Archive for the ‘Gambling News’ Category
Next Page »« Previous PagePoker Player Mystery at FullTiltPoker.net
Posted on April 19th, 2010 by kdollar
A Swedish poker player has ignited interest and rumor mongering in the online poker world.
A player who goes by the user name Isildur1 has been playing at Full Tilt (www.fulltiltpoker.net) for several months and has established a name for himself both due to his winnings, his losses, and his utter desire to stay anonymous.
A recent announcement indicated that Isildur1 would reveal his identity while playing in the Big Game IV, a live event that attracts some of the top poker players in the world. In fact, it was announced that its Isildur1 would not reveal his identity but would instead play in the live event wearing a disguise.
This week, however, it was announced that Isildur1 would not be playing in the tournament after all, and will continue to maintain his or her anonymity.
What has fueled even more talk, however, is that a new Swedish player has arrived in online poker rooms with the user name Ingsoni. This player has been playing at Party Poker (www.partypoker.com) since February when he or she was in the hole to the tune of more than $57,000, but by this week has amassed more than $700,000 in winnings.
Some believe that Ingsoni is simply Isildur1 with a different username. Well it may not be known who the player is, one thing is for sure: He or she is truly a poker mystery.
Kentucky sues Full Tilt
Posted on April 14th, 2010 by kdollar
The troubles aren’t ending for Full Tilt Poker, which is currently the subject of a grand jury investigation in Manhattan. According to news reports, the state government of Kentucky is suing the online poker site for losses it says its residents have suffered playing poker at the site.
Fortunately for Full Tilt, most legal experts are arguing that the suit will likely be unsuccessful.
Full Tilt Poker is operated by Pocket Kings LTD and is operated internationally and not by companies or agents in the United States, making such a case hard to win.
According to Stephanie Steitzer, writing in the Louiseville, Kentucky Courier-Journal, “Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration is attempting to use an obscure state law to recover losses incurred by Kentuckians who placed bets through web sites.”
According to this little-used and obscure law, the lawsuit claims the state will be able to recover three times the amount of money residents are estimated to have lost. That could be as much as $1 billion.
Louisville attorney John Fleischaker told the Courier-Journal that he thinks the suit is “very bizarre” and could give rise to a whole new argument that would say “that the transactions didn’t actually occur in Kentucky because none of the Web site operators are located here.”
Kentucky has a history of attack on online poker. In 2008, the state tried to seize more than 140 poker domain names by claiming that the sites were offering illegal services to the residents of Kentucky but was largely unsuccessful.
Esfandiari to appear on Entourage
Posted on April 13th, 2010 by kdollar
A well-known Victory Poker pro will appear on an upcoming episode of the HBO series “Entourage”.
Antonio Esfandiari, who plays for the Victory Poker team (www.victorypoker.net) will be featured in the upcoming episode along with poker legend Alec Torelli.
“I was shooting a poker scene for ‘Entourage’ and Alec came along for the ride,” said Esfandiari. “Somehow he got to be in the scene with me, which was pretty cool.”
The inclusion of the online poker players is a nod to the increasing relevance of poker in American culture. No longer do players have to slide up to a real table when they can join a virtual table at one of the many online poker websites and play against thousands of other players online.
Torelli and Esfandiari play for the Victory Poker team along with Andrew Robl and Brian Rast. All are well known in the online poker world and Esfandiari hopes that the screen time will bring more attention to online poker in general and Victory Poker specifically.
“We were both allowed to wear our Victory patches (during filming),” said Esfandiari.
‘Entourage’ highlights the party atmosphere surrounding a young movies star and his entourage of friends and relatives, so Esfandiari says that his reputation as a party animal will fit well with the general vibe of the show.
DoylesRoom WSOP Pick Your Prize
Posted on March 26th, 2010 by kdollar
While many online poker rooms are offering players seats to the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas in May, only DoylesRoom.com is offering winners a chance to pick their own prize.
Most of the sites offering prize packages to Las Vegas for the WSOP are also offering a grand prize of a seat at the Main Event. DoyleRoom.com is offering a different kind of prize package.
