Posts Tagged ‘jackpot’
Fort Knox Jackpot $240k and rising
PartyPoker Reviving Million Dollar Hand in January
In January, PartyPoker will be bringing back one of its most popular promotions ever, the Million Dollar Hand. All you have to do is make a pair in a five-card poker hand to be awarded a prize, and a $1 million jackpot is on the line.
Accumulating cards is quite simple. You’ll get one for every 15 PartyPoints you rack up between January 5th and January 30th. When you’ve amassed five cards, you’ll have a hand. If it contains a pair, then $3 will be coming your way. If it contains two pair, then your prize will be upped to $10. If you manage to score three of a kind, then you’ll get a $20 cash prize. That’s pretty simple, right?
Players who land a straight in the Million Dollar Hand will take home $50, while those who pick up a flush will see $100 come their way. Players who make a boat will get $150, while anyone who hits quads will receive a $1,000 cash prize. Now, we’re into the big money, as straight flushes are worth $10,000. Finally, anyone who manages to score a Royal Flush will divide a $1 million prize pool, which means if two players hit it, each person will actually take home $500,000. If only one person makes a Royal Flush, they’ll take home the seven-figure jackpot.
The best part about the Million Dollar Hand is that PartyPoker is awarding every player his or her first card for free. No play is required! Just log into your PartyPoker account to see what your first card is.
Now, let’s review some of the terms and conditions of the PartyPoker Million Dollar Hand. First, you’ll only be able to acquire 10 cards per day for a total of two five-card poker hands. Second, if you fall short of 15 points, PartyPoker will carry them over to the next day. Third, you have to reveal your cards manually. In order to do so, log into your PartyPoker account and see what you’ve amassed. If you don’t reveal your cards, they won’t count.
PartyPoker players will have until the end of the day Eastern Time on January 31st to reveal any cards they’ve received and only points accumulated at cash game tables will count. Finally, as text found on PartyPoker’s website notes, “Cash prizes will be paid to players within an hour of them revealing their hand apart from Royal Flush winners, who will be paid on February 1st.”
PartyPoker is one of the industry leaders when it comes to unique promotions like the Million Dollar Hand. In fact, the site is concurrently running a Million Dollar Hand VIP Points Race for Palladium Lounge members. Players will earn the same cash prizes as in the Million Dollar Hand and also rack up points based on their hand’s value. The top two spots on the leaderboard pay out a World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic prize package worth $14,000.
The top 200 spots in the Million Dollar Hand VIP Points Race pay out, with a minimum prize of $100 up for grabs. The top 30 spots award four-figures and everyone who reaches the top 500 scores a seat into the Million Dollar Hand VIP Freeroll, which doles out a WPT prize package to its winner. Palladium Lounge members will receive extra race points for accumulating over 300 PartyPoints in a single day.
According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, PartyPoker is the third largest site worldwide in terms of real money ring game volume with a seven-day running average of 3,600 players. It just edges out the iPoker Network, but is well behind PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which rank first and second worldwide, respectively. PartyPoker’s team of sponsored pros includes Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Mike Sexton, poker bad boy Tony G, and “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott.
Visit PartyPoker today for more details.
Rainbow Casino in Wendover Hosts Spectrum of Poker
Poker is alive and well in Wendover, Nevada, about 110 miles from Salt Lake City on the Nevada border. The Rainbow Spectrum of Poker is going on through December 19th. Jan Fisher and I, two members of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, are hosting the tournament series and giving entrants a complimentary seminar on December 18th at Noon local time prior to the start of the $500 buy-in Main Event. The casino is adding money to each tournament, including $5,000 for the Main Event. A list of the schedule of events can be found at WendoverFun.com.
Jody Russell is the Poker Manager for the Wendover Rainbow and Montego Bay Casino Resorts and has been in Wendover since June, having come from the Peppermill in Reno. I interviewed Jody about poker in Wendover.
Linda Johnson: Tell us about some of the special promotions available at the Rainbow and Montego Bay card rooms.
Jody Russell, We have lots of promotions for our players including Football Squares on Sunday and Monday nights, with a $100 winner for every score made. Squares are awarded to players who make any full house of jacks or better. The Quadzilla promotion awards $25 to anyone who gets quads and an additional $500 is given if the same player gets quads twice in 24 hours.
Thursday nights feature a Nifty 50 bonus from 2:00pm to 6:00pm. With two hours of play, players who bought in for at least $50 receive an extra bonus dollar for every year they are older than 50. The Set Cracked Jackpot awards $100 from 1:00am to 4:00am to anyone who flops a set using a pocket pair and gets beat.
Linda Johnson: Who is your major clientele?
Jody Russell: The bulk of our players drive from Salt Lake City. Local players consist mainly of gold miners, casino workers, and retirees. We also have flyaway packages from many cities in the United States that include roundtrip air and a three-night stay in a deluxe room at the Rainbow, Peppermill, or Montego Bay Resorts.
Linda Johnson: Why would someone come play poker in Wendover?
Jody Russell: We have a very player-friendly atmosphere and great poker action. We track players and give room and food comps based on the amount of their play. In addition to the promotions above, we also add money to many of our tournaments and have Royal Flush, Bad Beat, and Full House Jackpots. I think our players enjoy the fun and games they get here. For the Rainbow Spectrum of Poker, we are offering a $25 room rate on weekdays and a $65 room rate on the weekends. Everyone who enters one of the events also receives a free buffet ticket.
Linda Johnson: Thanks for taking time to talk with me Jody and congratulations on getting 215 players in your first event. I’ve only been here 24 hours, but I’m having a great time and you’re definitely right about the great action in the games!
£222k Badbeat Jackpot video
Huge Bad Beat Jackpot at the Empire
PartyPoker Introduces Five Star Poker Challenge
In December, PartyPoker will unveil the Five Star Poker Challenge, offering 31 freerolls worth $5,000 each plus other high-stakes cash prizes. PartyPoker offers some of the industry’s most unique promotions every month.
All you have to do to take full advantage of the Five Star Poker Challenge is rack up five Party Points in a single day. That’s it; that’s really all you have to do. When you amass five points, PartyPoker will grant you entry into a $5,000 freeroll the next day. There are 31 freerolls that will be held in total, meaning that the site is putting up over $150,000 for this part of the Five Star Poker Challenge promotion.
Now, if you qualify for five of the aforementioned $5,000 freerolls, you’ll score entry into a $50,000 freeroll that will be held on January 2nd. You’ll be ringing in the new year in style as you vie for a five-figure prize pool, all for playing on one of the world’s largest online poker sites.
In addition, repeat winners of the $5,000 freerolls will be in for a special treat. Win two daily $5,000 freerolls and you’ll take home a $5,000 cash prize. If you manage to win three daily freerolls, then your prize will be increased to $50,000. Finally, any PartyPoker player who manages to take down five daily $5,000 freerolls will win a colossal $500,000 cash prize.
Your $5,000 freeroll victories don’t have to be consecutive; rather, they can happen at any point during the promotion. Finally, PartyPoker is offering up one $5,000, $50,000, and $500,000 bonus, so start playing early to claim your prize, as jackpots will be paid out on a first come, first served basis.
Text found on PartyPoker’s website explains how bonuses can be claimed: “To make a claim, players must send an email to info@partypoker.com and confirm their account name. PartyPoker will respond to all claims within 48 hours in order to verify all claims and ensure no fraudulent play has taken place.” PartyPoker expects to pay out bonuses within 48 hours.
The $5,000 tournaments will kick off at 15:00 ET each day during the Five Star Poker Challenge. According to PartyPoker’s terms, a “day” runs from 00:00 ET to 23:59 ET, so make sure to pick up five Party Points during that time span to qualify.
Also in December, PartyPoker is holding the VIP Gift Accumulator for its VIP members. All players need to do is earn Party Points. Then, at certain thresholds, they’ll receive rewards for their play, ranging from a $50 cash prize to a $5,000 World Poker Tour (WPT) buy-in. Other prizes include $100 in cash, an iPod Touch, $700 in cash, and a 16 GB iPad, which will likely be one of the hottest gift items of the holiday season. All prizes are cumulative, which could make for a pretty full stocking come Christmas morning.
