Juha Helppi and Rob Varkonyi Play Deep Sea Poker at the Caribbean Poker Classic

Poker cruises have been quite “the thing" for some time now, but it seems that the people behind the Caribbean Poker Classic may have confused the public's interest in playing poker on the water with playing poker in the water. Unless there's another explanation for putting a former WSOP champ and another budding pro player at the bottom of the ocean for a friendly, not to mention wet, game of cards.

Wednesday, 30 November 2005

Greek Online Poker Room Marks a First for CryptoLogic and the Industry as a Whole

Online poker history has been made this week, with the launch of the first Greek-language online poker room, www.williamhillpoker.gr. The site also marks the first online poker site in a European language for CryptoLogic, the company behind the new Greek poker platform. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, WagerLogic, CryptoLogic licensed the Greek poker platform to UK bookmaker William Hill on an exclusive basis.

Tuesday, 29 November 2005

Online Poker in North Dakota: The sequel

North Dakota State Representative Jim Kasper is far from giving up the fight for online poker. Although, earlier this year, the state Senate shot down Kasper's online poker licensing bill and accompanying constitutional amendment in a dramatic 44-3 vote, the tenacious legislator has waited not even a year to try again.

Monday, 28 November 2005

FSN Goes Down Under for Aussie Millions Poker Tournament

Come March 2006, Fox Sports Net (FSN) will broadcast the 2006 Aussie Millions, the main event of the Crown Australian Poker Championships. FSN is filming and producing the championship tournament at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, dividing the five-day tournament into a 10-part series. FSN's forthcoming broadcast of the Aussie Millions is thanks to a newfound partnership between Crown Limited and FSN, which is part of the FOX Broadcasting Company and News Corp.

Sunday, 27 November 2005

Online Poker License in the Bag for Svenska Spel

About a month after Boss Media announced that it was planning to power an online poker site for veteran partner Svenska Spel, the two companies can indeed embark on this initiative. Although the two companies decided a month ago to expand their partnership to include online poker, Svenska Spel had yet to receive approval for an Internet poker license. Boss Media announced this week that Svenska was awarded a license to operate poker online, allowing the two companies to put their planning into effect.

Saturday, 26 November 2005

Phil Ivey Wins Big in Monte Carlo Poker Tournament

Beating out 112 players, Phil Ivey has won the 2005 Monte Carlo Millions, including its $1 million top prize and championship title. Touted as the “most exclusive poker tournament in the world," the Monte Carlo Millions took place this week at the glamorous Casino de Monte-Carlo.

Friday, 25 November 2005

Canadian Poker Tournament Awards Highest Prize Allowed by Law

Although $382,000 (not to mention $382,000 Canadian) worth of poker winnings may seem like peanuts compared to the multi-million dollar jackpots won at major U.S. tournaments, in British Columbia, it's a record-breaker. The B.C. poker championships, held recently in Richmond, B.C., awarded James Hawkins of Salt Spring Island the highest poker prize allowed by law.

Thursday, 24 November 2005

BenefitPoker.org Takes Charity Poker Tournaments Online, but Doesn't Forget about Cash Games

A new concept has recently debuted in the world of online poker: online charity poker. Sure, various online poker rooms have hosted charity tournaments following the occasional sweeping natural disaster, but never before has an online poker site been launched mainly as a platform for charity poker. BenefitPoker.org, which recently joined the Excapsa poker network, is just that. Excapsa donated the technology powering BenefitPoker, which will host its first tournament next week.

Wednesday, 23 November 2005

Off The Strip Texas Hold 'Em Tournament Deemed a Success

The recent Off the Strip Texas Hold 'Em Tournament, headlined by Vince Neil of Motley Crue, succeeded in raising $150,000 for charity through the tournament and accompanying auction. Not bad for a first-time tournament. It probably helped that Off the Strip had a good measure of celebrity brawn. The charity poker tournament took place at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino's "The Joint" entertainment venue in Las Vegas.

Tuesday, 22 November 2005

Empire Online to Party in the Courtroom

Although both companies have been rather hush-hush about the details of the bid, PartyGaming's efforts to take over Empire Online have officially fallen through. The online poker partners-turned-rivals have had a rocky past few months, with Empire Online getting the raw end of the deal thus far.

Monday, 21 November 2005

Barely Old Enough to Drink, Nick Schulman Wins World Poker Tour Finals

The World Poker Tour Finals came to a close on Friday, after a final table that was short, sweet, and to the point. This year's WPT Finals was a record-breaking event on many levels. In addition to record-breaking participation and prize pools, this year's tournament also crowned its youngest champion in history. Nick Schulman, 21 years old and primarily an online player, is now the proud owner of $2,142,000 and the title of World Poker Tour Champion.

