Archive for October, 2008.
27 October, 2008
More and more, poker (online and off) is becoming another culture of celebrity, with poker sites scrambling to sign ever-more, ever-bigger names to their list of endorsers.
UltimateBet Poker, for one, signed to its Star Players Team, Adam Levy (aka “Roothlus”), a top online poker player made recently famous by being reamed for 5 minutes straight by Phil Hellmuth, Jr. at a WSOP featured table.
Levy joins “Hollywood” Dave Stann (aka “The Bad Boy of Blackjack”) as the other most recent addition to the UltimateBet Star Players team. In 2007, Stann was named one of the Top 10 poker players in the under-$1,000 buy-in category, and in 2008 he boasts a-quarter-million in winnings so far.
Anyone can become an UltimateBet Star Player – even you. All you need in order to be so honored, as put by Team UltimateBet superstar Annie Duke are:
- an obvious and unarguable high skill level
- high integrity
- respect of one’s peers
Might you be the next UltimateBet Star Player?
23 October, 2008
Friday, October 17, World Poker Tour Enterprises declared that it will be shutting down WorldPokerTour.com, its real-money online poker room. A Cryptologic poker room launched in June 2007, as of November 14, 2008, it will be no more. WPTE will pay a fine for breaking a contract with the game software maker that was supposed to last until 2011, (Cryptologic, meanwhile, is joining with PartyGaming, but that’s another story.)
While closing one door, however, World Poker Tour will be opening another, with a new relationship between the WPTE and social networking mammoth, MySpace. The MySpace WPT community will offer MySpace members opportunities a chance to play free multiplayer online poker games with other MySpace members.
Materials planned for the new online community include
- Video clips
- Player profiles
- Tournament news
- Poker strategy tips and tricks
- Behind-the-scenes reports
Also, the WPT’s US-legal subscription site, ClubWPT.com, will remain open, and MySpace WPT members can win real money (over $10,000) and prizes (including WPT tournament seats) for $19.95 per month. Also, be sure to check out our poker site reviews to find out more about ClubWPT and more.
21 October, 2008
There’s been movement in the contentious battle against Kentucky governor Steve Beshear to seize the domain names of 141 internet poker rooms, including some of the most major sites online (like Full Tilt Poker, Doyle’s Room, Ultimate Bet, Cake Poker, and PokerStars), and it hasn’t been movement forward.
The fight taken up by organizations like the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMega), and the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC), took a severe hit last week when a Kentucky district court judge refused motions to dismiss the case. This leaves the sites 30 days to do what’s necessary to block “illegal” gaming activity coming from online poker players in Kentucky or else be shut down for good.
Meanwhile, the owners of the 141 seized domains have been ordered to appear before the court for a forfeiture hearing on November 17 to prove that they each have effectively blocked online traffic from Kentucky players.
13 October, 2008
As the Governor of Kentucky persists in his relentless battle to seize 141 online poker domain names in order to squelch access for its residents, industry analysts are in intense debates as to the future of online poker.
Canada’s Kahnawake Gaming Commission, one of the largest in internet poker boasting sites such as Bodog, Crazy Poker, Everest Poker, Noble Poker, Poker.com, Titan Poker, and more issued a statement railing against Gov. Steve Beshear’s actions.
This following the siezure of one of the game’s most popular online poker rooms, Doyle’s Room, the internet poker site of the Godfather of Poker, Doyle Brunson. The fate of this and other poker sites large and small could be decided as soon as October 15.
The 1 million-plus members of the Poker Player’s Alliance, meanwhile, are avidly seeking legislation (such as S. 3616, introduced byby Senator Robert Menendez) to regulate internet gambling in the United States so that all 141 of these sites may be permitted to continue to exist, and serve poker players all over the world, including the U.S. The Senator asserts that such a move, which would include taxing these sites, could help the US government open the floodgates on a whole new source of revenue.
Sounds like legal online poker in the U.S. is good for everyone! (Everyone, that is, but the contentious Kentucky governor.)
