Online Poker Room
MAJOR ONLINE POKER NETWORK MAY BE SOLD OFF
2011-02-08
Media speculation that Ongame may be put on the market confirmed
Creating something of a stir Tuesday, the Bloomberg business news agency reported that the merger between Party Gaming plc and Bwin Interactive (see previous InfoPowa reports) could result in the online poker network and software developer Ongame being sold off.
The report was later confirmed by an unnamed Bwin spokesperson, who said that the respected online poker company may be sold either lock, stock and barrel or offered to strategic partners, as it could be regarded as a 'surplus asset' once the poker platforms of the merger principals were rationalised.
The spokesperson stressed that there was no immediate urgency for such a sale.
Ongame was acquired by Bwin in 2005 for Euro 475 million, but the acquisition was followed by the drastic impact in late 2006 of the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which resulted in many top internet gambling companies - Bwin among them - exiting the US.
The merger partners could play a waiting game, given the possibility of a higher sales price if the US market continues to show promise for legalisation initiatives,
“We understand that the American gaming industry wants online poker regulated, as they want access to that revenue stream," the spokesperson noted. "Regulatory developments in the US would raise interest in these assets. But we haven’t yet established any firm deadline, and will look at all options.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT PLAYING ONLINE POKER2010-12-06Online poker is playing the same poker available at the real casinos but through the medium of the Internet. This version is very easily available to all the people, as any player with a computer and an Internet connection can play it online. The people, who play online poker, have the advantage of playing with very little money or maybe free. In addition, playing poker online is useful to hone the skills, especially, the skills of amateur players. The distance is no longer a limitation for the players, as to play online poker; they are not required to go out to the real casinos.
The websites offering such games welcomes different players from all over the world. Many of the websites offering online poker, offers real prizes whether in kind or cash. Therefore, it is not just the attraction of getting entertained, but also the opportunity to win something too that attracts the players to play online poker.
Playing online poker is a good idea as it is very convenient way of playing a game. One can even play this game while sitting at home and just need an internet connection and a computer. Few Smartphone gives access to some of these websites. A beginner does not have anything to worry, as some poker games are available especially for such beginners that require very low bets and some are even free. Some of the poker websites assist the beginners by providing them with systematic instructions. Another convenience factor offered by the websites is that they are open for the entire 24 hours a day. One also gets the opportunity to interact with other virtual players. These players can be from any corner of the world, thus, the Internet has made it very easy.
Poker is the virtualized version of the real casinos, where the physical presence of the players (in front of each other) is not required. Due to advent in technology based on modern satellite, different people staying at different parts of the world can play this game just by sitting at their respective homes. This game became an instant favorite amongst the players, as this version does not require gathering at one place to play. The online websites that offer poker games earn billions as revenues. This is also because the cost incurred in setting up of virtualized version is very less as compared to the real casinos.
The speed of the online poker games is much faster and additionally the new players can get the training from the sites itself. As the online games involve different players from different countries, the currencies become a problem. To overcome this problem, a rule has been set, that the sites will only accept U.S dollars. The first method followed in this regard is that the currencies (apart from dollars) taken by the websites are converted upon entering and exiting of the customers. The second method is that, the players have to get their currency exchanged before investing any amount on the websites. Check out www.sportsbook.com/casino the fastest growing casino for USA players.
POKERSTARS RETREATS FROM WASHINGTON STATE2010-10-01Washington Supreme Court decision in Rousso case cited
The recent finding in the Washington Supreme Court that went against a constitutional appeal by PPA member Lee Rousso against the state's draconian anti-online gambling laws (see previous InfoPowa reports) is causing industry waves.
This week the world's largest online poker provider, Pokerstars, announced that it would no longer offer real money poker to residents of Washington state following the court's ruling.
Pokerstars issued a statement explaining its decision as follows:
“PokerStars today announced that it would cease providing real-money poker to residents of Washington State.
"To date, PokerStars has operated in Washington on the basis of legal opinions where the central advice was that the state could not constitutionally regulate Internet poker, or at least could not discriminate in favor of local cardrooms and against online sites.
"Last week, however, the Washington Supreme Court for the first time rejected that position and upheld the state’s Internet gaming prohibition.
"In light of this decision, following extensive consultation with our legal advisors, we believe that the right course of action is to now block real money play by Washington residents on the PokerStars.com site.
"This policy will remain in effect until the law changes or subsequent legal challenges succeed. Our decision to block real money play in Washington does not affect the balance of funds in customer accounts, which remain completely safe. Our payment services team continues to be available to Washington State residents to assist with cashout requests.
"We regret this decision, which will no doubt disappoint our customers in Washington State. However, in all of the jurisdictions where we operate, we are committed to making responsible decisions that are based on a full and considered understanding of the most up-to-date legal advice.
"PokerStars remains supportive of passing sensible Internet poker regulation in the United States that will provide much-needed tax revenues and formalize consumer protections. PokerStars operates under those conditions, complying with rigorous licensing regimes, for its worldwide operations in the Isle of Man (UK), and for local operations in Italy, France and Estonia."
