In a press statement issued on December 26th, the iPoker Network, one of the largest collections of online poker rooms in the world, announced that it will shed itself of NoIQ Poker and Carlos Poker effective in January of 2009. It’s one of the first shakeups to be prescribed for the New Year in the poker industry.
In a terse press statement issued just after the Christmas holiday, iPoker officials stated, “iPoker has, following discussions with Tain, decided to remove Carlos Poker and NoIQ Poker from the iPoker Network. The said card rooms will be removed from the iPoker network liquidity by January 24th, 2009.” The move leaves the iPoker Network with such rooms as Expekt Poker, Betfred, Tony G Poker, Titan Poker, Kiwi Poker, Poker Ocean, Paddy Power Poker, Bet 365, and Boylepoker. The latter serves as the sponsor for Irish poker player Marty Smyth, who was recently nominated for several European Poker Awards.
Promotions on the iPoker Network have included the running of the third European Championship of Online Poker, or ECOOP as it’s commonly known. The $1,060 buy-in ECOOP Main Event was won by Intruder123, who bested a field of 1,283 players. His prize was $315,000 in the $1.5 million guaranteed tournament, which saw an overlay of about $200,000 as a result of its attendance. The runner up in the event, piccajo, received $165,000 and the third place finisher, jornxx, saw his bankroll boosted by $120,000.
The second largest event held as part of the ECOOP was a $109 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament, which attracted 1,532 players and awarded $300,000 in prize money. Its winner, 2Tired4u, walked away from the tables with $60,000 in his pockets, a return of 600 times his investment. Coming in second place was IveGoneNutz, who went nuts to the tune of $31,200. Rounding out the top three finishers was Pienifisu, who earned $22,200 for his efforts.
Other promotional opportunities for iPoker players include satellites to major land-based tournaments such as the ECPoker Tour in Salzburg, Austria as well as the Manila leg of the Asian Poker Tour. In April, iPoker will send several of its players to the Irish Open, which will invade Dublin. Satellites to the 2009 Aussie Millions, the Main Event of which takes place in Sydney on January 18th, are also available.
Sunday is the typical day of the week for high stakes guaranteed prize pool tournaments and the iPoker Network is no exception. On Sundays at 19:00 GMT, the network kicks off a $250,000 Guaranteed event that comes with a $320 price tag. The guarantee is larger than that found in the weekly marquee events on Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, and Bodog. On Fridays, the iPoker Network holds a $150,000 Guaranteed event that comes with a $109 price tag. However, don’t let the low buy-in fool you, as rebuys and add-ons are allowed, which swell the prize pool from week to week.
According to its website, NoIQ Poker is owned by Flop Group Limited and bills itself as one of Europe’s largest poker rooms. Carlos Poker is owned by Parabol Limited, a government licensed company in the United Kingdom. The company employs technical staff and help desk personnel in Costa Rica and states that it operates legally on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
The iPoker Network is one of the largest ensembles of poker rooms on the face of the Earth. In fact, according to PokerScout.com (which tracks site traffic information) the iPoker Network ranks as the third largest overall based on the average volume of cash game players. The Network is only bested by PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which rank one and two, respectively. The iPoker Network is the largest online poker network that does not accept U.S. players and has a seven day average of 5,000 cash game players.
