 000 ahead.

Initial Rewards chosen as loyalty provider for Everest
03/26/2009 - Gigamedia subsidiary and major online gambling brand Everest Gaming has selected Initial Rewards Limited to run its loyalty program, launching this week following months of preparation.

Ultimatebet celebrates tenth anniversary
03/26/2009 - Casting aside the trials and tribulations of its past involvement in online poker's biggest fraud scandal (see previous InfoPowa reports), Tokwiro Enterprises's major Internet poker site UltimateBet.com has launched a schedule of promotions designed to mark its tenth anniversary.

FTOPS 12 schedule announced
03/26/2009 - One of Internet poker's premiere tournament series returns for its twelfth running on May 6th, with the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) guaranteeing more than $18 million in prize money over 25 professional player-hosted events.

Pokerroom.com players being transferred to Bwin
03/25/2009 - Bwin is currently moving online poker players from its PokerRoom.com subsidiary across to Bwin.com in a move announced earlier this month.

Ninth session in million dollar poker challenge held
03/25/2009 - Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan have increased the tempo of the latter's 50 000 hand, multi-table, million dollar online poker challenge, having at each other in another intense two hour session Tuesday that saw a further 704 hands played, bringing the total thus far to 6 633 - only 43 367 hands to go, according to MarketPulse statistics!

Bugsy´s Club Poker closes
03/25/2009 - The economic climate and banking problems have resulted in the closure of online poker site Bugsy's Club, the gaming wing of Poker School Online, this week. Players were emailed with the bad news, which was softened by the assurance that players would be welcomed at the giant PokerStars.com online poker operation.

Washington State ban on internet poker stays
03/24/2009 - Seattle lawyer and Poker Players Alliance supporter Lee Rousso may have reached the end of the line in his litigative attempts to overturn the state of Washington's draconian ban on Internet poker.

Dwan ahead again in latst challenge session
03/24/2009 - Pleading fatigue after only 411 hands in his latest million dollar online poker challenge session with Patrik Antonius, Tom 'Durrr' Dwan called it a night after an hour and a half of play in the eighth clash of the two aces Monday.

12 magic days of Asian poker in august
03/23/2009 - Officials on the Chinese offshore gambling island of Macau have given the Asian Poker Tour permission to expand its popular Macau event. The new arrangement will involve the transformation of the format used in last year's six day event into a record breaking 12 day extravaganza, creating Asia’s first festival of poker.

New poker championship from Microgaming
03/23/2009 - Online poker rooms on the Microgaming Poker Network have started running qualification tourneys in its newly launched Europe’s first European Championships of Single Table Tournaments (ECOSTT). The satellites will culminate in a grand finale at the Reval Park Casino in Tallinn, Estonia, from 17 to 19 July 2009.

Veteran player the star in WPT tourney
03/22/2009 - Veteran Full Tilt Poker pro Steve Brecher is $1 025 000 wealthier this weekend after beating respected poker ace Kathy Liebert in the heads up to claim the top spot in World Poker Tour's Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament.

Norwegian wins LAPT Uruguay
03/22/2009 - Norwegian player Karl Evroy is the new PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour Punta del Este champ, taking a first prize of $283 500 to his northern home after defeating Alejandro De Arruabarrena of Uruguay in a fast, one-hand heads up that left the second placed De Arruabarrena with a $155 420 payday.

Antoniud ahead as Dwan challenge continues
03/21/2009 - Latest news on the continuing million-dollar, 50 000 hand NLHE poker challenge thrown down by Tom 'durrr' Dwan is that he and his first challenger, Patrik Antonius, managed to complete another 425 hand session Friday which saw Antonius regain the lead.

Lock Poker launches Mac offering
03/20/2009 - Lock Poker.com, an online poker site on the Cake network claimed this week that is the first on the network to offer players new Mac poker software.

Online poker: Cryptologic move in progress
03/19/2009 - Cryptologic's decision to merge its online poker interests with those of Boss Media became practical reality Wednesday as the phased transfer of several online poker sites began.

Mexican Poker Tour event concludes - Finally!
03/18/2009 - Online poker company Poker Star's live poker tourney in Mexico, the PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour Mexico, was disrupted and the main event halted following a ban by local Nuevo Vallarta bureaucrats late last year, requiring the company to reorganise what was left of the main event to ensure it was fairly concluded for the 89 players still in action.

Outside factors can influence poker play
03/18/2009 - Online poker operator Everest Poker is making a name for itself with quirky player surveys, such as how different nationalities play, with the latest in the genre examining the impact of external events on a player's ability to function well at the poker tables.

