Online poker news
In a move that likely came as a disappointment to some, but hopefully a surprise to nobody, PokerStars removed the specialty game Showtime Hold’em from its cash game lobby on Monday. This was a scheduled change and is something that PokerStars has done before. The more interesting thing is that the online poker room has… Read more »
Pennsylvania finally legalized online poker last fall and now the industry is finally, slowly starting to ramp up. The first deadline for casinos to apply for interactive gaming licenses was early last week and though for a while it looked like very few or even none of them would file petitions, in the end, nine… Read more »
Say your goodbyes to your favorite tablemates while you still can, for online poker room PokerHost will be shutting down for good on July 31st. Not shutting down only on its current network as it has done so many times before, but closing once and for all. The announcement was originally made by the poker… Read more »
PokerStars has announced the return of its popular low stakes tournament series, MicroMillions, not that it was ever in doubt. MicroMillions 14 will be held July 16th through July 29th on PokerStars.com and will feature 121 events with buy-ins ranging from $0.11 (yes, eleven cents) to $22. Even I can afford that. Hell, if I… Read more »
It’s time to see if three really is a crowd. Winamax, the long-time French-only online poker room, has announced that it will open up its tables to Spanish players this month. The exact date was not specified; it is unclear if this is immediate or if the merged player pools are yet to come. The… Read more »
PokerStars announced on Tuesday the launch of a new live poker tour, but unlike most live tours, this one will be affordable for just about everybody. And I’m not talking “affordable” as in “poker affordable” like $565 buy-ins. No, the newly created Moneymaker PSPC Tour will feature headlining tournaments with buy-ins of just $86. The… Read more »
When Pennsylvania became the fourth state to pass online gaming and poker regulation, it was expected that there would be a flood of activity fighting for those licenses. Instead, it appears that there has been a bit of a slow start to the licensing procedures, perhaps jeopardizing the opening of the Pennsylvania industry later this… Read more »
Soccer (er…football) fans around the world are jacked for the start of the FIFA World Cup tomorrow and as online poker players might have expected, PokerStars is running a special Spin & Goal promotion to celebrate. And it’s called – obviously – Spin & Goal. As is the case with every Spin & Go…spin-off…Spin &… Read more »
Last week, partypoker became the second online poker site to join the player pools of France and Spain, as it launched partypoker.eu. PokerStars was the first site to do so back in January. “I am extremely enthusiastic about joining partypoker to actively support their efforts to bring back the ‘Poker First’ mentality, live and online,”… Read more »
Last week, we talked about PokerStars getting rid of the goofy Split Hold’em, a game in which two different sets of community cards were dealt and how Poker Industry PRO discovered table graphics which indicated some new games were coming. And sure enough, PokerStars announced on Wednesday that one of those games has arrived: Showtime… Read more »
On Wednesday, PokerStars announced that Portugal has merged its online poker player pool with those of Spain and France. PokerStars is currently the only site on which players from all three countries can compete against each other. The three countries were formerly ring-fenced from the rest of the world, meaning that poker players could only… Read more »
PokerStars removed the new cash game Split Hold’em from its lobby this week, but according to Poker Industry PRO (pay wall), it will soon be replaced with another new game type. Split Hold’em was well received by players, but it must not have generated the rake that PokerStars wanted, or else it would still be… Read more »
Last week’s big news in poker circles was the lawsuit filed by professional poker player Gordon Vayo against PokerStars in U.S. District Court. We covered it, every poker media outlet covered it (mainstream news site, Forbes, covered it before everyone), and the poker internet message forums are talking about it. On Monday morning, The Stars… Read more »
In April, Phil Galfond – after a lengthy silence about his upcoming online poker room – finally provided the poker public with updates as to the progress of Run It Once, promising to be more forthcoming with further updates as the launch date drew nearer. Last week, he provided another, lengthy post detailing a major… Read more »
Though it is disappointing that it has taken this long, New Jersey has finally begun sharing its online poker player liquidity with Nevada and Delaware. On May 1st (technically April 30th, as things got started a few hours earlier than expected), WSOP.com became an interstate poker site, no longer limiting Nevadans and New Jerseyites to… Read more »
WSOP.com and 888 Poker are quite confident that the approval process for their new software will go off without a hitch and as such, WSOP.com has sent out e-mails to players and published a press release announcing the opening of registration for new accounts. The WSOP.com software is being reviewed by the regulatory bodies of… Read more »
The Stars Group announced over the weekend that it has acquired Sky Betting & Gaming (SBG) for $4.7 billion in combination cash and stock deal. According to The Stars Group in a press release, the addition of Sky will make the company the largest publicly traded online gambling company. The Stars Group is clearly best… Read more »
Signaling the vibrancy of its online gaming industry, New Jersey was able to bank its biggest online “win” rate in its history in the month of March 2018. Over the 31 days of March, New Jersey’s citizens seemed to flock to the offerings from the casino operations in the state. For the month, the five… Read more »
In September 2016, poker pro Phil Galfond announced that he was going to start his own online poker room named after his poker training site, Run It Once. His idea was to build something that would cater to players of all types, that would focus on fairness, and that would be transparent. Since then, we… Read more »
A new day is about to dawn for online poker. Okay, am I severely overselling it with that introductory sentence. But still, that WSOP.com and 888 Poker will be facilitating the merger of player pools of New Jersey with those of Delaware and Nevada in about two weeks is a pretty big deal. There are… Read more »
Not content in topping its rivals, PokerStars keeps wanting to top itself. Case in point: the 2018 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). This year’s edition of the exceedingly popular online poker series will feature $65 million in guaranteed prize pools, $10 million more than the guarantees from last year. Running May 6th through May… Read more »
PokerStars continues to tweak its offerings, popping the cork on a new tournament feature. And when I say tweak, I mean just a little tweak. The new feature is the “Early Payout Tournament,” which is exactly what it appears to be from the name. In an Early Payout Tournament, every player remaining in the contest… Read more »
PokerStars, not known for being shy about introducing new games, has given players yet another novel offering. So if you sit down at a Split Hold’em cash game table, don’t freak out thinking there is a glitch. What you are seeing is completely normal. Split Hold’em plays just like regular Texas Hold’em except for one… Read more »
After making a plea to its membership base for donations to continue their efforts, the future of the Poker Players Alliance is in doubt as those pleas apparently went unheard. In what has been a tumultuous few months for the Poker Players Alliance, the organization issued the call for donations as its leadership changed. In… Read more »
There are few markets that the poker monolith PokerStars hasn’t entered. The name is synonymous with the #1 online poker site in many countries that have set up “ring fenced” operations, including Italy, Portugal and many countries in the European Union and continues to be the “top dog” internationally. Now PokerStars is ready to enter… Read more »