FRENCH ONLINE POKER STATS NOW ON POKERSCOUT2010-07-23Early days still, but Pokerstars.fr and Everest Poker.fr doing well
The respected independent statistical monitoring site for online poker, Pokerscout.com, has added French action to its purview following the recent implementation of that country's new liberalised online gambling laws.
The latest weekly online poker traffic update numbers suggest that the dedicated French sites of global giant Pokerstars and Everest Poker are leading the field, although it's early days yet and competitors like Ongame and Party Gaming appear to be building momentum.
Pokerstars.fr achieved a ninth placing internationally on the latest stats with a seven day average of 1 280 cash game players and a peak of 2 276 players for the week, whilst Everest Poker.fr managed a global position of fourteenth with a seven day average of 850 cash game players and a peak of 1 430.
Other big numbers came from Bwin.fr at eighteenth with a seven day average of 630 players and a peak of 1 243; this is expected to improve as the company has only been in the French market for a month.
PartyPoker.fr, which is another recent arrival, occupies a twenty second position with a seven day average of 400 cash game players, and can also be expected to improve dramatically.
Pokerscout reports that French-licensed online poker sites accounted for 4 percent of the global online poker action last week, generated by eleven ARJEL-licensed operators with more on the way, including the Microgaming-888 partnership and a consortium of French land casinos.
DAY 20 WORLD SERIES OF POKER (Update)2010-06-17Three more bracelets awarded
Events 24, 26 and 27 are in the record books as three more bracelets were won at the 41st World Series of Poker in Las Vegas over the past 24 hours.
The long-running event 24 - the $1,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'Em at last produced a winner after 4 days of hard grinding poker when Jeffrey Tebben converted a short stack start into a WSOP bracelet and $503,389 after a heads up confrontation with JD McNamara that saw some fine and aggressive poker. McNamara’s runner-up prize was worth $310,248.
Nine survivors entered Day 4 Wednesday afternoon play with McNamara holding the chip lead after a short but action-packed Day 3.
15 players remained at the end of Day 2 in event 26, a $2,500 NLHE Six Handed competition that went to 10 levels before tournament officials bagged up the chips and decided the finisher would be on Day 3. Dave Cowley was in the lead at that stage but there were some impressive players still in the running and more than prepared to give challenge.
The second day did see the departure of top players like Jerry Yang, Sorel Mizzi, Annette Obrestad, Matt Graham, Matt Affleck and Jared Hamby (see previous InfoPowa report)..
By the end of Day 3, after a total of over the three days of 30 levels of play and the elimination of 1,423 entrants, a brief heads up between William Haydon and Jeffrey Papola decided the winner.
Haydon emerged victorious, having delivered a consistently sound style of poker throughout most of the contest, to claim a bracelet and the main prize of $630,031. It was the San Francisco player’s biggest cash to date, and his first piece of WSOP jewellery.
Papola enjoyed a $391,068 payday for his second placing.
In event 27, the $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better, Day 3 produced the same slow, slugging progress that the preceding two days had delivered, but the 23 survivors from an original field of 644 were eventually pared down over around 11 hours to a hard-fought heads up between David Warga and Maxwell Troy.
It was Warga’s night – or rather early morning – and he took the main prize of $208 682, leaving his opponent with the runner-up’s prize of $129 253.
Warga also claimed his second WSOP bracelet – his first was in the 2002 Casino Emplyees Event.
When InfoPowa went to press there were 12 players still going at it in Day 2 of event 28 – the $2,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha competition which had attracted 596 entries with a prize pool of over $1.3 million.
Day 2 on Wednesday saw 105 players still in the hunt, although many big names had been eliminated by then, including J.C. Tran, Jason Mercier, Tom Dwan and eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel.
By the early hours of Thursday morning 12 players were left, with Miguel Proulx in the lead on 877,000, followed by Patrick Hanoteau (824,000) and Loren Klein (470,000).
13 players remained from an original field of 171 in event 29 - the $10,000 buy-in Limit Hold'em World Championship in the early hours of Thursday morning Vegas time, with Kyle Ray holding a slim lead over nearest opponents Daniel Idema and Jameson Painter when play ended for the day.
The day had started with Aussie ace Jeffrey Lisandro leading a surviving field of 102 which contained many respected names. Famous players who did not survive a tough Day 1 included Terrence Chan, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow and Howard Lederer.
After thirteen hours of very competitive poker, they were joined at the rail by the likes of Lex Veldhuis, Erick Lindgren, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson and Matt Glantz, along with Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown, Dwyte Pilgrim, Isaac Haxton, Justin Bonomo and Shaun Deeb.