Sunday, 20 November 2005

Manchester United Legend Tries His Hand at Online Poker

Old school Manchester United fans, listen up. Paddy Crerand, the man, the legend, will be online at Ladbrokespoker.com this coming Wednesday for a friendly game of charity poker.

Saturday, 19 November 2005

Yo Quiero Poker: Online poker conquers Spain

The first online poker room focusing specifically on the Hispanic market launched recently at www.PokerLoco.com. In recognition of recent statistics according to which the popularity of poker has positively blossomed in Spain, PokerLoco decided to make the most of this burgeoning market. Instead of restricting itself to Spanish players, however, PokerLoco is out to conquer Portugal and Latin America as well. The site is available in Spanish, naturally, in addition to two Portuguese dialects and even English.

Friday, 18 November 2005

Online Poker and Sportsbetting Unite at Paddy Power

Combining poker, the game of the moment, with the more seasonal favorite of sportsbetting, Irish gaming and betting company Paddy Power has launched 'poker betting' on its online betting site, PaddyPower.com. Through this new feature, Paddy Power gives poker fans the chance to bet on the future winners of major tournaments. Beginning with next week's Monte Carlo Millions, the first poker event available for punting, fans will be able to put their money where their mouth is, or rather, on their favorite poker pros. Monte Carlo Millions' $3 million prize pool will likely attract the best of professional poker to the tournament's 120 seats.

Thursday, 17 November 2005

Tribeca Tables Adds Badugi Poker to Online Game Variations

Tribeca Tables, an online poker network and software developer, announced that it has added a new poker game to its offerings. The new game, called badugi poker, represents an effort by the company to set itself apart from the plethora of competing online poker rooms on the Web. Although not a staple of mainstream poker, adding badugi poker puts Tribeca in a unique position in the industry, being that it's the first online poker network to offer the game.

Wednesday, 16 November 2005

Prima Poker Network Nears 40-Member Mark Following Online Poker Room Additions

The Prima Network, a conglomeration of partner online poker rooms, announced yesterday that it has added six new poker sites to their already expansive partner list. The online poker rooms joining the Prima Network include of PokerTime.com, betEd.com, DreamPoker.com, AllInPoker.com, PokerArena.com and 5DogsPoker.com. The Prima Network continues to grow by leaps and bounds, with 17 additions to the network in the past year alone. Following the addition of these six online poker rooms, Prima's total partner list is one poker room shy of 40 sites.

Tuesday, 15 November 2005

World Poker Tour (WPT) Finals Get Cracking: WPT exec moves up, defending champ moves out

The $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Finals kicked off yesterday at Foxwoods Resort Casino, with the final table commencing on Friday. As far as prize pool is concerned, an official figure has not yet been released. However, entry, and thus prize pool, has grown successively every year that the WPT has taken place. Last year's finals generated a $6.7 million pool, which give us a general idea of what to expect from this year's competition.

Monday, 14 November 2005

Update: PokerShare.com to fold

As a follow-up on last week's article, “PokerShare.com Closes Doors to N. America; Excapsa and Ultimate Bet May be to Blame," (Poker 777, November 8, 2005), PokerShare.com, a member of the Excapsa network, has reportedly contacted its remaining player base, informing it of the site's impending closure. According to the email, sent by PokerShare.com to its player constituency residing outside of North America, the site is planning to close tomorrow, November 14, at 9 am EST. Players have been requested to pull out of pre-registered events and withdraw their balances at the site. Players who fail to make the said withdrawal will have their balance mailed to them by check, instead of via their preferred payment method.

Sunday, 13 November 2005

PartyGaming Swallows or Spits Out Competition in Online Poker Battle Plan

As part of its current strategy to divide and conquer the world of online poker, PartyGaming is quickly eliminating the competition by buying it out. Over a month after announcing that it was removing its multi-million player stronghold from the existing platform, leaving players on white label sites to fend for themselves with a severely depleted player base, PartyGaming has made acquisitive offers to at least three of its “skins."

Sunday, 13 November 2005

The Players Network Channel: Poker TV on demand

Poker aficionados now have even more to watch on TV, thanks to this week's launch of The Players Network channel, a video on demand (VOD) option for Comcast Digital Cable subscribers. The Players Network is all poker, all the time, except for the odd segment on sportsbetting, blackjack, and the like. Although the company is marketing The Players Network as a “gaming lifestyle" channel, the actual programming is heavy on the poker.

Saturday, 12 November 2005

Baltimore Prosecutors Dismiss Charges against Poker Players Due to Police Blunder

The 80 poker players arrested amidst a November 2nd raid on a South Baltimore club are being cleared of charges, according to an announcement made yesterday by city prosecutors. Charges are being dropped due to an error made by police, who misapplied the law when issuing tickets during the raid.

