Online poker news
A week after surrendering to U.S. law enforcement officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Full Tilt Poker CEO Ray Bitar has been released on bail. While he is far from “free,” Bitar may be able to sleep in his own bed in California as early as Wednesday. According to a report by Diamond Flush… Read more »
Black Friday killed many an online poker room, but on that day in April just over a year ago, the seed was planted for a new type of poker site. It took a long time, but that seed finally sprouted this month in the form of SkillBet.com. SkillBet touts itself as a pure skill game… Read more »
Ray Bitar, founder and CEO of Full Tilt Poker, surrendered to United States law enforcement officials Monday more than year after being charged with “bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses” in the infamous Black Friday indictments. Bitar was apprehended at John F. Kennedy International Airport and pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan federal… Read more »
On Monday, the Microgaming Poker Network announced that it has ended its contract with 5050Poker.com. Citing breach of contract by 5050Poker as the reason, Microgaming will no longer allow the site to be a member of its group of over 20 poker rooms. Microgaming’s problems with 5050Poker were made public on June 15th, when the… Read more »
Hollywood Poker, one of the long-time members of the Ongame Network, closed its doors and boarded up the windows Monday, surprising visitors to its site. The shutdown came without any warning whatsoever. Fortunately, Hollywood Poker customers will not be left in the lurch, as their accounts will be transferred to RedKings.com. The following message now… Read more »
Regulated online poker in Nevada is closer to becoming a reality. This past Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission granted licenses to two gaming companies to provide systems for online poker partners. The rival firms, Bally Technologies and International Game Technology (IGT), were both unanimously approved for online gaming licenses. They will not be the companies… Read more »
The Microgaming Poker Network announced Friday that it is preparing to implement a brand new system for calculating player rake. Dubbed “True Value,” the new method aims to more fairly allocate the rake from each player to their respective operator. In a press release, the Isle of Man based network described True Value as a… Read more »
Depending on your perspective, this first week of June is either a great week for online poker in Europe or an “oh great, more of this” week. This is the week that a number of poker rooms were granted the first operating licenses in Spain and several just went live on Tuesday. Those who take… Read more »
The Main Event of the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) wrapped up early this week and taking the title in the headlining “high” buy-in portion of the event was Nick “GripDsNutz” Grippo. A total of 517 players entered the $10,300 No-Limit Hold’em event, with 63 making the money. For his win, Grippo banked… Read more »
The Illinois State Senate President suggested to the state’s legislators Tuesday that it may be time to look at legalizing and regulating online poker in the Land of Lincoln. With no states having intrastate online poker up and running yet, Sen. John Cullerton (D) wants Illinois to jump at the opportunity to be the online… Read more »
PokerStars officially launched Zoom Poker Tuesday, making the popular game a formal offering for the world’s largest online poker room after two months in public beta testing mode. There was plenty of testing done during that period; more than 300 million Zoom Poker hands have been dealt since mid-March. Zoom Poker is PokerStars’ fast-paced ring… Read more »
Fresh off the excitement of Manchester City’s historic stoppage time comeback in its season finale to win the English Premier League, PartyPoker has launched the Championship Challenge. Running May 14th through June 30th, the Championship Challenge is a promotion that gives real money players the opportunity to win cash prizes and freeroll entries by earning… Read more »
The Belgian Gaming Commission is certainly taking its new online gambling laws seriously. This past week, the Commission placed more online poker sites on the country’s blacklist, making it a crime for the country’s citizens to play on those sites. Including in the new batch of blacklisted sites are such popular names as Betfair, William… Read more »
Online gaming company bwin.party is readying itself to enter the California online poker market should the game become legalized in the state. The operator of bwin.com and PartyPoker.com, bwin.party announced Tuesday that it has inked an agreement with the United Auburn Indian Community (UAIC) to provide online poker games to residents of California when and… Read more »
Titan Poker, one of the leading sites on the iPoker Network, has ended its relationship with its resident pros, star European players Sam Trickett and Marvin Rettenmaier. In a sign of the times, the departures were not announced via a press release or a news item on Titan’s site, but rather by the players themselves… Read more »
When it comes to online poker network reorganizations, things usually happen in one of three ways: one network buys another, a poker room leaves a network, or a poker room joins a network. On Monday, though, a significant move was made that did not fit any of these categories. Yes, Lock Poker announced that it… Read more »
Industry conditions be damned. A new U.S.-friendly online poker network, the Poker Pros Network, launched last week, hoping that its player-friendly atmosphere will attract casual and serious players alike. The Poker Pros Network, owned by Costa Rica-based CMK Interactive, is currently comprised of seven online poker rooms and is new enough that cash game tracking… Read more »
Online poker room Lock Poker has made a significant addition to its stable of young pros, adding Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad to the Lock Pro Elite team. Her signing comes just a week after she inked a deal with poker representation agency Poker Royalty, a move which now appears to have led to the Lock Poker… Read more »
In a whirlwind of rumors and unofficial confirmations, the poker community was sent into a frenzy Tuesday as word came out that it is not going to be Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) that will buy Full Tilt Poker, but rather Full Tilt’s rival, PokerStars. As part of the alleged $750 million deal, PokerStars will reportedly… Read more »
If you have been playing at PartyPoker for a while, you likely have gotten used to the online poker room introducing a new promotion at the beginning of every month. But lo and behold, Party is launching a new one today, a full week before the start of May. The VIP 500 Club, which gives… Read more »
With the demise of Full Tilt Poker and UB.com, there has been a bit of a void in the online poker tournament series space. PokerStars rules the roost, of course, with fantastic series such as the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). But without Full Tilt’s FTOPS… Read more »
The war between the world’s largest online poker room and one of the internet’s most popular data mining sites is coming to a head. PokerStars, after years of trying to get PokerTableRatings.com (PTR) to stop recording hands on its tables, is now taking legal action against the website. Lee Jones, PokerStars’ Head of Home Games,… Read more »
With the anniversary of the “Black Friday” indictments on the minds of many in the poker community, four poker players have continued the fight against Full Tilt Poker in filing a new lawsuit against the principles in a Nevada court. On Thursday, attorneys for four plaintiffs announced a new class action lawsuit aimed at recovering… Read more »
PokerStars has finalized the schedule for the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), the fourth installment of the popular online tournament series. Created in 2009 as a sort of mid-year warmup for the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), the SCOOP is unique in that every event has three different buy-in levels (three separate… Read more »
They say that when there’s smoke, there’s fire, and the poker community is beginning to see more smoke coming from the direction of Full Tilt Poker. This week, a couple pieces of evidence have surfaced that point to the possibility of the re-opening of the once high-flying online poker room in the not-too-distant future. The… Read more »