The VIP Gift Accumulator also includes a prize draw that will shell out $10,000. The top payout in the prize draw is $5,000, with cash sums of $3,000 and $2,000 also available. The VIP Gift Accumulator promotion runs from December 1st to 14th, with the prize draw occurring on December 17th. Players must opt into the VIP Gift Accumulator promotion in order to participate.
The WPT buy-in is good for any event before March 31st. Players who would rather not head to a live poker tournament can opt for a cash alternative of $3,500. In order to check out how many VIP Gift Accumulator points you’ve earned, head to your PartyPoker account after you’ve opted in.
Visit PartyPoker for the full rundowns of the Five Star Poker Challenge and VIP Gift Accumulator.
Eric Baldwin Wins NAPT LA Bounty Shootout
On Thursday, UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin took down the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Los Angeles Bounty Shootout for $134,000. It marked Baldwin’s third live score of $100,000 or more of 2010 according to the Hendon Mob and he edged out a talented field of live and online poker pros.
The first elimination of the Bounty Shootout final table went to European Poker Tour (EPT) champ Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, who was bumped in ninth place. MacPhee committed his chips with A-K and was well ahead of the K-7 belonging to Clint Coffee. However, Coffee spiked a seven on the flop and no help came on the turn or river for MacPhee, who picked up $20,000 for making the final table and $3,000 in bounties.
November Niner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi exited in eighth place just moments after doubling up. He was all-in with pocket fives, but ran headlong into the pocket tens belonging to Justin Young. Neither player improved and Mizrachi fell short of the trophy once again. The Full Tilt Poker pro took fifth in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event earlier this month for $2.3 million.
Team PokerStars Canada pro Pat Pezzin hit the rail in seventh place after 3betting all-in before the flop with A-J. Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania made the call with pocket sixes and the race was on. Charania hit the jackpot on the flop, which came 6-8-8 for a boat, and Pezzin was drawing dead by the turn. Pezzin picked up $20,000 for making the final table of the NAPT LA Bounty Shootout and earned another $2,000 in bounties.
Coffee was eliminated in sixth place after his pocket sevens could not draw out on Young’s pocket tens and picked up a total of $23,000 for his run in the 81-player poker tournament. Thirty minutes later, NAPT Venetian Main Event winner Tom “Kingsofcards” Marchese was shown the door in fifth place. Marchese got his chips in with Q-7 on a flop of K-7-4 with two hearts for middle pair and was ahead of David Williams’ 9-3 of hearts for a flush draw. Marchese hit two pair on the turn when the queen of diamonds fell, but a heart on the river gave Williams a flush.
Charania was bumped after shoving pre-flop with A-7 of hearts and failing to draw out on the pocket tens of Williams. The reigning World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship winner flopped a set and Charania was quickly drawing dead. He picked up a total of $25,000, which included five $1,000 bounties.
Williams was shown the door in third place from the NAPT LA Bounty Shootout. He was all-in with A-Q and facing the pocket tens belonging to Young. However, the only card higher than a ten onboard was a king and that was all she wrote for the PokerStars pro. Young locked up the most number of bounties in the NAPT event at six and, as a result, received a seat in the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Bounty Shootout.
Baldwin doubled up early in heads-up play. On the final hand of the tournament, Young was all-in with A-Q and ran into Baldwin’s pocket kings. No suckout was in store and the UB.com pro was crowned the NAPT LA Bounty Shootout champion. Young took home $26,000 and a seat in the upcoming Bounty Shootout in the Bahamas, while Baldwin collected $134,000 for the win, $20,000 for making the final table, and $3,000 in bounties. Here’s how the final table cashed out in the winner-take-all event:
1. Eric Baldwin – $134,280 + $20,000 + $3,000 in bounties
2. Justin Young – $20,000 + $6,000 in bounties
3. David Williams – $20,000 + $4,000 in bounties
4. Mohsin Charania – $20,000 + $5,000 in bounties
5. Tom Marchese – $20,000 + $4,000 in bounties
6. Clint Coffee – $20,000 + $3,000 in bounties
7. Pat Pezzin – $20,000 + $2,000 in bounties
8. Michael Mizrachi – $20,000+ $4,000 in bounties
9. Kevin MacPhee – $20,000 + $3,000 in bounties
Tags: 2010, 2011, Canada, european, full tilt poker, jackpot, Online Poker, poker player, pokerstars, tournament, WSOP
Carbon Poker Bad Beat Jackpot Cracked for $156,000
While many sites may offer Bad Beat Jackpots, they are only memorable when someone walks away with a huge payout. On Thursday at Carbon Poker, the Bad Beat Jackpot was cracked, paying out very memorable money for those involved.
On the $0.50/$1 tables at Carbon Poker on Thursday, “dk2112” entered into a hand with pocket sevens. “dk2112” hid the hand nicely by limping in pre-flop and continued to slow play after the flop came 7-8-2 rainbow. “dk2112” called a bet from “Stingray57” and then faced a raise from “BlackOutBob,” which he called. Another seven on the turn made four of a kind for “dk2112,” yet he just called a $5 bet from “BlackOutBob,” and the duo saw a river eight. At this point, the fireworks went off.
“BlackOutBob” moved the remainder of his stack ($6.50) to the center of the table, which was met with a call from “dk2112.” The river eight made “BlackOutBob” quad eights and trumped “dk2112’s” turned four of a kind in sevens, setting off the Carbon Poker Bad Beat Jackpot.
While “BlackOutBob” took down the $55 pot, “dk2112” earned a massive payday of $156,402.63 for taking the bad beat. “BlackOutBob” picked up an additional $78,201.31 for being the winner of the hand and the five players also seated at the table took down $13,033.55.
“We are excited each time our Bad Beat Jackpot goes off,” Atil Singh, Head of Acquisitions at Carbon Poker, told Poker News Daily. “It has the power to possibly change the players’ lives, depending on the amount. The majority of the time, our Bad Beat Jackpot hits at the lower stakes, which give the players a huge boost. Our largest jackpot was over $1.2 million and we hope we can break this record in the near future.”
Players who sit at special Jackpot tables on the site build the Carbon Poker Bad Beat Jackpot. The bounty is seeded by taking $0.50 from every pot on these special tables and, when a player suffers a bad beat holding four of a kind in sevens or better, the jackpot is distributed.
The person who suffers the bad beat earns 35% of the Bad Beat Jackpot and the winner in the hand takes down 17.5%. Those players who watched the action – and are actively dealt to – share another 17.5%, while Carbon Poker takes a 10% maintenance fee and reseeds the Bad Beat Jackpot with 20% of the money that is available.
After the strike on Thursday, the Carbon Poker Bad Beat Jackpot has been reset, but there is still a sizeable stake out there. As of Saturday, the jackpot has grown to $100,904 and will continue to grow until it is struck again.
Carbon Poker is a part of the Merge Gaming Network, which includes such rooms as PokerHost and Lock Poker. The Merge Gaming Network accepts American players and, according to PokerScout.com, active cash game players will peak at around 1,400, offering ample competition for those on the virtual felt.
Daniel Negreanu Trumps Johnny Whitt on PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge
On Sunday flanking NFL coverage on FOX, a new episode of the PokerStars “Million Dollar Challenge” aired. The Chris Rose-hosted show has become one of the industry’s staple television series and last week, Johnny Whitt from Houston, Texas challenged a stable of PokerStars pros and celebrities. On the line was a $100,000 match against Daniel Negreanu and a shot at $1 million.
Whitt faced off against a half-dressed Sara Underwood in the first round. Negreanu sat beside Whitt throughout the match, which saw Underwood take an early lead after Whitt’s open-ended straight draw failed to come through. Underwood opened up a 2:1 chip advantage as a result, but could not hold up. The Victory Poker pro moved all-in with 10-8 on a board reading Q-8-5-6 for a pair of eights. However, Whitt had her dominated with Q-8 for top two pair and Underwood was drawing dead to the river. Whitt received a $5,000 trip to the Bahamas for the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
After getting through the former Playboy Playmate of the Year, Whitt squared off against PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein. This time, Negreanu moved to an isolation booth where he could communicate with Whitt through an earpiece. In turn, Greenstein could suspend all communication between the two by invoking the Dome of Silence twice during the match. Greenstein scooped two pots worth a combined 20,000 in chips early, leaving Whitt treading on thin ice.