“Our players have expressed interest in playing not just in the Main Event, but also in some of the smaller events” said Julius Maxwell, a spokesperson for the site. “By giving away cash and letting the players choose the events they want to play in, we’re giving people the freedom to experience and enjoy the world’s biggest poker tournament on their own terms. Our players know that there is more than one path you can choose to become a legend.”
There are 57 events in the WSOP this year, and the poker room will award a $12,500 prize package and a $2,500 prize package, both of which will allow players to buy into any WSOP event they choose.
The player who wins the $12,500 prize package might choose to enter several smaller events at the WSOP, or they might choose to use it all to enter the Main Event. The winner has the freedom of choice in this contest, Maxwell said.
DoylesRoom (named after the legendary poker player Doyle Brunson) is holding weekly satellites each Sunday along with regular qualifiers. The prize winners will win more than their chunk of cash, as the prize package also includes a VIP experience with the team from DoylesRoom and a dinner with Brunson himself. Other activities for the winners include a party, photo session, autographed copies of Brunson’s books and a variety of DoylesRoom.com gear and apparel.
NAPT PokerStars.net Winner
Posted on March 24th, 2010 by kdollar
A Northern California resident is heading to a stop on the North American Poker Tour, courtesy of his gutsy play in a www.PokerStar.com tournament.
Jason Teixeira will head to the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut to compete in the NAPT and against some of the best players in the world. Play will begin April 7 and continue to April 11.
“I feel like I'm living every average, online poker player’s dream. It's just unreal,” Teixeira told a local reporter.
Teixeira was one of 10,000 people to enter and play at the PokerStars(www.pokerstars.com) online poker tournament. The tournament qualifies the top 36 players to play in the championship rounds. Teixeira qualified and competed against the other players to win a seat at the live tournament at the Mohegan Sun. That event will be covered by ESPN2
Teixeira said luck had a lot to do with his win.
“I got two royal flushes, one in each tournament,” he said. Noting how uncommon that can be, Teixeira said he had no other explanation that it was just pure luck.
But it wasn't just luck that was involved. Teixeira said he had a strategy, and it was to sit back and let his opponents duke it out until he became the last one standing. While his opponent had more than 1 million chips, Teixeira had just 266,000 which he pushed all in, and ended up with 1.1 million chips of his own.
The prize package to the NAPT includes entry into the tournament, as well as accommodations at the casino and airfare to Connecticut.
Titan Poker Revamp
Posted on March 17th, 2010 by kdollar
Players who visit Titan Poker will see some changes this week. The poker room recently launched a new version of its software, which will feature a host of new things and some special functions as well.
Titan Poker is Europe’s leading online poker room after leaving the United States in 2006. Some of the new features include a new flash version of the software, which is compatible for Mac users, and the addition of five languages for players from all over the world. The added languages include Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian and Czech.
The site also launched the Titan Poker Academy, an online poker strategy guide which will give both beginner and veteran players information on money management, odds calculations, bluffing, positioning and other poker-specific strategies.
Along with the re-launched software, the site has unveiled a revamped website and a new logo. The revamped site is also showcasing the World Challenge 2010, an international tournament which will give five of the top Titan players from around the world a chance to represent their individual country at the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. The prize package is worth $13,000 as well as a seat at that Main Event tournament.
UB.com Cancels Aruba Poker Classic
Posted on March 14th, 2010 by kdollar
UB.com has canceled its annual Aruba Poker Classic. Despite that, UB is increasing its presence at other live events and plans to expand the available online tournaments.
“It is with great regret that we are announcing that the Aruba event will not run this year, but 2010 is going to be an exciting year for UB and its players,” said Tokwiro COO Paul Leggett in a press release. “Over the last year we've been redefining the UB brand in every way. We love the Aruba Poker Classic event but we think we can do a lot more for our players by investing in new events and rewards.”
Last year, Brandon Hall took down a field of 475 players in the Aruba Poker Classic Main Event. He collected a $753,000 first prize award. The original prize pool of $5,500 swelled to more than $2 million as hundreds of online poker players arrived at the Radisson Aruba Resort and Casino to take part in the annual event.
