The two starting flights of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Maryland at Live! Casino Main Event are in the books and Brian Altman, the Day 1A leader, is still in the pole position (and as I have commented before, yes, it is “Maryland at Live! Casino, however awkward that is). Rajasekar Govindan came out on… Read more »
The first of two-Day Ones is in the books for the World Poker Tour’s Maryland Live! Main Event and it looks like it is going to be a good one. At the end of Day 1A, a WPT Champions’ Club member, Brian Altman, powered his way through the field of 217 entries to be the… Read more »
After the second ever final table deal at a World Poker Tour event – after years of claiming that there weren’t any “deals” in a WPT tournament – Executive Tournament Director Matt Savage has admitted there is a problem. In an attempt to correct this issue, Savage has opened up discussion on the subject on both… Read more »
Season XVIII of the World Poker Tour rolls along (after the fiasco at the Borgata) with a stop that has slowly become one of the favorites of the tournament pros. The WPT will set up shop beginning today at Maryland Live! in Landover, MD, for a $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool Main Event (NOT like… Read more »
When it comes to cinematic efforts about the poker world, there are some standouts on both the good and the bad side. Lucky You, despite a scintillating star turn by tournament director Matt Savage, isn’t considered one of the masterpieces of poker moviedom. Same goes for such films as Deal and the online poker themed… Read more »
Earlier this week, gaming regulators from the Netherlands handed down one of the largest fines in gaming history against one of the biggest operations in the game. The Stars Group, the owners of the monolithic PokerStars juggernaut, were hammered with a massive €400,000 fine for “operating without a license” in the country. The Dutch government… Read more »
The Asia-centric GGNetwork has moved back the implementation of new cash game table limitations, according to its Trello public roadmap. The new table cap was originally scheduled for October 1st but was moved earlier this week to October 28th. In continuing with both the trend in the industry and its own focus on catering to… Read more »
Online poker room partypoker recently provided another monthly update on its efforts to fight bots. In August 2019, the poker room shut down another 48 known bot accounts. That brings the total since December 2018 to 649. Few bots, much dough The 48 bot accounts is a fairly small number, the second smallest since partypoker… Read more »
Isle of Man Today, the online presence of a trio of newspapers on the island between the Great Britain and Ireland, is reporting that PokerStars has informed its staff that layoffs are coming. PokerStars has two offices on the Isle of Man, including its headquarters, where it employs about 450 people. At least they got… Read more »
I rarely get lucky. I’m not talking about “getting lucky,” you sicko. I’m saying I’m not the luckiest guy in the world. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly unlucky, but put it this way: I’m not a big lottery player. I remember three distinct occasions when I or my family did not get lucky. First was… Read more »
JACK Entertainment announced on Friday that it has completed the sale of its JACK Cincinnati Casino for $745 million. It is a two-part sale: VICI Properties acquired a JACK subsidiary that owns the land and real estate assets of the casino and Hard Rock International will take over the operations of the property. Buy and… Read more »
Caesars Entertainment Corporation announced on Monday morning the news that the poker world has long known (or thought) was coming: it has sold the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, home of the World Series of Poker. The buyer is an unnamed company “controlled by a principal of Imperial Companies.” The total sales… Read more »
There are many things that hinge on the future in the 2020 elections, both nationally and for each state. In Kentucky, a state that has embraced thoroughbred racing and betting on those races, there are thoughts about expanding the state’s offering beyond betting the ponies. Those future plans, however, will hinge on the 2019 vote… Read more »
The World Poker Tour’s stop at the Borgata Poker Open came to an end late Friday night, but to call it an ending that was deserving of one of the marquee events on the tour’s schedule would be a stretch. After five days of action that started with 1156 entries, three men – Donald Maloney,… Read more »
In a surprising statement to the online poker community, the Microgaming Poker Network, according to their managing director, will be shutting down. The closure of the longtime online poker venture will occur at some point in 2020, probably in the mid- to late stages of the year. MPN Looks to Stave off a Run on… Read more »
If the World Poker Tour has a tournament with a monstrous field, you can usually figure that it is the Borgata in Atlantic City that is responsible (the other is the Seminole Hard Rock in Florida). The 2019 WPT Borgata Poker Open has proven to be another sizeable field as, after Day 3, the 1156… Read more »
Virgin Hotels, as the name would imply, is a hotel company, and a small one at that, with only three properties currently open. It is not a gaming company. As such, it could probably use some assistance when Virgin Hotels Las Vegas opens late next year. On Tuesday, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment (MGE) announced that… Read more »
The 2019 World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open Main Event is into Day 3 as the survivors from the first two starting flights came together for Day 2 on Tuesday. Leading the remaining 145 players is Jonathan Jaffe with 1.035 million chips. Just one other player goes into Day 3 with more than a… Read more »
Bloomberg is reporting that Blackstone Group, Inc. is pursuing the acquisition of both the Bellagio and MGM Grand Las Vegas from MGM Resorts International. The financial media outlet’s sources say the two companies are talking, but no details are known yet and things could always fall apart. Bloomberg analysts estimate that the Bellagio could sell… Read more »
Day 1B of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open Main is in the books and, as expected, the field for the second starting flight dwarfed that of the first. A total of 707 entries were booked on Monday; added to the 271 on Sunday brings the entire field to 978 so far. Registration… Read more »
For the last several days, poker players have been frustrated with The Venetian Las Vegas. Refreshingly, I might add, none of the frustration has to do with Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson. Instead, people are talking about an October tournament series at The Venetian called the $225,000 Lucky Shot Poker Series & Drawing. Looks… Read more »
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open Main Event kicked off on Sunday with the first of two starting flights. 271 entries were tallied on the day, though expect loads more on Monday. Leading the 129 survivors into Day 2 is Mukharji Uppalapati with 252,400 chips. The Borgata Poker Open is one of the… Read more »
The saga of the city of Houston and its poker clubs has to be one of the top stories of 2019. With arrests made and allegations of illegal money laundering, it seemed as if law enforcement had the upper hand. With the collapse of the case against those clubs, however, it is now pulling back… Read more »
It seems as though there is nothing that will stop the steamroller that is the New Jersey online gaming industry. After smashing records in July with their “take” – revenues from the games – the Garden State’s online gaming industry came back in August and crushed their newly set record. There remains one issue, however…the… Read more »
A major investment bank has taken the surprising step of downgrading the “price targets” – or the future price of a stock – for several of the top performing online gaming and poker sites. The reason? The improvements in technology have become so good that it allows for artificial intelligence – or “bots” – to… Read more »