Greenstein used his Dome of Silence twice pre-flop; both times he peeked down at 7-2 and gave Whitt a walk. Ultimately, the challenger was all-in pre-flop with 4-3 and up against the pocket sixes of Greenstein, but flopped the nuts when the first three cards came 5-2-A. The pot resulted in a 2:1 chip lead for the amateur and, in the match’s final hand, Whitt’s A-7 held against Greenstein’s Q-5 when the Texan made a flush on the turn. He picked up $25,000 to go along with the trip to the Bahamas.
Rose asked Whitt if he wanted to risk his $25,000 payday to face Negreanu heads-up for $100,000 and a chance at $1 million or take the money and run. Whitt’s family encouraged him to take the plunge and Whitt obliged, setting up a “Star Wars”-esque master versus apprentice showdown on the “Million Dollar Challenge.” After Whitt took the chip lead, Negreanu raised to 4,000 before the flop with A-10 and Whitt 3bet to 8,000 with Q-J. Negreanu called to set up the game-changing pot.
The flop came 4-5-8 with two clubs and Whitt open-shoved all-in. Negreanu, remarking that there were too many chips in the middle to fold, called all-in as a 70% favorite. Another club on the turn gave Whitt a flush draw, but a red nine on the river gave Negreanu a pot of 37,000, or 93% of the chips in play. Whitt, whose stack totaled less than one big blind, then staked his tournament life on 6-5, but could not draw out on Negreanu’s 8-5. “Kid Poker” scooped $10,000 for charity.
The PokerStars-backed “Million Dollar Challenge” will next hit airwaves on November 21st flanking NFL coverage on FOX. Then, on December 12th, one contestant will battle Negreanu for a $1 million top prize. Last season, 9/11 first responder Mike Kosowski earned the seven-figure jackpot after spiking a four-outer on the final hand. You can catch Season 1 of the “Million Dollar Challenge” on GSN.
PokerStars is holding qualifiers for the poker game show online until December 8th. Check out a brand new episode in two weeks on FOX.
RUNURAGGED Breaks Down UB.com Jackpot Win
Recently, one member of UB.com hit the jackpot, literally. “RUNURAGGED” earned $201,000 after quad queens cracked his quad nines to ignite the Bad Beat Jackpot on the CEREUS Network site. Poker News Daily caught up with “RUNURAGGED” to discuss the life-changing hand.
Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. Tell us the bad beat story! What happened?
RUNURAGGED: I logged onto UB.com one morning to see that the Bad Beat Jackpot was over $550,000. I also saw that I had $0 on the site. I got my credit card and deposited $44 for a tournament they run everyday, the goal being to final table it and have a bankroll to play cash games. I was quite confident I could do this because it was $4,000 guaranteed and had about 150 runners. I finished in sixth place for $270 or so; there was my bankroll for $50nl short stacking.
I proceeded to take a break and logged back on at about 10:00pm. I opened up nine tables and put $10 on each to have lots of chances to hit and not run out of money before the Bad Beat Jackpot popped. I was playing away, folding most pairs under sevens since they do not qualify for the Jackpot if you lose with them, and picked up pocket nines under the gun in the bottom left-hand table. I shoved $10 and it folded to one of the blinds, who snap called with pocket queens.
The board ran out 9-9-X rainbow, so I flopped quad nines, but basically had no chance for a Bad Beat Jackpot except for the obvious runner-runner quads. I watched as the turn slowly came a queen and was thinking in my head, “Wow, I’ve had this happen before and the river came a brick. I bet that happens again.” The river came a queen.
It took my brain about 10 seconds to process that I had actually won, as the table froze once the Jackpot hit to calculate the prizes and determine that it was a legitimate hand. Within about five minutes, $201,000 was in my account and I was talking to a VIP host. He told me exactly what to do when I asked how to cash it out. He gave all of the methods to withdraw and asked me some questions about how I was feeling and stuff like that, which was pretty cool. I faxed my information to confirm who I was for security reasons and within two or three days, I was able to play, transfer, and withdraw with freedom except for the maximum limits.
PND: How incredible was that to have happen?
RUNURAGGED: I don’t even have the words to describe the feelings I had when I saw I had won. There was a large amount of swearing and shouting at Midnight. I woke everyone up and they were very excited to see the result. I’m only 22 years old and from a middle class home in Canada. This kind of money is absolutely unreal and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.
PND: Do you have any plans for the money?
RUNURAGGED: I’ll start making plans once I have it all in my bank account. The first successful bank wire went toward a new Alienware computer, paying off my credit card, getting a new leather office chair, and giving $7,000 to my mom for her credit cards and some extra cash for whatever small things she wants to buy. So, mostly it was just buying essentials and giving financial support to my family.
PND: Have you ever won a share of a Bad Beat Jackpot before?
RUNURAGGED: A stake-share happened to me a few times in the past, not even a table share though. I think I booked $600 one time when it went off when I was playing nine tables. That was pretty nice and I thought it was a lot of money.
PND: What stakes do you normally play? Why do you play on UB.com as opposed to other sites with Bad Beat Jackpots?
RUNURAGGED: I mostly play $0.50/$1 or $0.25/$0.50 if my bankroll is getting too small. I never had a huge bankroll to begin with and I’ve only been playing poker seriously for about two years, so it’s mostly just been playing for side money. I find UB.com to be by far the most actively played Bad Beat Jackpot on the internet. It can easily build itself up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per week. It makes sense to play there if you want to hit a Jackpot or at least get a portion of the prize when it goes off.
PND: Tell us about gunning for Bad Beat Jackpots. How can we win one?
RUNURAGGED: Generally, UB.com was not a site I frequented too often, but when I logged on to check it, which I do maybe once a week, I saw that there was a huge Bad Beat Jackpot approaching $600,000. When it’s over $500,000, it will hit eventually; it pretty much has to. Like a slot machine filled up to the brim, it’s designed to pay out a jackpot eventually once enough cash is collected.
I know it’s generally not the same mechanics, but it’s the same idea: if enough people play millions of poker hands, it has to happen eventually. I have never seen it go off above $880,000, so if you are going to try to hit it, play when it’s busy and very large. Of course, a Bad Beat Jackpot can hit when there are 75 players on at 3:00am on a Tuesday and it’s at $50,000. It’s completely random luck when it hits, but the variable chance that it hits will most certainly increase with more player activity on the site.
PND: How did you get started in poker?
RUNURAGGED: I got started messing around with online poker in late 2007 when I was 19. I asked my mom if I could play on PokerStars, as a fellow player in an online video game recommended the site to me. I put $50 online and lost it rather quickly in cash games. For the first six to 12 months, it was a learning process of figuring out what types of games I preferred: cash games, sit and gos, or tournaments. I was not very good at them all, but the sit and gos and tournaments were the easiest to win.
In the middle of 2009, I got lucky on Full Tilt Poker and binked a fourth place finish in a tournament for $7,600. I still remember that it was in a Mini Series of Poker event with a $55 buy-in. This basically funded a whole bunch of cool gadgets like an iPhone and computers. Plus, it allowed me to have a solid bankroll for low-stakes cash games.
Eventually, I got a bit better and profitable when I started using training videos and sites like DeucesCracked, CardRunners, TwoPlusTwo, and a private strategy forum with friends called UCP. They all helped me greatly since I’ve taken a serious approach to the game. About one year ago, I shifted mostly to cash games and a few tournaments and sit and gos. My greatest calling for a future career in poker is in mid-stakes cash games, which I consider to be true poker.
Playtech Total Revenue Up 17% in Third Quarter
Gaming Software firm Playtech posted its 2010 third quarter financial results this week and showed an increase in both gross income and revenue. The company announced gross income at €41.3 million, up 30% compared to the same period in 2009, while its total revenues were up 17% to €32.5 million, compared to €27.7 million in the third quarter of 2009.