This is what the final 13 looks like, with chip counts going into Day 3
1 Kyle Ray 643,000 0
2 Daniel Idema 634,000 0
3 Jameson Painter 574,000 0
4 Dave Baker 542,000 0
5 Darren Woods 529,000 0
6 Matt Keikoan 418,000 0
7 Simon Morris 364,000 0
8 Brock Parker 351,000 0
9 Zvi Groysman 278,000 0
10 Anh Van Nguyen PokerStars Team Pro Canada 274,000 0
11 Michael Mizrachi 256,000 0
12 Mark Klecan 169,000 0
13 David Chiu 144,000 0
INTERTOPS HEADS FOR CAKE POKER NETWORK2010-05-03Player loyalty rewards to be honoured
Intertops Poker is the latest company to transfer its online poker operations to the Cake Poker Network. The company, which has been in business since 2003, formerly used the Microgaming Poker Network for its internet poker activities, and last autumn changed its casino software provider from MGS to Real Time Gaming (see previous InfoPowa reports)
Intertops spokesmen said that the company will honour all existing Gold Chips, Gold Cards and Gold Stacks loyalty rewards held by players of rooms that have recently left the Cake Network, such as Sportsbook.com, PlayersOnly.com and PokerHost.com.
POKERSTARS STILL TOPS THE POPULARITY LIST2010-02-11Latest Pokerscout stats give a snapshot of the online poker market
The latest weekly statistics from the independent online poker statistical aggregator Pokerscout.com show that Pokerstars still dominates the sector with a daily average of 32 600 cash games players, pursued at some distance by its old rival Full Tilt Poker with comparative player numbers of 16 600.
Other major players in the sector lag far behind, with Party Poker on 5 400 and Playtech's iPoker Network at 4 850.
The good news is that across the sector this week has seen a marginal improvement in total traffic after three weeks in the doldrums.
Despite losing Players Only and Sportsbook.com (see previous InfoPowa report), the Cake Poker network managed to overtake both the Microgaming and Boss Media (IPN) networks, moving from tenth to eighth position, although all three still strive to catch Tokwiro Enterprise's Cereus Network, which managed to push Everest Poker out of sixth place.
Lower down the list, the merge between Everleaf and Universal saw the merged entity in the eighteenth slot, and Pacific Poker received a special mention from Pokerscout for increasing its cash game traffic by 25 percent on the back of innovative new promos.
Looking back a year, Pokerscout makes the interesting observation that Full Tilt has grown its traffic by 68 percent, Pokerstars by 43 percent and Cake Poker by 42 percent.
GEARING UP FOR WSOP 20102009-12-18But it's goodbye to the $50K H.O.R.S.E. event
Harrah's Entertainment has whetted player and industry appetites as the year ends by publishing the schedule for next year's World Series of Poker, listing 57 events that include six $1 000 Hold’em competitions and a new $50 000 Player’s Championship.
Dates for poker's multimillion dollar 41st edition next year are May 27-July 17, 2010, and the epic series will again be hosted at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Many events remain unchanged from 2009 and offer buy-ins ranging from $1 000 to $50 000 for the new Player’s Championship.
WSOP tournament director Jack Effel said in a statement accompanying the schedule: “Whatever your game and whatever your bankroll, the 2010 WSOP schedule offers something for everyone. We are planning for the largest WSOP ever and look forward to welcoming all players to the Rio in Las Vegas this summer.”
With the economic recession showing some early signs of easing, Effel's ambitions could well be realised, as poker's popularity appears undiminished. Last year's WSOP drew a total of 60 875 players from 115 different counties with $175 million up for grabs.
The high point of the 2010 WSOP will as always be the $10 000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em World Championship, which will commence on July 5 with a final table reached on July 17. As has been the case for the past two WSOPs, there will then be a four month interval before the nine finalists gather once more to decide the winner - this will take place between November 6 and 9, 2010.
Getting the 2010 series off to a running start will be the $50 000 buy-in Player’s Championship, which is scheduled for Friday, May 28th. For those with smaller bankrolls, there is a smaller competition over the same weekend - the $1 000 buy-in Hold’em tournament. Harrah's plans a series of these $1 000 buy-in Hold'em events throughout the series - one every weekend for the first five weeks of the 41st WSOP, followed by an additional event between July 1-2.
There will be mixed feelings about the replacement of the popular $50 000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event, which is to be replaced by the new $50000 Player’s Championship. This will add 2-7 Triple Draw, No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Hold’em to the mix of games, with big money prizes and the Chip Reese memorial trophy going to the winner.
H.O.R.S.E. purists have not been neglected, however; the schedule lists a new $10 000 buy-in Championship H.O.R.S.E. event.
Another innovation is a $25 000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max event, possibly prompted by the popularity of this genre on the high stakes tables, which should attract some exciting action players.
Well established faves in the epic series such as the Ladies and Senior events, and the charity Ante Up for Africa remain on the list which in general sticks with the familiar and popular events of the past.
Harrah's plans to utilise the whole convention centre at the Rio for the World Series of Poker next year - an impressive 58 000 square foot space in the Pavilion and 38 000 square feet in the Amazon Room
Readers can get all the detail here: http://www.wsop.com/tourney/tourneydetails.asp?groupID=764