German Player Wins European Championship Tournament at Titan Poker

Player “Heins77″ from Germany was the winner on Wednesday of the sixth tournament staged as part of Titan Poker’s ten-day European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) tournament series.

The ECOOP series is currently attracting unprecedented player interest at Titan Poker, the largest online poker room on the iPoker Network. A total of $3,600,000 is guaranteed in prizes at the ten tournaments, but the large number of online poker players participating in the tournaments has driven up the prize pools even higher.

Player “Heins77″ took home a first prize of $45,570 as he beat off 1,084 other players in the Texas Hold’em No Limit, 6-Player table tournament with a buy-in of $200+$15. A total of $217,000 was distributed to the winning players, more than the event’s guaranteed prize pool of $200,000.

The previous night, the fifth ECOOP II tournament saw 505 players compete at a Texas Hold’em No Limit Freezeout tournament with a stiff $750 + $50 Buy-in. The prize pool, at $378,750, again surpassed the promised amount.

The ECOOP II tournament series continues at Titan Poker until June 1st, when it culminates with a tournament finale with $1,500,000 in guaranteed prizes.

Titan Poker players are able to buy-in directly to each of the ECOOP II events or win their seats at online daily qualifying tournaments, which start at just $2 + $0.20.

This is the second European Championship of Online Poker staged by Titan Poker. The first ECOOP series was staged in December 2007 and exceeded expectations by awarding more than $2,500,000 in prizes.

Bettors go all-in on 2008 World Series of Poker

Poker betting is one thing but wagering on poker betting is quite another. And yet that’s the challenge gamblers will face when they match cash to conviction on the 39th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, beginning May 30.

Although some books have prices for which poker players will win each of the 53 preliminary card games, it is Event #54, the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em, known as the Main Event, that not only attracts the most poker players but the most action from bettors, as well.

That competition gets underway July 3 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel with the Final Table determined on July 14. The nine players who advance to the Final Table will return to the Rio on November 9 where the outcome will be decided on the evening of November 10.

Poker exploded as a TV and gambling essential a half-decade ago when new technology allowed viewers watching at home to see each player’s hole cards. Bookmakers, who tried to keep pace with the phenomena, have been swamped of late as the number of entries to the Main Event swelled to a record 8,773 in 2006. Try making a future book involving that many names!

So, given the huge fields and the fact that an established professional poker player has not won the Main Event since 2001, books have taken to offering prices on players merely making it to the Final Table. (Odds on winning the top prize will follow after that).

The lowest odds on any individual reaching the Final Table is 100/1, a price afforded to 1987 and 1988 Main Event champion Johnny Chan, 1989 winner Phil Hellmuth and 2001 champ Carlos Mortensen, as well as such highly regarded poker players a Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu and Allen Cunningham.

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More than $4,500 in monthly leaderboard prizes. Play Texas Hold’em DuplicatePoker.com

Saab wins RP leg of Asian Poker Tour

Australian national David Saab emerged as the top winner of the 2008 Asian Poker Tour as he bested more than 300 players in the finals of the six-day event Sunday at the Dusit Thani Manila Hotel in Makati City.

The 35-year-old became the last man standing at the “no limit Texas hold’em” after beating South Korea’s Chris Roh in six hours at the gambling table.

Saab already had 2.2 million worth of chips against Roh’s 800,000 before the winning the tour’s Philippine leg.

Saab, who started Sunday’s game as the chip leader, pocketed the $280,000 top prize. He was a former chief executive officer of a public company before turning pro full time.

Second placer Roh, who owns an online gaming room, took home $150,000.

Roh and Saab eliminated Japanese player Satoru Ishii to arrange their one-on-one match.

The 29-year-old Japanese, who works as a magazine writer, pocketed $100,000.

Filipinos reach the finals

Two Filipinos, meanwhile, made it into the finals before eventually bowing out of contention.

Terry Gonzaga and Don Carmona were eliminated from the competition after running out of chips to play.

Gonzaga, who works as a business manager of a semi-conductor outsource assembly plant, was the third to be eliminated among the top nine players who made it into the finals.

“Talagang matindi ang pressure,” said Gonzaga. He said that this was his first major tournament.

Carmona, who was cheered on by Filipino spectators, was the next to be eliminated.

“Magaling… magaling sila,” said Carmona, who is engaged in the customs brokerage business.

Other players who made it into the finals were Michele Ferrari (Italy), Yun Man (South Korea), Kwang Soo Lee (South Korea) and Gerasimos Deres (Sweden).