For the first nine months of the year, Playtech’s gross income was up 31% at €129.2 million and revenue rose 25% to €105.4 million. Excluding the impact of the company’s French closure following new online gambling regulations, gross income compared with the second quarter was up 1% and revenue was down 2%.
Said Playtech CEO Mor Weizer, “Gross income and total revenues for the quarter held up well over the traditionally quiet summer period, especially when excluding the impact of the closure of the French offshore market, which distorts the historic comparisons. After the seasonal slowdown and the aftermath of the World Cup, September as expected was a stronger month and we see this positive trend continuing.”
Poker once again saw a fall in revenue in the third quarter, down 30% to €5.7 million from €8.2 million in Q3 2009. It was also down 21% from the second quarter of 2010. Over the full year through September, poker revenue was at €21.5 million, down 15% compared to the €25.4 million earned in the same period last year.
Playtech software powers the iPoker Network, which includes sites like Titan Poker, Paddy Power Poker, Bet365, Sun Poker, and BetFred. iPoker contains more than 50 skins, making it the most extensive network in the world. According to traffic tracking site PokerSout.com, the iPoker Network trails only PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and PartyPoker in terms of ring game player volume. The site averaged 3,700 cash game players over the past seven days and reached a peak of nearly 7,000 on Thursday.
Revenue from Playtech’s casino, bingo, and William Hill Online operations more than made up for the decline in poker revenue. Casino revenues were up 17% to €21.7 million from €18.5 million in the third quarter of 2009. Bingo revenue totaled €3.1 million, up 11% from the second quarter of this year, reflecting strong growth from Virtue Fusion reinforced by the new Italian bingo network. Meanwhile, Playtech’s acquired interest in William Hill Online produced an €8.8 million profit, up 111% from €4.2 million the year before.
“The recent launches of Betfair casino and our Italian bingo licensees have performed very well from soon after launch, and will be joined by RAY [the Finnish monopoly] in the coming months,” added Weizer. “I am also encouraged by discussions with a number of notable operators, which should deliver a strong pipeline across the product range.”
Ultimately, Playtech decided to shut down its bingo operation this week and announced that two of its biggest earners, Bingo Day and Titan Bingo, would be closing later this month. The news was closely followed by the report that Ruby Bingo would be moving to the full Virtue Fusion software platform.
Bingo Day and Titan Bingo were originally thought to be moving to the Virtue Fusion platform, which is owned by Playtech, but those plans have been put to rest and the two sites will be closed for good by November 15th. Bingo fans can still get their fix at a number of Virtue Fusion sites, including Jackpot Bingo, Ladbrokes Bingo, and William Hill Bingo.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest poker stock headlines.
Ultimate Bet Bad Beat Jackpot hit for over $100,000
Party Gaming Revenue Up 9% in Q3 2010
According to financial information released on Friday by Party Gaming, the parent company of PartyPoker, overall revenues were up 9% to €85.3 million in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the same period last year “with growth in all products except poker.” The company is in the midst of a merger with rival bwin.
Jim Ryan, CEO of Party Gaming, commented in a statement distributed today, “Total revenue was up by 9% year-on-year with growth in all products except poker despite the impact of having closed our French casino business at the end of June 2010. Excluding the French casino, total revenue would have been up by 12% year-on-year driven by casino growth in other markets, acquisitions, and a strong performance in sports betting.”
Speaking of poker, the group’s revenue in that department sank by 5% to €29.6 million in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the third quarter of 2009. The company cited “continued pressure from U.S.-facing sites [but] partially mitigated by growth in newly regulated markets” as reason for its struggles in the poker arena. According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, cash game activity on PartyPoker is down 17% year-over-year, perhaps contributing to the company’s 5% overall decline in online poker revenues. PartyPoker’s team of sponsored pros includes Kara Scott, Mike Sexton, and Tony G.
Party Gaming’s casino revenues rose modestly at 2% to €34.9 million in the third quarter year-over-year. Why the reason for increased activity in Party Gaming’s virtual casino? The company explained that “content and jackpot improvements on PartyCasino” likely contributed to the gain.
Also trending upward in the third quarter of 2010 was Party Gaming’s bingo revenues, which shot up 36% to €13.1 million as a result of the company’s acquisition of Cashcade. Given increases in areas like the virtual casino and bingo parlor, Ryan told investors that he expects Party Gaming’s 2010 financial figures to fall in line with expectations: “In respect of current trading since the end of September, we have begun to see the normal seasonal upturn, in line with the Board’s expectations, and we remain confident about the full year outlook.”
The company added 212,500 real money accounts during Q3 2010, which is up 2% year-over-year. Party Gaming’s sites hosted 79,400 daily average players during the third quarter who provided a yield per active player day of €11.40. The latter figure represented a growth of 7% compared to last year’s third quarter.
Despite Party Gaming’s overall struggles in the online poker industry, it reported strong results from its new French-facing site, whose average daily player count has increased every month since launching in July. PartyPoker’s French poker site currently hosts nearly 10,000 players daily. According to PokerScout.com, PartyPoker.fr weighs in as the 21st largest site worldwide with a seven-day running average of 800 real money ring game players. It’s the fourth largest French-facing site behind outlets belonging to PokerStars, Winamax, and Everest Poker.
Ryan also updated shareholders on the pending merger with bwin, giving the timeline for the two massive internet gaming companies to become one: “I am also pleased to report that the proposed merger with bwin remains on track to complete at the end of Q1 2011, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.”
Also announced today was that Simon Duffy will become the Non-Executive Chairman of the merged company upon its completion. Prior to his post with Party Gaming and bwin, Duffy worked with online retailer Tradus, which is now part of Virgin Media Group. Read more here.
Party Gaming’s stock, which can be found on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol “PRTY,” was fetching 270.60 pence at the close of trading on Friday, down 0.33% on the day. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest poker stock headlines.
Pole scoops Drive the Dream jackpot
Tags: jackpot
IPN Bad Beat Jackpot €500k and rising
Hansen Heats Up with $402k Win
Not only did Hansen make the final four of the prestigious £10k WSOPE Heads-Up in London he went back to his hotel room and annihilated the competition in the high stakes online games.
Hansen played for over seven hours last night and recorded 1,286 hands in $1,500/$3,000 H.O.R.S.E., $500/$1,000 Cap PLO, $300/$600 PLO and $2,000/$4,000 Omaha Hi-Lo.
His main victims were Tom “durrrr” Dwan who lost $258k and Di “Urindanger” Dang who dropped $146k.
By the end of his personal poker marathon Hansen had amassed $402k in profit.
It’s been swingy year for Hansen who shot up to $2 million in profit during the first few months of 2010 but then proceeded to lose it all and go $2.4 million in the hole.
Now down approximately $1.9 million, Hansen still has his work cut out for him if he wants to get even this year. A good start would be winning the £10k WSOP Heads-Up event that concludes later today. First place is £288,409.
Hansen was by far the biggest winner last night but EazyPeazy added $108k to his bankroll. Dani “Ansky451” Stern was also a big winner with $81k profit. Patrik Antonius won a decent $49,933.
Outside of Dwan and Dang, deprimiert (-$117k), luckexpress10 (-$112k) and DIN_FRU (-$83k) lost the most last night.
Here are a few of the biggest hands from last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.
Visit PokerListings.com
Borgata Poker Open Attracts Largest WPT Field Ever
The record books were re-written over the weekend, as 1,042 players turned out for the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, the largest WPT field ever assembled. Last year, the tournament, which sports a $3,500 buy-in, drew 1,018 players, meaning that attendance this year was up 2%.
Over 300 players turned out on Saturday for Day 1A of the WPT Borgata Poker Open, while nearly 750 showed up for Day 1B to make up the milestone field. Vincenzo Abate leads the way after two Day 1s with a stack of 201,450, the only player to cross 200,000, and Jeremy Maher owns the second spot on the leaderboard at 176,875. A total of 641 players remain entering Day 2 on Monday.
