Archive for December, 2008.
22 December, 2008
PokerStars is attempting to set a new world’s record and it wants your help in pulling it off.
The record PokerStars is looking to set is for the largest player field ever for an online poker tournament. The tournament in question—a $500,000 Guaranteed Tournament with an $11 buy-in—will be held on December 28 at 3:30 pm ET.
The player pool will be capped at 35,000 players—a number which, if reached, would land PokerStars in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The multi-table event, which has over 2,000 players registered so far, will include as many as 3,500 tables running at once. Blinds will increase “Turbo”-style, meaning that they will go up every 10-minutes.
If successful, PokerStars will break its own record, set last year, of 20,000 players in a single online tournament.
To register for the $500K World Record attempt, just login to the PokerStars Tournament lobby and click the Special Tournaments tab.
If you aren’t interested in PokerStars or would just like to try something new check out our Cake Poker Download and our Full Tilt Download to see what these 2 great poker rooms can offer you.
14 December, 2008
UltimateBet Poker is rolling out a new online poker challenge series for the second half of this month that costs nothing to enter and promises at least $5,000 in prizes and giveaways.
It’s called the Online Forum Challenge and it’s an inter-forum tournament that serves at UltimateBet’s attempt to find out “which online poker forum is King”.
Event #1, the 1st Online Forum Challenge Freeroll, takes place on December 20 at 3 pm ET and is a Texas Holdem event with a $1,000 prize pool plus $500 in bonus prizes going to the winning online poker forums.
Event #2, called “Everyone’s a Winner”, takes place on December 21 at 3 pm ET and has a $5 buy-in which is added to the minimum $1,000 prize pool, along with $2,000 in free UltimateBet tournament seats, and $1,000 in bonuses prizes for the winning internet poker forums.
As an added bonus, Ultimate Bet Star Team player Annie Duke will be competing in both events, and any player who knocks her out (assuming she gets knocked out, that is) will get a 1-year paid membership with the Poker Player’s Alliance.
To be eligible to play in the Ultimate Bet Online Forum Challenge you must go to OnlineForumChallenge.com to pre-register before December 17, 3 pm ET.
9 December, 2008
PokerStars has leaked that early next year it will add a brand new tournament to its line up – the Spring Championship of Online Poker (aka SCOOP).
This on the heels of the sweeping success of this past September’s 7th installment of their World Championship of Online Poker, the 2008 WCOOP attracting 2,185 players to the main event who competed for $200k guaranteed, though both the first and second place winners walked away with $1.2 and $1.4 million respectively, thanks to the chop. This will make the Spring Championship of Online Poker an exciting event for many online poker players who wish to try their hand again at pocketing such hefty sums.
Not much is known about the 2009 SCOOP, other than that the buy-in to the main event looks to be $1,500. They’re even hinting that, by the time the new event rolls around, its name may change. But they do know that the 6th place winner of their upcoming World Blogger Championship of Online Poker will win a free seat in the sure-to-be-popular new PokerStars tournament, whatever it ends up being called.
5 December, 2008
Since all the buzz on the poker news networks this week is last Sunday’s 60 Minutes story on internet poker we might as well give it a second of our time here.
According to the report, CBS News and the Washington Post joined forces starting 8 months ago to investigate online poker, and more specifically the question of cheating in online poker.
Apparently a group of devout and upstanding online poker players had themselves banded together and managed to catch a handful of until-then extremely successful career cheaters. $20 million successful, to be more precise.
In the interest of protecting the innocent, we’ll proudly name the names of the guilty here, and the one 60 Minutes brought to light as being behind much of scandal was Russ Hamilton, a former World Series of Poker main event champ.
What is an online poker player to take away from all this? Two things:
- Cheaters get caught; knowledgeable players are watching closely and looking out for those who don’t know as well what to look for
- Now the general public is even more aware of the need to federally legalize and regulate the internet poker industry so things like this don’t happen again
4 December, 2008
Need a break from online poker? Brain feeling drained from all that mental intensive strategizing? A lot of players join online slots sites to allow them a mindless and somewhat meditative reprieve from the heavy thinking required to play good poker.
Sometimes a little break from the action is all you need to come back refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to step back into the game.
A new online slots site just opened up, and unlike so many other online casinos out there, it accepts US players.
The site is Slots Oasis, and like its online casino forerunners (and still-going-strong) Rushmore Casino and the Cherry Red Casino, this new sots-centric online casino welcomes players from all around the world, including the U.S.
This makes all three of these online casinos perfect options for an online poker player who needs to step away form the felt for just a second to unwind his mind – but still wants a shot at winning some money in his downtime.