More than 300 players battled it out at the APT leg in Manila for a share of the guaranteed $1-million prize pot.

Meanwhile, APT CEO Chris Parker announced announced a US$1,500,000 guaranteed prize pool for its next event in Macau.

The Asian Poker Tour Macau will be held at the StarWorld Hotel and Casino from the 27th to 31st of August 2008 with the buy-in at $5,000+$300.

Another scandal rocks online poker

The Absolute Poker scandal mostly flew under the mainstream media’s radar last year, but as the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Maybe George W. Bush can’t get that cliche correct, but if he played online poker he would definitely understand it’s meaning right around now.

The news is now official as UltimateBet has admitted that it has suffered its own cheating scandal.

And this time, the mainstream press is noticing. Canada’s National Post newspaper is already on top of the story.

A media organization with an already conservative bent, on Saturday the Post published a stark story about the state of security inside the poker world, with an article titled Native policing of gambling in doubt after online cheating.

And while I’m generally loathe to agree with conservative views of online gambling, I’m having a hard time disagreeing with the premise of the article, which questions whether the Kahnawake reserve has the balls to properly regulate the gaming companies under its watch.

Right now, it looks like it doesn’t.

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World Series of Poker shows Vegas at its best

Las Vegas has been beset by weird, bad news this year. There’s the mortgage foreclosure crisis, plus a hepatitis outbreak. And you could drown away such troubles with a night on the town, but then you might deal with long lines at expensive, celebrity-owned nightclubs that are, alas, under investigation by the feds.

So it was a relief this weekend to see the focus of Vegas rooting into what it does best: poker. Specifically, taking people’s money away from them for their own good, or at least Las Vegas’ good.

The World Series of Poker was a magnet for many hundreds of action junkies from around the world. They chipped in up to $10,000 each to play the tables. A swarm of international media buzzed around them.

And some poker players and spectators did their part to help alleviate our housing crisis. Quite a few told me they just moved to Las Vegas within the past month, either to get closer to tournaments here, or to prey as poker pros on tourists in hotels.

The most prominent gaming duo was actress Jennifer Tilly and her poker champ boyfriend Phil Laak. They just moved here a few weeks ago. And they were hard to miss at the Rio, since he’s known as “The Unabomber” for hiding his poker face behind dark glasses and a hoodie. And she’s appropriately called “The Unabombshell.”

Tilly thinks “Unabombshell” is a cute alias, but she prefers another nickname she hears: J-Tilla the Killa.

“I think that strikes fear in the hearts of men,” she says. “‘Unabombshell’ sort of implies ‘decorative:’ someone you can have at the table so you can stare at her boobs.”

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Comments (0) Jun 02 2008

Player Receives $55,000 as Titan Poker Deals Its Billionth Hand

Titan Poker, the largest online poker room on the iPoker Network, dealt its Billionth Hand on May 27 and player “wootrigged” from Finland went home with a prize of $55,000. The other five players playing at the same table received $5,000 each, just for participating in hand number 1,000,000,000.

Titan Poker’s Billionth Hand promotion, which launched a number of weeks ago, awarded more than $420,000 in prizes. A countdown started when the 950,000,000th hand was dealt. Hundreds of dollars in cash were awarded to players every day as Titan Poker neared its monumental billionth hand.

Players were able to track the progress of the countdown to the Billionth Hand by logging into the Titan Poker software, or onto the Titan Poker website. Titan Poker players also received regular updates of the countdown progress and were immediately informed when they started to play on a winning hand.

Titan Poker regularly rewards its players with huge cash prizes. The popular online poker room is currently giving away $3,600,000 in its second European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP II). It also frequently awards its players with seats at the world’s most well-known poker tournaments, including the 2008 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the Irish Open, the European Poker Tour and the Asian Poker Tour. In May, Titan Poker sponsored the Eurocity Poker Tour Madrid Open, a highly successful tournament event staged at the Casino Gran outside the Spanish capital.

For World Series of Poker players, brain trumps hand

The real action at the World Series of Poker won’t be visible to the eye or even the hole-card cameras under the tables. It will take place inside the heads of the players.

They will mess with each other’s minds, watch for clues that might tip off another’s hand or a nervous bluff and calculate the risks and rewards of each hand. And before they move all-in with their chips, they will decide whether they have not only the cards but the nerve.

“A lot of time, it’s just a game of chicken. You don’t have very much. You think they don’t have very much. Each of you is just trying to make the other one fold,” says pro Barry Greenstein, who rates psychological toughness the No. 1 trait of a poker player.