Also making waves at Borgata was Foxwoods sponsored pro and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee. After an opponent moved all-in on a board reading 6-4-3, Lee made the call with a wired pair of kings and found himself up against J-8 for a miserably failed bluff. No miracle cards came on the turn or river and Lee moved to 119,000 in chips. He ended the day at nearly the same amount, good for 16th in the Borgata poker tournament.
Lee Tweeted in celebration at the end of Day 1B on Sunday, “Great day 1 – ended night with 120k, average stack around 50k – about 650 players return.”
2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Niner Eric Buchman moved all-in on a board of A-K-10-2 with two hearts. Another player called with A-9 of clubs and Buchman tabled Q-6 of hearts for straight and flush draws. The river was the jackpot card for Buchman, who watched as another heart hit to fill his flush. Buchman ended the day with a stack of 76,700, the 96th largest total in the Borgata Poker Open entering Day 2.
One of the most controversial pots of the two starting days saw Mike Dentale raise all-in pre-flop. When the first three cards came 7-4-2 with two clubs, Dentale “bid his table goodbye,” according to WPT officials, and walked away. The dealer mucked his cards in the process, thinking that Dentale had conceded, and an ace hit on the turn.
Then, fireworks went off. According to coverage found on WorldPokerTour.com, “Dentale immediately begins to protest and calls the floor over. The staff rules that Dentale’s hand is irretrievable and he is out of the tournament. Dentale can only stand and watch as the player in the big blind makes a small bet and the third player in the hand folds.” Dentale managed to reach into the muck and flip over a nine, queen, and king, none of which would have helped him in the hand. Perhaps soothing the pain, an opponent said he held A-Q for a pair of aces.
Following the drama, here’s how the top 10 in chips looked after two Day 1s had played out:
1. Vincenzo Abate – 201,450
2. Jeremy Maher – 176,875
3. Adel Jo – 160,525
4. Jeff “jpapola” Papola – 156,200
5. Guiseppe Pantaleo – 148,300
6. Marc Lome – 147,675
7. Jacobo Fernandez – 145,100
8. Anthony Licastro – 139,000
9. Dajuan Whorley – 137,500
10. Ruslan Dykshteyn – 132,150
Other poker pros in contention in the WPT Borgata Poker Open and who sit in the top 100 in chips entering Day 2 include:
13. Darren Elias – 122,750
16. Bernard Lee – 120,025
20. Lisa Hamilton – 115,575
43. Nick Binger – 96,975
53. Chris Bell – 93,750
54. John D’Agostino – 92,800
96. Eric Buchman – 76,700
To open play on Monday, two players’ stacks were forfeited. Benjamin Butler ended Day 1 with less than one big blind and consequently no-showed Day 2. Former WPT champ Stan Weiss assumed he was eliminated in a hand on Day 1A, but that was not the case, as he still had a stack of 3,600. Nevertheless, his stack was also forfeited.
Check back to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT Borgata Poker Open headlines.
Sam Trickett Wins PartyPoker World Open VI
Chalk up one for the young guns of poker. Twenty-four year-old Sam Trickett of the United Kingdom took down the sixth PartyPoker World Open, banking $200,000. The tournament played out last week from the Palm Beach Casino in London.
Trickett has been on a tear in 2010. In June, he was the runner-up to Jason DeWitt in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event held during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $505,000. That tournament saw Jeff “yellowsub” Williams finish in third and DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija take fifth for $328,000 and $179,000, respectively.
Then, Trickett bubbled the final table of the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event at the WSOP for $141,000. In August, Trickett was up to his winning ways once again, this time finishing fourth in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in Vilamoura, Portugal. That showing was worth $177,000 and, when combined with Friday’s PartyPoker World Open VI win, gives him four six-figure cashes in the last three months.
On the final hand of the tournament, Trickett moved all-in on a board of A-5-10-2-9 with 10-9 for two pair and Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko called all-in with A-4. Trickett told PartyPoker officials following the tournament’s conclusion, “To finally win a big tournament is brilliant. It is great to hear people saying congratulations rather than commiserations. After doubling up very early, I felt I was always in control, but had a feeling that if I got heads-up it would be against Yevgeniy Timoshenko.”
Trickett doubled up with pocket kings against Dale Hoy’s pocket eights early on and Hoy was sent packing shortly thereafter at the hands of Victory Poker’s Andrew “good2cu” Robl. Hoy’s seventh place showing was worth $15,000. Then, Robl was eliminated in particularly stunning fashion. He pushed all-in with pocket nines on a board of Q-9-Q-5-9 for quads and Toby Lewis made the call with pocket queens to have him crushed. In any cash game, this would have triggered a bad beat jackpot.
EPT founder John Duthie was bounced in fifth place after an untimely shove with 9-5, as Trickett woke up with pocket queens to send the veteran packing. Then, it was Juha Helppi’s witching hour after his Q-6 could not draw out on Lewis’ A-7. Helppi flopped a queen to take a temporary lead in the hand, but Lewis turned an ace to move ahead for good.
In his final hand, Lewis 5bet all-in pre-flop with A-7 of spades and Timoshenko made the call with A-J. The flop came 2-4-3, potentially setting up a split pot, and a second spade on the turn gave Lewis additional outs to a flush. However, a red ace hit on the river to give Timoshenko the win in the hand and set up heads-up play. Lewis received $75,000 for third place; Trickett had a 3:2 edge in chips to start heads-up action and never looked back.
Here were the results from the seven-handed final table of the PartyPoker World Open VI:
1. Sam Trickett – $200,000
2. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko – $110,000
3. Toby Lewis – $75,000
4. Juha Helppi – $35,000
5. John Duthie – $25,000
6. Andrew “good2cu” Robl – $20,000
7. Dale Hoy – $15,000
For Timoshenko, the runner-up showing in the PartyPoker World Open VI marked the latest feather in his cap in what has already been a tremendously successful career. Timoshenko won the Asian Poker Tour’s Macau Main Event in 2008 for $500,000. Last year, he took down the World Poker Tour Championship for $2.1 million and followed that up with a win in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker Main Event for another $1.7 million.
Visit PartyPoker to relive all of the action from the latest cycle of the World Open.
Poker News in Brief: Sep. 6-12
Add in some high stakes action, the UKIPT heading to Ireland and the Partouche Poker Tour setting its own November Nine and it was a busy week in the PokerListings news room.
A few stories may have slipped through the cracks, but we've gathered them below in our regular Poker News in Brief feature.
This week, the WCOOP main event gets the biggest guarantee ever, Boxing legend Evander Holyfield hits the felt, UB's bad beat jackpot is claimed and more.
$2 Million for WCOOP Champ
PokerStars is now offering a record-breaking guaranteed payout to the winner of this year’s World Championship of Online Poker main event.
The 2010 WCOOP main event champion will walk away with a guaranteed $2 million payday, the largest first-place prize for an online poker tournament in history.
The $5,200 two-day main event begins Sep. 26.
Last year Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko won the title and $1,715,200 first-place prize.
High Heels Heads West
The first all women’s poker tour launched on the East Coast, is headed west.
The High Heels Poker Tour will hit the Wildhorse Resort Casino in Pendleton, Oregon. The Nov. 8 for its $165 Fall Round Up Ladies No-Limit Hold’em event.
For more information, including dates, times and buy-ins go to www.highheelspokertour.com.
Still The Champ
Evander Holyfield won the celebrity 'Beat the Champ' poker tournament live at Poker in the Park in London this week.
London's Leicester Square played host to thousands of fans attending Europe's largest poker festival including one Midlands man who got the chance to take on the former Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World on the felt.
"It's like fighting," Holyfield explained. "If you want to win you have to focus and prepare and that's exactly what I did for this tournament, just like I do for any challenge." Leif G. won his way into the tournament through RealDealPoker.com.
Bad Beat?
A Ferris, Texas woman lost with quads, but won $218,115 in Bad Beat Jackpot money on UB this week.
KAPPIT saw her four nines crushed by CJBV’s quad queens at a $0.25/0.50 table, triggering the payday.
