Archive for the Full Tilt News category.
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.
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.
24 September, 2008
Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Bodog, and Doyle’s Room – 4 of online poker’s biggest and most popular poker rooms are at risk of losing ownership of their own names, as the governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, masterminds what’s being called a “hostile takeover” of the sites in order to protect his state’s thoroughbred horseracing, charitable gaming, and lottery interests.
The total list of online poker rooms that the Democratic governor hopes to remand to government control, according to the Franklin County Court civil suit he filed, amounts to 141 poker sites. Others include:
• Cake Poker
• Ultimate Bet
• Absolute Poker
• Microgaming
The state charges that these sites are in violation of the law by offering their gaming services to its residents. Rumor circulating the web currently is that if Beshear is successful in his aims, he intends to shut down said sites. Whatever he does with ownership of these popular domains, though, if this passes it will no doubt come as a huge blow to the online poker industry.
18 June, 2008
OK, so maybe he’s not a total nobody - aupposedly he’s a hero in the high-stakes online poker community - but have you heard of Phil Galfond? Or how about OMGClayAiken (his screen name)?
Well, you have now. Because he just beat out John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Phill Helmuth, and Johnny Chan at what was apparently one of the toughest final tables in World Series of Poker history. It was Event 28, $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys. And by the time it was done, an online poker player pretty much unknown offline walked away with the bracelet and $817,781.
This isn’t even his first win in this year’s events, as prior to this big win Galfond had cashed-in in 5 different 2008 WSOP events, making this his 6th. Found usually at Full Tilt Poker’s $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha tables, Phil “OMG ClayAiken” Galfond is no-doubt about to become the next new poker celebrity on Team FullTilt.
There’s still so much more to go to the 2008 WSOP. So stay-tuned here for many more updates.
21 May, 2008
No, not “chumps” - that’s no typo - it really is a charity event for chimps, as in chimpanzees.
Full Tilt Poker, in cooperation with FullTilt team member, poker pro Lee Watkinson, is hosting a $5 + $5 No-Limit Texas Holdem Tournament to benefit chimpanzee rescue organization, the Cortland Brandenberg Foundation.
Half of the money raised at the event will go to Cortland Brandenberg, in part to help fund a new wildlife sanctuary slated to open in Washington state in June. The other half will comprise the prize pool for those players who finish the event in-the-money. The first place winner, in addition to the largest chunk of the prize pool, will also win a Curtis & Co. watch.
The “Save Captive Chimps” fundraising event will take place on Sunday, May 25th at 9 pm Eastern Daylight Time.
What’s more, new players can sign up now at FullTilt using promotional code “ANIMALLOVERS” and help ensure that future funding continues for animal shelters.
7 May, 2008
Today, May 7, 2008, the seventh installation of the Full Tilt online poker series gets underway. FTOPS VIII is a 24-part series tournament with a guaranteed $10 million dollar plus prize pool, with each event in the series being hosted by a poker celebrities from around the planet.
The first to host an FTOPS VIII tournament is a new poker star in the sky, David Chiu, who just recently beat out the invulnerable Gus Hansen for the World Poker Tour (WPT) title.
The Great Dane himself will be hosting one of the other FTOPS VIII events as will fellow poker stars: Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Phil Ivey, and Nick Schulman.
Some of the thrilling competitions players can look forward to include:
- a $2 million guaranteed main event
- a 2-day $2,500 tournament
- 3 surprise mystery events
The celebrity providing commentary at each final table will be joined by the esteemed announcer of Poker After Dark, Ali Nejad.
In addition to the cash prizes, every player making the final table will receive a slick FullTilt FTOPS jacket. The winner of each event will also get a gold FTOPS jersey, a gold jersey avatar anytime they play at Full Tilt Poker online, and an entry into this seasons Tournament of Champions.
25 March, 2008
This past Easter Sunday, thousands of players stood up the Easter dinner table to sit down instead at the poker table, gathering online for a whole different kind of feast. Multiple top online poker sites hosted big tournaments with big prizes and, as always happens at such events, some players celebrated later that night several thousand dollars richer.
The PokerStars Sunday Million saw 7,445 players logging in for their share of the pot, with a player named Tsipor taking the big prize of $147,561.00 away from chip leader Maluko0, who still walked away with an undisappointing second place win and $122,670.00 for his efforts.
Meanwhile, Sunday Bodog Poker following up its recent Bodog Poker Open with its weekly $100,000 Guaranteed tournament finals that attracted but a meager 603 players, but still managed to generate an impressive $39,000+ overlay. The winner, MONSTER_DONG was the big $25,000 winner, with RonnDough taking a sweet $14,300 second.
At Full Tilt Poker, 3,784 battled for the top prize of $133,991.44 in the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed Tournament, and nine hours after it started, a player going by CapTinBisKuiT claimed it for himself.
So, clearly, even though Easter Sunday typically sees a slowdown at the online poker rooms, that doesn’t make it any less of an opportunity for those everyday folks who do show up to win big.
12 March, 2008
World-renowned poker pro Jennifer Harman loves animals. And in an effort to help them where they can’t help themselves, she’s hosting an international online poker charity tournament to benefit their many (and growing) needs.
Taking place at FullTiltPoker.com, the Animal-Loving charity online poker tournament brings together animal-loving poker pros and amateurs alike from around the world to benefit the Nevada SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), a no-kill animal shelter.
Joining Harman will be fellow Team Full Tilt big names: Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Howard “The Professor” Lederer.
Other celebs joining in on the event include (with their FullTiltPoker usernames, where available, in quotes):
- Jeff Brushie, “SMAKEbreak”, world halfpipe champion snowboarder;
- Ross Powers, 2-time X-Games champ and Olympic medalist;
- Kris Swierz, “WheatSApuff”, pro snowboarder;
- Parks Bonifay, “pbpbpb”, 5-time wakeboard world champ and X-Games gold medalist;
- Shane Bonifay, “jeanyes407″, Gravity Games and X-Games wakeboard medalist;
- Danny Harf, “d9bigtime”, 4-time X-Games gold medalist wakeboarder;
- Jimmy Button, “BTNFLY”, pro-motocross champ.
The “Animal Lovers” event will be a $5 + $5 No Limit Texas Hold’em tournament, starting at 9 pm EDT, March 16, 2008.