10 October, 2008
Proving that, with enough time, diligence, and dedication (and, of course, a handy portion of luck) you can indeed climb your way out of even the deepest of holes.
Finnish poker wunderkind Ilari Sahamies, who goes by the handle “Ziigmund” at Full Tilt Poker, started out the month down over 1 million dollars, and in just one month’s time (and 3,000+ hands), he managed to win himself an unbelievable $1.9 million – all at FullTiltPoker.com alone – making him up about $600k now for the year. He probably made more money in rakeback this month than an average poker players does from just playing.
Known as a Pot Limit Omaha specialist, Zigmund notched most of his winnings this past month in Full Tilt Poker’s illustrious RailHeaven tables (a favored feeding ground of this month’s 2nd highest earning player, poker pro and Team Full Tilt member Phil Ivey), the high-stakes $500/$1000 No Limit Holdem cash games. From this he earned $900,000 of his $1.9 million.
This should come as comforting news to all us amateur players out here who need a little hope that turnarounds can indeed happen.
6 October, 2008
The focus of Poker Codes Online is identifying the most lucrative poker bonus codes currently being offered by the highest rated poker sites online, such as Titan Poker and Poker Stars. Availing yourself of these winning poker bonus codes allows players a bigger bankroll to the bring to the tables and try to turn into an even bigger chip stack.
Many poker portals try to be everything to everyone – setting themselves up as a smorgasbord of online poker information, offering a little bit about everything, but nothing substantial about anything. That’s where PokerCodesOnline differs from the rest – by concentrating on one specific aspect of the game – namely poker bonus codes – and thereby propping themselves up as an authoritative source on the subject.
The people that bring us PokerCodesOnline spend their time actively scour the online poker world to locate the most attractive poker bonus codes being offered at any given moment, and provide players a single online source for perusing and exploring them all. The site’s makers can go a long way towards ensuring visitors that the poker codes they deliver are the most current and the most accurate available.
Another benefit to visitors of PokerCodesOnline honing their focus on a single aspect of the game is that the site can then offer impartial reviews of many of those more informationally dispersed poker portals. But even at the same time as PokerCodesOnline helps its visitors to find the information they seek, even if that information is to be found on a different site, Poker Codes Online also provides a worthy, if limited, assortment of its own cursory poker resources.
Specifically, in addition to poker bonus codes, the site also includes:
• several useful strategy guides
• an impressive poker odds calculator
To give an idea of the types of bonus offers PokerCodesOnline helps you find, consider the PokerStars Marketing Code (100% match on first deposits up to a maximum bonus of $50). Besides just giving you the relevant poker bonus code, the site also tells you exactly how to clear that bonus, shows a screenshot displaying exactly where and how to properly enter in that code, and fills you in on any other important information related to the PokerStars Marketing Code that players might not even think to inquire about, such as making sure you clear it within 6 months or lose all unredeemed amounts.
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Whereas so many other poker portals post poker bonus codes that are already out of date and no longer valid, Poker Codes Online works hard to provide only those poker bonus codes that are current and valid, leaving players like you free to do what you love most – play poker online, and win.
3 October, 2008
On Thursday, August 14, 2008 a player going by the username Judith75 took down PartyPoker.com’s biggest Bad Beat Jackpot ever, earning her table an unevenly split share of a whopping $1,013,361.63. For not even winning the hand!
Judith75 earned her table-mates the world record-breaking PartyPoker bad beat jackpot with four-of-a-kind 9s, which lost to player Hiyall’s winning royal flush.
For their efforts:
• Hiyall won $177,341.79 of the jackpot
• Judith57 won $354,683,57 of the jackpot
• And the rest of the players at the table won $22,167.72 each
Now get this! It was only a $0.50/$1 table with a pot value of a measley $24.
Until then, the record Bad Beat Jackpot was previously $922,000, still sweet but no million dollars, that’s for sure.
Bad Beat Jackpots give players with certain exceptional poker hands (such as a straight flush) who then lose the pot to a better hand, an opportunity to still walk away from the table with money. It’s one more great way most online poker sites give players to win money, besdies just winning tournaments and individual pots. .