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Poker: Picking the right time to gamble is important

Ideally, you want to get your money in the pot in a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament when you have an opponent dominated, but that isn’t always possible.

Sometimes your stack will be below average, you will draw a nice hand, even if it isn’t the best, and you will see a big pot brewing. You have to gamble.

It happens to the top players all the time. They don’t always like it, but one part of their strategy is to pick a smaller stack to gamble with so they can’t bust out, as Josh Arieh showed at the $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Las Vegas’ Bellagio in 2007.

With blinds at $500-$1,000 plus a $100 ante, the player under the gun limped, as did pro Marcel Luske and two other players.

Arieh, who finished third in the 2004 World Series of Poker main event, found ace-queen offsuit on the button. He also found a chance to make a move to improve his below-average stack of about $24,000.

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Ultimate Poker Challenge

Ultimate Poker Challenge is a syndicated show that televises a series of weekly poker tournaments where players accumulate points instead of money in order to play in the semi-finals. Eight players then go on to play in the finals. The playing field for ultimate poker challenge is comprised of both professional poker players and top amateurs.

Chad Brown, an actor most recognized for his work on the soap opera “Another World” hosted the show with Brandi Williams as field correspondent who often interviewed the players. Matt Savage was the tournament director. In the first season of Ultimate Poker Challenge, James Van Alstyne won the top prize of $100,000. In season 2, Andy Bloch, who is best known for being a member of the MIT blackjack team that was featured in the book, “Bringin Down The House,” which is also the subject of the 2008 movie, “21″ won the top prize of $167,500. The winner of the show’s season 3 was Amir Vahedi, who took home $181,390.

Seasons 1 and 2 of the exciting series are available on DVD for fans of the show to purchase. In season 4, the show was actually renamed to The Ultimate Poker Challenge Presents Cash Poker: The Ultimate Challenge. In 2007 ultimate poker challenge teamed up with Woman Poker Player magazine to create the Ultimate Women’s Poker Challenge. This event was held at Binions in Las Vegas and was televised for the show. Shows like these have really helped to popularize poker, especially when people at home see the “average Joe” take home the money. It gives the ordinary amateur hope that he or she has a chance at winning the big one someday. Also, by utilizing Henry Orenstein’s invention of the pocket camera, now that the home audience can see the player’s hole cards, it makes watching poker more exciting than ever!

Checkout the UltimateBet Weekly Online Poker Tournament Schedule:

Monday - Saturday: 8:00PM - Buy In $120+9 - $20K Nightly Bounty No Limit Tournaments
Sundays: 5:00PM - Buy In $120+9 or Qualify for your seat for as little as $5.50 - $200K Guaranteed No Limit Tournament.

Designed with the assistance of the best poker players in the world - Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke – UltimateBet provides the best poker betting games available on the net. Players can download the free poker software, play in free ring games and tournaments and get tips from these pros to learn the sport or to enhance their playing strategy. UltimateBet currently has over 2 million registered players.

World Series of Poker kicks off with $10K event

It seems it was yesterday that Jerry Yang was celebrating his 2007 World Series of Poker main event title. It feels like it was last night that I was busting out of the 2006 WSOP main event. Sorry, some of those hands just haunt me in my sleep.

But it is time for poker’s main attraction — the WSOP — again. And while the number of main event entrants is anybody’s guess, this year’s World Series already is guaranteed to be the longest in history.

It starts today with the $10,000 buy-in pot-limit hold’em world championship and ends in November with the final stages of the main event final table.

Usually, it’s the casino employees event that kicks off the WSOP, so it’s refreshing see the World Series starting in style this year with one of the 12 world championship events. In all, Caesar’s Entertainment will be handing out 55 WSOP bracelets again this year at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

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Comments (0) May 30 2008

Huge Player Interest in Titan Poker’s European Championship Tournament Series

Titan Poker, the largest online poker room on the iPoker Network, has seen unprecedented player interest in its 10-day European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) tournament series. The ECOOP series staged by Titan Poker guarantees $3,600,000 in prizes, but the large number of online poker players participating in the tournaments has driven up the prize pools even higher.
The ECOOP II series kicked off on May 23rd with a No Limit Hold’em event that drew 1,291 players. The following night was dedicated to Pot Limit Omaha Poker players, with a tournament that attracted 576 and awarded more than $100,000 in prizes.