For his part, CJBV picked up $109,057.85 while the seven other players banked at least $1,000 just for being there.
Plus 610 others grabbed $89.36 because they were playing the same limit.
"I've been playing Poker for 45 years now, mostly live poker, and I hit a jackpot once in a land-based Casino, but this is the biggest prize I've ever got,” she said. “Keep those jackpots coming UB... Dreams do come true."
Full Tilt Sponsors MMA Series
Full Tilt Poker is putting its name on the Bellator Fighting Championships.
Now in its third season, the Bellator Fighting Championships is a continuing series of televised World Class Mixed Martial Arts presented in a tournament format.
This week marked the first of eight nationally and internationally televised Bellator events sponsored by Full Tilt.
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 2010, bad beat, buy-ins, full tilt poker, high stakes, jackpot, ladies, no-limit, Online Poker, pokerstars, tournament, usa, woman, women
The Nightly Turbo: PartyPoker World Open Update, Huge Bad Beat Jackpot Awarded, and More
Veteran Texas Poker Player Cracks UB.com Bad Beat Jackpot For Over $200K
A 60 year old Ferris, Texas woman is the latest person to capture the UB.com Bad Beat Jackpot, taking down a sizeable six-figure payday.
Early Tuesday evening, “KAPPIT” took to the felt of the $0.25/$0.50 UB.com Bad Beat Jackpot tables, not knowing that this would be a “good news, bad news” night for her. After making a seemingly unbeatable four of a kind in nines, “KAPPIT” continued on to attempt to take the hand down. It wasn’t until an opponent stuck with her to the river that the hand would take a seemingly unfortunate turn.
After tabling her four nines, “KAPPIT” was looked up by “CIBV,” who trumped her holding by tabling quad queens. On the UB.com tables at that level, the payout per hand averages between $4 and $11, but it was about to get much richer for all players involved.
At the time, the UB.com Bad Beat Jackpot was at $670,575.38, with several hundred people eligible to share in the bounty. For being defeated with her quad nines, “KAPPIT” was awarded a payday of $218,115.71 and – in addition to what was won for holding the quad queens – “CIBV” took down a healthy $109,057.85 for his winning hand. Seven players at the table were gifted with $1,000 for just being there and an additional 610 players received $89.36 for playing at the same stakes as “KAPPIT” and “CIBV.”
“I’ve been playing poker for 45 years now, mostly live poker, and I hit a jackpot once in a land-based casino,” “KAPPIT” said to UB.com after being awarded the Bad Beat Jackpot. “This is the biggest prize I’ve ever gotten, though. Hats off to UB Poker. It was ‘SO’ my lucky day to capture the Bad Beat Jackpot. It looks like our dream of trading off our 1995 truck will finally happen. Keep those jackpots coming UB… dreams do come true.”
UB.com, a part of the CEREUS Poker Network with sister site Absolute Poker, is one of the stalwarts in the online poker industry when it comes to offering such Bad Beat Jackpots. Since the program was launched on the network, thousands of players have shared in a total of $58,114,636.59 in jackpot money. The Bad Beat Jackpot can only be won by players on the specially designated tables, of which there are hundreds that stretch from the $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold’em level up to $5/$10.
This year alone, 63 players have won a Bad Beat Jackpot, with “KAPPIT’s” win shooting the grand total of this year’s Bad Beat Jackpot prize money to a massive total of $9,328,292.80. Along with the players who have won the main Jackpot, the CEREUS Poker Network has passed out other smaller Bad Beat Jackpot prizes to another 11,082 players.
Even though “KAPPIT’s” big payday occurred on Tuesday, the CEREUS Network Bad Beat Jackpot is on the move once again. Of the $670,575.38 that was hit on Tuesday, 25% was rolled over to start the next jackpot, meaning that $167,643.85 was in the pot. The CEREUS Bad Beat Jackpot currently is sitting at $237,355.84 as of early Thursday afternoon.
Poker News Daily would like to congratulate “KAPPIT,” “CIBV,” and the hundreds of players who were fortunate to take down their piece of the CEREUS Network Bad Beat Jackpot.
Victory Poker May Move to the Cake Poker Network
Victory Poker, which currently makes its home on the Everleaf Network, will soon be leaving for the more populated Cake Poker Network, a source who wished to remain anonymous told Poker News Daily. CalvinAyre.com published a story on potential landing spots on Thursday, adding some fuel to the speculation.
Victory Poker officials may be opting for a network with a larger player base in order to offer a wider variety of tournaments and cash games. The Everleaf Network, which boasts a family of sites that includes Everleaf Poker, Minted Poker, and Poker4Ever, ranks as just the 22nd largest worldwide in terms of real money ring game traffic according to PokerScout.com. Over the past seven days, the Everleaf Network has hosted an average of just 370 cash game players. Its traffic is on par with that found on win2day.
Contrastingly, the Cake Poker Network is the 16th largest worldwide in terms of real money ring game players. Despite being just six spots higher in the PokerScout.com traffic rankings, the Cake Poker Network averages 840 cash game players, more than twice as many as the Everleaf Network. The Cake Poker Network includes rooms like Cake Poker, DoylesRoom, Only Poker, Power Poker, Red Star Poker, and Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, which launched earlier this year.
Both the Cake Poker Network and Everleaf Network accept players from the United States. A story that appeared on Thursday on CalvinAyre.com detailed a possible move for Victory Poker: “Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman has publicly promised to make ‘an exciting Victory Poker announcement’ at his birthday party in London September 1st, Dan has been spending an usually large amount of time in Vancouver over the past month, and two major poker networks – Cake and Merge – have offices in Vancouver.”
Victory Poker’s team of sponsored pros includes Antonio Esfandiari, who co-starred with Laak on MOJO’s prop betting show “I Bet You.” The two remain close friends, but whether Laak’s involvement with the Cake Poker Network was a factor in the move of Victory Poker remains to be seen. Other Victory Poker pros include Keith Gipson, Brian “tsarrast” Rast, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, Dan Bilzerian, former Playboy Playmate Sara Underwood, and poker coach David “The Maven” Chicotsky.
Other sponsored pros of Victory Poker include Lee Markholt, Paul Wasicka, Alec “traheho” Torelli, James “Andy McLeod” Obst, and former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little. Joe Navarro and mind coach Sam Chauhan also work with the site.
One of Victory Poker’s more distinctive promotions involves one lucky player each week battling against a site pro. On the line is a $500 cash prize and the opportunity to play for the jackpot goes to the winner of Victory Poker’s weekly rake race. The heads-up event takes place at 23:00 server time each Tuesday night.
A small thread on TwoPlusTwo focused on the CalvinAyre.com story, with one poster asserting, “I hope Victory does move, particularly to the Merge Network.” Poker News Daily can independently confirm that Victory Poker will indeed head for the Cake Poker Network instead of the Merge Gaming Network, whose flagship site is Carbon Poker.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest developments in the rumored departure of Victory Poker from the Everleaf Network.
Poker News in Brief: Aug. 9-15, 2010
As a result, there were a few stories that feel through the PokerListings news team's clutches. Fortunately, we've compiled them below in our weekly News in Brief feature.
This week, Katja Thater grabs some recognition, 888 awards a huge jackpot, P0ker H0 gets his own UB event and more.
888poker Pays Largest Jackpot Ever
One South Australian pub league poker player found Friday the 13th to be his lucky day thanks to 888poker.
Anh-Tuan hit 888poker's largest Royal Jackpot in history at over $190,000 playing on a $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em table he hit the Royal Flush of Spades.
"When we established the jackpot on 888poker we hoped for big wins for the players and we are excited to see our first 190,000-plus jackpot," Said Gareth Edwards, Director of Poker Strategy at 888.
"We congratulate Anh-Tuan on his victory and look forward to the next set of big winners and jackpots."
The progressive jackpot now starts again at $25,000 on 888's designated jackpot tables where players can choose to place a jackpot bet during play.
Thater Presented Mixed Game Award
German Team PokerStars Pero Katja Thater was presented the EPT Award for Mixed Game Player of the Year during a break at EPT Tallinn this week.