Friday, 11 November 2005

WSOP Tournament of Champions: Mike “The Mouth” Matusow devours poker's cream of the crop

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the World Series of Poker 2005 Tournament of Champions (TOC) came to a close, crowning Mike “The Mouth" Matusow a champion among champions. Matusow and another 113 of professional poker's top players came to Las Vegas' Caesars Palace this past Sunday with their eyes set on the championship.

Thursday, 10 November 2005

Revenues for WPT Enterprises Down Almost a Third in Q3 2005

WPT Enterprises, Inc., the company behind the wildly popular World Poker Tour (WPT) program, yesterday reported results for Q3 2005, which included, among other things, a substantial drop in revenues. Whereas WPT Enterprises posted revenues of $3 million for Q3 2004, the corresponding quarter in 2005 saw just over $2 million in revenues, constituting a drop of over 28 percent. The drop seems to have resulted from less frequent activity on the part of the WPT television show domestically, with only one episode of the current season having been distributed during the recent quarter.

Wednesday, 09 November 2005

PokerShare.com Closes Doors to N. America; Excapsa and Ultimate Bet May be to Blame

After only two months in operation, online poker site PokerShare.com has reportedly been forced to close out its North American accounts. Just a little bit of background: PokerShare is a 'white label' version of Ultimate Bet, and both sites operate on the Excapsa network. Excapsa also happens to be the holding company for Ultimate Bet, and according to speculations, it was Excapsa, under duress from Ultimate Bet, that ordered the close-out.

Tuesday, 08 November 2005

Poker Oddity of the Week: Poker Pro Ringtones

Professional poker players are busy people. When they're not appearing on the plethora of televised poker programs, giving their two cents on poker radio, or moonlighting at various online poker sites, the pros are having their voices recorded for ring tones. Or at least that's what we can anticipate in the near future from Men "The Master" Nguyen, David Williams and Evelyn Ng.

Monday, 07 November 2005

The Poker Summit Europe Puts Land-Based and Online Poker on the Table

Just one month remains until “The Poker Summit Europe," a two-day convention bringing together some of the most influential figures in the world of poker to discuss the most relevant and current issues facing the industry. The Summit, scheduled to take place in London on December 5 and 6, will discuss a wide range of topics affecting poker NOW, both online and off. Naturally, the topics to be addressed will include the usual legislative/regulatory issues, poker marketing tips, technological updates, etc. In addition to the expected range of topics, however, the Poker Summit will also address what's happening in the here and now of poker. Seeing that launching public stock offerings seems to be all the rage in the poker world today, the Summit will try to draw conclusions from this trend and others.

Sunday, 06 November 2005

New York Poker Dens Close Shop in Fear of Police Raid

A number of underground New York poker clubs have decided to close their doors following a report that Yankees star and avid poker player Alex Rodriguez is in hot water with his team and Major League Baseball (MLB) over his poker-playing habits. The New York Daily News published the report, which was then republished and quoted by dozens of media outlets.

Saturday, 05 November 2005

The Saga Lives on: PartyGaming courts Empire Online in preliminary takeover talks

In response to media speculation surrounding the ongoing PartyGaming-Empire Online saga, Party released a statement clarifying the company's intentions in relation to its competitor and former partner. According to the announcement, PartyGaming is currently in early negotiations with Empire regarding a potential takeover bid for Empire Online. However, PartyGaming was quick to add that the approach is preliminary and non-binding.

Friday, 04 November 2005

Florida Government Officials Get Down with Poker at Charity Hold'em Tournament and Casino Night

Even government authority types enjoy a hand or two of poker from time to time, at least in Florida. Local and state officials pitched-in this past Saturday at a Bradenton, Florida, fundraiser casino night benefiting the charity, Just for Girls. Event organizers got Vegas down to a T, from the Texas hold'em tournament at center stage to the Elvis impersonator and the makeshift wedding “chapel".

Thursday, 03 November 2005

WSOP Tournament of Champions Heads for Caesars Palace

Pro poker's cream of the crop will be getting a risk-free shot at $2 million in prize money at next week's World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions. The freeroll tournament, coined “poker's All-Star event" by Harrah's VP Jeffry Pollack, is scheduled to take place November 6th to 8th at the Harrah's-owned Caesars Palace. Of the $2 million total prize pool prescribed for the event, half of that will go to the top winner. As for all major WSOP events, the Tournament of Champions will be broadcast on ESPN. Fans can tune in to the network on December 24, 2005 at 1:00 pm, and catch the action.

Wednesday, 02 November 2005

777 Sports Reports Positive Reaction to Online Poker Offering

Two month's after launching a limited release of its new online poker feature, 777 Sports Entertainment Corp. has offered a positive assessment of reactions to the new multiplayer poker platform. 777 Sports' online gaming site, 777betz.com, got off the ground only a few months ago, and poker constituted the next stage in the site's development.

Tuesday, 01 November 2005