Star attraction for Macau Poker
03/18/2009 - PokerStars.com, the world's largest Internet poker site, integrates with the land poker industry tomorrow as it opens the brand new "PokerStars Macau at the Grand Lisboa" live poker room at the Grand Lisboa Casino.

5000 hand point reached in Dwan vs. Antonius challenge
03/18/2009 - Tom 'durrr' Dwan and Patrik Antonius got it together for another session in their 50 000 hand million dollar poker challenge this week after delays caused by over-full calendars and movements around the globe.

"invincible" syndrome a reason to continue playing
03/17/2009 - Jacob Avery, a researcher in the University of Las Vegas’s fellowship program in gaming studies, delivered the latest lecture in the Gaming Studies Colloquium Series, titled “The Social Worlds of Everyday Poker Players” last week, taking a look at why poker players find it so hard to quit whilst winning.

Web "by invitation" gambling den busted
03/17/2009 - Police in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia acted on a tip-off and raided an apartment block in the city on Saturday afternoon, arresting 25 persons allegedly either organising or taking part in an illegal poker tournament.

Poker aid for Mac players
03/17/2009 - Online poker players with Macs who are looking for a better way to manage their poker tournaments might want to look over the latest version of Poker Manager from Romain Cosentino's CocoaTree Applications (formerly rcSofts).

Full Tilt´s bigger prize pool packs´em in
03/17/2009 - Full Tilt Poker management's decision to boost the guarantee on the prize pool for its main weekend million dollar tourney was vindicated by big player turnouts last weekend, with "grimmy101" taking home an impressive $216 000 as the winner - a good return on the $500+$35 buy-in.

Girl´s night at EPT Dortmund
03/15/2009 - 27-year-old German graphics designer, model and Full Tilt Poker pro Sandra 'Black Mamba' Naujoks took home the European Poker Tour Dortmund trophy and the Euro 917 000 winner's prize over the weekend after an exciting heads up with fellow German Holger Kanisch, a 27-year-old economic science student at the University of Wuppertal.

Marrakech Express
03/13/2009 - The first World Poker Tour tournament to be held in Africa will be a five star poker happening in October 2009 at the Casino De Marrakech in Morocco with a reasonable buy-in of Euro 4 500, and an up-and-coming online poker website has partnered with WPT in promoting the event.

Play with the stars, win a beach house - all for charity
03/13/2009 - Pacific Poker.com is putting the finishing touches to an ambitious promotion that will see an online poker player win a seat in the next star-studded Cannes Charity Poker Event - a private charity tournament that will run in tandem with the Cannes Film Festival later this year.

$525 000 win for online poker player
03/13/2009 - The largest online poker site on Playtech's iPoker network, Titan Poker.com, dished out the dosh this week following its giant $2.5 guaranteed tournament. A regular for the past 2 years, "Ragen" took down the main prize of $525 000 after slugging it out for a total of 13 hours and 28 minutes.

Additional rules for WSOP
03/12/2009 - World Series of Poker organisers Harrah's Entertainment released new WSOP rules this week that include a "play nice" provision under the heading "Code of Player Conduct".

Bluefire and PKR Poker join hands
03/12/2009 - Phil Galfond's new online poker training venture Bluefire Poker and the UK 3D Internet poker site PKR.com have agreed to collaborate for the benefit of the latter's players.

Million dollar poker hand
03/11/2009 - Gibraltar-based Party Poker.com launches its audacious Million Dollar Hand promotion today (March 11th 2009) which will run through to 22nd March. The promotion offers the chance to win a cool $1 million or more through action at the website's real money tables.

Private poker bill launched in South Carolina
03/11/2009 - For 207 years the US state of South Carolina has maintained a law against any games using cards or dice, but that could be about to change. The antiquity of the law makes it ineffective in a new era where games and attitudes have changed, and Charleston senator and Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell has given notice that he intends to do something about it.

WPT to host first poker tournament in Italy
03/10/2009 - The romantic and historic city of Venice will be the venue for the first major poker tournament in Italy currently being planned by the World Poker Tour for May 6 - 10, 2009.

Keeping track in online poker
03/10/2009 - Online poker players at the Swedish government's gambling monopoly Svenske Spel have been given another optional tool with which to pace their action with the launch of Spelstatus, which shows users how much they have won or lost on total in poker since starting to play the game at the Svenska Spel website.

Huck Seed is the new NBC National Heads Up Poker champ
03/09/2009 - With a competitor list of 64 of the top poker players in the world, a buy-in of $20 000 generating a prize pool of $1.28 million and a first prize of $500 000, the 2009 NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship lived up to expectations this week, delivering an exciting tournament of champions which culminated a tough grand finale heads up between Vanessa Rousso and Huck Seed.