Thater won the title after an eight-way tie at the end of the season was played out in an online final on PokerStars against competition including EPT Berlin runner-up Ilari Tahkokallio and Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem.
The mixed-game Award recognizes achievement in some of the more obscure poker variants, such as Deuce to Seven, Badugi, Triple Stud and Eight Game.
Betfair Live!
Some 260 players descended upon Yalta in the Southern Ukraine for the latest event in the Betfair Live! Series this week.
The $820 No-Limit Hold'em main event saw a $206,804 prize pool pay 36 places with first worth $45,000. Kirill Telezhkin booked the win.
The series continues later in the year in Portugal with dates and details coming soon.
Take Down a H0
Wisconsin bar owner, radio personality and Team UB Pro Mark "P0ker H0" Kroon is now hosting his own weekly poker tournament at UB.com.
Take Down a H0, a $50,000 Guaranteed No Limit Hold'em Deep Stack tournament, kicked off this Saturday and will run every Saturday at 3:05 p.m. ET on UB.
The event includes a weekly $300 bounty on Kroon's head.
Poker in the Park Tournaments
The Poker in the Park 2010 festival has teamed up with some of the UK's leading poker leagues to put together a two-day tournament schedule set for this September..
The fourth annual poker festival, going off in London Sept. 2-3, will now play host to a series of poker league-sponsored tournaments under the canvas of its Poker Domes.
"Right from the very first Poker in the Park, it was our intention to support the game at its grassroots level and we're delighted this year to be partnering with so many familiar leagues, as well as welcoming some new faces to the table," said event organizer Michael Caselli.
For the full schedule and more information check out Poker in the Park.
Visit PokerListings.com
Party Poker Have a Full House of Promotions this August
Party Poker have $350,000 up for grabs with an exciting three in one promotion this August. So, with something for everyone let’s take a look at what’s on offer:-
Full House $100,000 Grand Final
There’s a Full House $10,000 weekly freeroll each week during the month of August. To claim your seat in a freeroll is easy peasey, simply earn at least one point on three days in the week. Qualify for two+ of these fab weekly freerolls and you’ll get a seat in the Full House $100,000 Grand Final at the end of August
The $50,000 Cash Game Race
Exclusively for Bronze, Silver and Gold players - the more points you earn the higher in the Leaderboards you’ll climb. The higher in the Leaderboard you finish at the end of the month the more money you could win!
Sit and Go Jackpots
Sit n Go lovers are in for a treat! There’s up to $160,000 to be won in the Full House Sit & Go Jackpots this August. Card sharps who win 5 x sit & gos in a row will get to win between $10,000 and $50,000 depending on your buy in level.
So, keep your cool this August and take advantage of Party Poker’s generous Full House Promotions. If you haven’t yet joined the biggest poker site in Europe get a move on! Take a look at our Party Poker Review for all you need to know about Party plus a choice of Party Poker Bonus Codes.
The State of Live $1-$2 No Limit Hold’em
While at this year’s World Series of Poker, I took the opportunity to play in quite a few different $1-$2 No Limit Hold’em (NLHE) games at casinos all over Las Vegas. I also watched some friends of mine who were out for a quasi-annual pilgrimage to poker Mecca. In short, I feel like I got a good snapshot of the $1-$2 NLHE action in Las Vegas.
Of course, this game is crucially important – it is the “default” poker game played in casinos all over the U.S. now. What used to be $1-$5 Spread Limit Seven Card Stud and became $2-$4 (or $3-$6) Limit Hold’em is now $1-$2 NLHE. If you walk into a random small poker room in a U.S. casino, the most commonly spread (if not only) game will be $1-$2 NLHE.
While there were certainly plenty of games and plenty of interest, I’m not completely comfortable with the overall state of this bellwether game right now.
First, I’m not sure the game is beatable. Many casinos are taking 10% rake up to $5 (i.e. the rake is capped when the pot reaches $50 – not hard to do) plus a dollar for a bad-beat or high-hand jackpot. Now add a dealer tip and you have $5 to $7 leaving the table every hand. Shuffling machines are becoming the standard; with them, seeing 35 hands per hour is not uncommon. 35 x $6 = $210 disappearing from the table every hour. That’s over two minimum (and common) buy-ins siphoned off each hour. Do that for four hours and every person in an eight-player game has donated a buy-in. Players’ bankrolls really aren’t up to that.
Second, well, I hate to say, “I told you so,” but I told you so. Six years ago, in the third edition of “Winning Low Limit Hold’em,” I wrote that I didn’t think the growing trend toward No Limit Hold’em was good for the game overall. Sure enough, I saw many novice players dump one or two buy-ins in situations where they didn’t need to get broke. Usually, it was because they couldn’t let go of a big pair when every indication was that that one pair was no good. Then, frustrated with the entire experience, they stood up and left. They may well have gone to the blackjack or craps tables where they don’t have a chance either, but at least the money bleeds away slowly and they get to enjoy the gambling experience for a while.
Note that if they were playing Limit Hold’em, these errors would be far less costly. A grossly overplayed big pair might cost you $50 in a $3-$6 Limit Hold’em game rather than $100 or $200 in NLHE. So, people who should have a learned a painful but non-lethal lesson were gone from the game.
Third, those who benefited from the double-ups often fled the game for a similar reason: they were afraid of losing all of their chips in a single hand gone bad. This was particularly noticeable when a player won a high-hand jackpot. In one game I played, one of our players hit a straight flush and was rewarded with a $600-ish jackpot. He wasn’t the strongest player at the table and I was delighted. Not so much because I thought that I’d win the entire $600 (or even any of it). But, I thought that much of that $600 would come back onto the table and get spread around, enriching the entire game.
Bad read. The young man left the game almost immediately after hitting the windfall, but left his chips there for us to admire. Then he came back, played a couple of orbits of the button without voluntarily putting a single chip into the pot and cashed out.
It saddened me to see so many players dipping their toes into the live poker pool only to leave in frustration (at losing) or fear (of losing a big stack). So, with that, I offer four suggestions that may help.
1. To the players: Be smart consumers. Some rooms cap their rake at $4, some cap it at $5. There was absolutely no correlation between the rake cap and the quality of the poker room. $1 may not seem like a big deal, but an extra $25 per hour makes a difference in stacks around the table. Similarly, I encourage you to avoid rooms that have high-hand or bad-beat jackpots (there are plenty). That’s just more money leaving the table and, as I showed above, even if some of it comes back, it rarely stays. Furthermore, I will bet serious money (thousands of dollars) that the rooms are taking an “administrative fee” from the jackpot drop.
2. To the players: Don’t play small pots. Particularly in the high-rake rooms, you simply can’t fade the vig. Consider this: you make a very reasonable opening raise to $7. Two people call. The flop comes and you like it (or don’t). You bet $15 (about 60% of the pot). You get one caller. You like the turn (or like two-barreling), so you bet $30; your one opponent gives it up. Congratulations, you’ve won a $54 pot. Well, not really. The house took $5+$1 and you threw the dealer a dollar. That’s 13% of the pot, 22% of your profit.
Or, suppose two players get all-in pre-flop for $50 each with Q-Q versus A-Ks. The official stats on the race are 53.8% to 46.2%. But guess what – when the house gets its $7, there’s only $93 to win. The ladies are exactly breakeven in this race; the A-Ks loses a full $7 (14%) of his $50 investment.
Moral of the story: try to win fewer pots, but make them bigger.
3. To the poker rooms: seriously consider capping the action in your lowest stakes games. That will protect the players, keep them in action longer, and encourage somebody who has won a bunch of money to stick around. This procedure is already well established on the internet and in the very biggest live games going on in your town. If I were running the poker room, I think I’d set the cap at 100 big blinds ($200 in a $1-$2 game). So, no player can contribute more than $200 to a single pot. That still produces adrenaline-pumping pots.
4. To the poker rooms: let the players run the board twice if the pot is over some amount (e.g. 100 big blinds). Yes, it slows things down and you get in fewer hands blah blah blah. But, it also dramatically increases the chances that instead of one busted player leaving and one doubled-up player about to leave, you’ll have two relieved players who got all that excitement “for free.”