Instead of hosting that large tournament this year, UB.com will focus its efforts on expanding both its online and live tournament schedules. At the online poker tables, a monthly $500,000 guarantee award is currently in the works. Right now, UB.com and its sister site, Absolute Poker.net, host a weekly $200,000 guaranteed event that brings in more than 1,000 entrants regularly.
Although UB is not hosting its annual Aruba event, it will continue to qualify players for other real-world tournaments such as the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker, which begins in late May.
Pstars Dream Job
Posted on March 6th, 2010 by kdollar
PokerStars is offering two new promotions sure to bring in players.
The first promotion awards a dream job in Australia to the lucky winner. Called, appropriately, “Dream Job Australia”, this promotion will award one lucky winner the chance to play at their choice of stops on the Australian New Zealand Poker Tour, $40,000 for tournament entries and $5,000 a month salary for the year that the winner lives in Australia.
While you can get to the final round by playing in free daily tournaments at PokerStars (www.pokerstar.com), the final 10 players will have to prove to the poker playing community their worth as an international poker player in order to win the grand prize.
How can one of the 10 finalists become the Dream Job Australia winner? They will be asked to spend six weeks as a finalist during which time they will blog, tweet and Facebook their poker experiences. They will also complete a poker knowledge test and meet with Team PokerStars Australia at the Australian New Zealand Poker Tour Sydney. The poker community will choose the big winner.
The next big promotion that PokerStars is offering is for women only. Called “Luxury Ladies Poker Club”, this promotion will award one lucky winner a trip to Monte Carlo where she will play in a ladies tournament, earn a spot at Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso’s poker bootcamp, get a manicure and other pampering treatments and enjoy her stay at one of the best hotels in Monte Carlo.
Women can enter this promotion by playing poker at PokerStars and by entering daily freerolls.
SCOOP Tournament
Posted on February 25th, 2010 by kdollar
Poker players who are looking to join a tournament but aren’t sure how can belly up to the virtual table from May 3-16 when Poker Stars holds its Spring Championship of Online Poker tournament.
The site is hosting the two-week event in an unusual way and one which will allow players of all sized bankrolls to fully participate in the tournament however they choose. While you can buy in for as little as $5.50, you get to share in the overall $36 million in prize money, no matter your buy-in amount. There is also a $5 million guarantee on the 2-day Main Event hand with the highest buy-in.
Unlike the World Championship of Online Poker, the Spring Championship of Online Poker tournament (SCOOP) offers buy-ins on a tiered system, allowing anyone to play in at least the lowest tier of buy-in hands. These buy-ins range from $5.50 to $10,300 on a low, medium and high buy-in range. You might choose to play a medium hand one day and a high buy-in hand another day.
The tournament kicks off on May 3 with a six-handed No Limit Hold’em hand (including re-buys) and will continue to the 16th. Other games include Razz, HORSE and Badugi events.
Prize amounts are also based on the low, medium and high premise. Winning hands might be worth $109, $1,050 or $10,300, with the tournament pools worth $1 million, $3 million and $5 million.
PokerStars.net NAPT Celebrity Tourney
Posted on February 20th, 2010 by kdollar
To up the ante at its Las Vegas stop, the North American Poker Tour will host a celebrity charity poker tournament this weekend.
PokerStar.com (www.pokerstars.net) is sponsoring the event, which is designed to raise money for Three Square, a Las Vegas charity that aims to provide food to more than 270 other non-profit organizations that help to feed the hungry in the Las Vegas area.
Some of the celebrities slated to play in the charity event include Team PokerStars pros Joe Cada, Vanessa Rousso and Daniel Negreanu, along with other celebrities like Jason Alexander, Joanna Krupa, Tony Hawk, Christian Slater, Slash, Marlon Wayans and Montel Williams. Other celebrities who were expected to play in the $500 buy-in Texas Hold’em tournament include Brad Garrett, Orel Hershiser, and Donnie Wahlberg.
The winner of the tournament – whether pro poker player or celebrity player – will win a prize package that includes a trip to the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas in 2011. The Caribbean tournament kicks off the annual North American Poker Tour. The second place winner will win a prize package which includes a trip to the NAPT Mohegan Sun stop in April of this year.
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