There’s also one general comment I’d like to make to poker room managers: I saw too many instances where it seemed that the poker room’s procedures and rules were set by the regular players. This is a bad idea. I’m all in favor of listening to your customers, but we are a unique business: some of your customers want to eat some of your other customers. It’s like letting the lions decide which cages at the zoo will be open when.
For instance, your regulars will probably squawk at the idea of capping the betting action. That’s because they want to get all $350 from the guy who can’t lay down pocket kings. But, you want that guy to stick around longer (and, yes, pay more rake). Use your best judgment about what’s good for the overall game and your whole player community – not just the few guys who are in your game six days a week.
Lee Jones is the Card Room Manager for Cake Poker and has been in the online poker business since 2003. He is also the author of “Winning Low Limit Hold’em,” which is still in publication over 15 years after its first printing.
Summer Jackpots from Titan Poker
Titan Poker invite their players to party on and seek their fortunes this Summer with exciting promotions where they will find $125,000+ up for grabs. These Summer Jackpots will only be running until the end of August so make the most of them whilst they’re available, once they’re gone, they’re gone! (more…)
Linda Johnson Scoops Increased Poker Limits in Florida
Floridians have been eagerly awaiting July 1st, the day the legislature raised the legal buy-in amount from its previous $100 maximum. I decided to head to Ft. Lauderdale to see first-hand what this would mean for poker players.
My first stop was at Isle Casino and Racing at Pampano Park. I was thrilled to learn that the entire building was non-smoking. The poker room is located on the second floor and consists of 38 tables. It is open 18 hours a day Sunday through Thursday and around-the-clock on Friday and Saturday. Players get tracking cards and most games are worth $1 per hour toward food (or 50% of that toward cash). The players said the food, which is served at the table, is very tasty.
I asked Mike Smith, Director of Poker Operations, what the main difference was since the buy-ins were changed. His response: “The players seem to be taking it more seriously. Also, the card room has been completely full.” He told me about the various promotions the card room offers, including $599 royals: “We gave away more than $100,000 in June. Players can win tournament seats, high-hand bonuses, and cash in drawings.”
While I was there, games offered included $1-$2, $2-$5, and $5-$10 No Limit Hold’em; Pot Limit Omaha with a $1-$2 blind; $2-$4 and $4-$8 Limit Hold’em; and $4-$8 Omaha Eight or Better. I sat and played in the $2-$5 game for a while and thought the action was good, with lots of players seeing the flop and lots of all-in bets called. The mega bad-beat jackpot was more than $145,000.
There is a tournament every Tuesday night with a $230 buy-in, 13,000 in starting chips, and 30-minute rounds. On Sunday nights, the buy-in is $70 for the Battle for the Weekly Pass Satellite, which awards packages to the following week’s Monday through Thursday tournaments. The Isle will host the Florida State Poker Championship from August 2nd to 10th, which will feature a $400,000 guarantee for its six events.
Pros Put Bad Beat on Cancer
The Bad Beat on Cancer Initiative began as an idea between poker professionals Phil Gordon and Rafe Furst at the 2003 World Series of Poker event to fund cancer prevention research.
The pair had been raising money for the cause prior, but knew they had hit the jackpot when they came up with the idea to ask poker players to give one percent of their winnings to the foundation as a tax-deductable donation.
Since 2003, participation in the initiative has only grown and to date over $3.2 million has been raised for the Prevent Cancer foundation, proving just how charitable the poker community is.
Some of the more notable names on the pledge list this year include Phil Ivey, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Annie Duke, Chris Moneymaker, Andy Block, Phil Hellmuth, Adam Levy, Phil Gordon and Toby Maguire.
"Poker players lead very lucky lifestyles, so it is good to give back when you can," said Adam Levy, an accomplished Ultimate Bet pro.
It is clear many share Levy's generous outlook with 94 players already listed on the Prevent Cancer Foundation's pledge list.
"It's important for all of us to realize that there is a lot of people in unfortunate situations... a lot of us have relatives or might even have cancer ourselves," said Andy Bloch, Full Tilt pro and former member of the MIT blackjack team.
"I didn't go to school thinking I was going to be a poker player; I thought maybe I'd be an engineer or a lawyer. I wanted to help save the world and this is one way I can do that by still being a poker player."
Prevent Cancer's CEO Jan Bresch Mahrer mentioned how impressed she was with the players.
"I think it's terrific because poker players are not known for their philanthropic endeavors but in reality they are very philanthropic," she said. "They go out of their way for us."
Players at the 2010 World Series of Poker aren't the only one's contributing to this worthy cause. By building awareness through the use of social media tools, such as Twitter and MySpace, there are now weekly events on Full Tilt, home games and tournaments all benefitting the cause.
However, if you are looking to spot a do-gooder on the tournament floor who has already donated they're wearing a green 1% pledge badge.
With files from Crecia Page and Geoff Fisk
The 2010 WSOP continues through July 17. For comprehensive coverage of the WSOP tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.
Visit PokerListings.com
PartyPoker Launches Card Rush XL Promotion
Starting on Monday, June 28th, PartyPoker is dishing out 1.8 million cards as part of its brand new Card Rush XL promotion. The opportunity to win is open until July 31st or when the nearly two million cards are given away, whichever comes first.
Amass 15 Party Points on the virtual felts of one of the world’s most populated online poker sites to claim a card. Text found on PartyPoker’s website details what makes this version of the Card Rush promotion truly worthy of the title XL: “Unlike before, every single card contains a prize, from cash to points to freeroll entries and now brand new Card Rush XL leaderboard points, which allow you to compete in our great Card Rush XL Race.” In order to get every player started off on the right foot, PartyPoker is awarding the first card at a discounted rate of five points.
Once you’ve received a card, log into your PartyPoker account and scratch it off to see what you’ve won. What can you take home, you ask? How about a $5,000 cash prize? If the top cash jackpot eludes you, the poker gods may grant you $500, $50, $5, $3, $2, or $1 as a consolation prize. Freeroll entries are also available and range from a $2,000 freebie to a $50,000 prize pool event. Also up for grabs are Party Points, which are awarded in increments of 25,000, 5,000, 1,000, 500, 200, 100, 25, and 10. Finally, Card Rush XL Leaderboard points will be given away.
There are seven freerolls that will run as part of the Card Rush XL promotion according to the following schedule, so mark your calendars accordingly if your card reveals an entry:
$2,000 Card Rush XL Freeroll – 13:30 ET on August 5th
$3,000 Card Rush XL Freeroll – 13:30 ET on August 6th
$5,000 Card Rush XL Freeroll – 13:30 ET on August 7th
$10,000 Card Rush XL Freeroll – 13:30 ET on August 7th
$15,000 Card Rush XL Freeroll – 13:30 ET on August 6th
$25,000 Card Rush XL Freeroll – 13:30 ET on August 5th
$50,000 Card Rush XL Freeroll – 13:30 ET on August 8th
The Card Rush XL Race dishes out prizes to the top 200 finishers along with every 20th spot from 220th to 2,000th. The top three players will have their pick of $10,000 luxury travel packages, which include trips to the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales, the Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander in Italy, and Major League Baseball’s World Series in the United States. In the event that players don’t want to experience a once-in-a-lifetime luxury package, they can trade it in for $7,500 in cash. The fourth through 30th players in the Card Rush XL Race will bank a four-figure payday and the minimum payout is $50.
Now, it’s time for the fine print. Players are capped at 50 cards per day, or 750 points per day. In addition, you have until 24 hours after the Card Rush XL’s completion to scratch off your cards. Moreover, “In the eventuality where a player would receive several freeroll entries for a same tournament, the additional entries will not be refunded.”
PartyPoker is also exploiting its relationship with the World Poker Tour (WPT) by offering entries to WPT London and the Legends of Poker, both of which take place in August. The London event is a brand new stop on the 2010-2011 WPT schedule, while the Legends of Poker has been a mainstay of the tournament series ever since 2002.
Visit PartyPoker for full details on the Card Rush XL promotion.