The third ECOOP II tournament awarded $516,300 in prizes to the winning online poker players among the 1,721 who participated in the event. This was higher than the half a million dollars guaranteed in prizes.

The fourth ECOOP II tournament, once again devoted to Pot Limit Omaha players, awarded $165,000 in prizes.

The ECOOP II tournament series continues at Titan Poker until June 1st, when it culminates with a tournament finale with $1,500,000 in guaranteed prizes.

Titan Poker players are able to buy-in directly to each of the ECOOP II events or win their seats at online daily qualifying tournaments, which start at just $2 + $0.20.

This is the second European Championship of Online Poker staged by Titan Poker. The first ECOOP series was staged in December 2007 and exceeded expectations by awarding more than $2,500,000 in prizes.

Gamma Labs to Boost Testosterone At World Series of Poker In Las Vegas

A New York company says Testosterone
is just the lucky charm competitive poker players need at the card table. Casino giant Harrah’s Entertainment signed an agreement with West Babylon’s
Gamma Labs, maker of the boosting testosterone pill, to participate as a 2008 World Series of Poker sponsor in Las Vegas. The tournament takes place
at the Rio(R) All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas from May 30 through July 14.

Gamma Labs will highlight their newly released testosterone booster product, Gamma-O Plus Pomegranate, as an official sponsor of the WSOP. Gamma-O Plus Pomegranate contains Gamma-Oryzanol, an extract from rice bran oil which encourages the body to produce more testosterone, and pomegranate extract which has been shown to dramatically decrease the risk of prostate cancer. Gamma-O increases mental acuity, focus, and balance - precisely the skills that are needed to excel at the challenging game of poker.

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MansionPoker launches WSOP Mania poker tournaments

MansionPoker has announced the addition of WSOP Mania poker tournaments which provide members with further chances to win a coveted seat into the Mansion WSOP Mania Super Satellite tournament - worth $320 each.
The latest scheduled tournaments at MansionPoker.com to award guaranteed tickets into the Mansion WSOP Mania Super Satellite include the $1 + $0.10 Turbo Feeder tournaments
held daily at 18:30 and 21:30 BST, and the $10 + $1 Mansion WSOP Mania Daily Final; both of which award 3 Super Satellite tickets guaranteed. The daily Midnight Madness event
also provides another opportunity to win a seat into the Super Satellite of the year.

The Mansion WSOP Mania Super Satellite is one of the most exciting online poker tournaments of the year which takes place on Sunday June 15 2008 at 19:00 BST, with a
buy in of $300 + $20 and a guaranteed prize pool of 20 Packages - each worth an astounding $16,000.

Every package awards winning players at MansionPoker to take a seat at the world’s greatest Poker event: the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Based in Las Vegas, Nevada,
winners will be lucky enough to pit their poker wits against other enthusiasts and top professionals such as last year’s winner Jerry Yang and MansionPoker.com’s very own Marc Goodwin.

Unlike other online poker rooms, MansionPoker has ensured that their seats are guaranteed. The company looks forward to sending some of their quality players to join in the prestigious event and have a shot at the prize money as well as the kudos.

New Poker Game Introduced to Las Vegas

Royal Hold ‘em

A new type of Texas Hold’em poker has been given the green light by the Nevada Gaming Commission, and will soon be seen at the tables in Las Vegas.

Royal Hold’em puts a new spin on the classic game of poker. Following the same rules as Texas Hold’em, the main and significant difference is that Royal Hold’em is played with just 20 cards in the deck. Only cards of value 10 and above - the face cards - are used. WIth just 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace in the game, all the hands dealt have potential.

The new structure of the game means that most hands are played to the flop and there’s a much higher chance of getting a Royal Flush. The game is fast-paced and action-packed.

Another game currently in the pipeline is No River Hold’em, played with up to 10 players. Each player is dealt three hole cards, instead of the usual two, and the other main difference is that there is no river card dealt. The flop contains just two community cards.

Poker has a huge following around the world, both online and offline, and the appearance of new variations shows that the poker world is booming. The addition of new poker games is a great development and only serves to highten the excitement of this popular game.

Seminole Hard Rock Casino To Hold $3,000 Charity Poker Tourney

Poker is growing in popularity. The bigger it gets, combined with its growth within an area, dictate how much casinos will be able to charge for high end tournaments. In Florida, the casino gambling expansion has brought out some of the biggest gamblers.

This weekend, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, will be holding the biggest poker tournament ever in the state of Florida. The event is a $3,000 buy-in Texas Hold’em tourney.

First prize for the tournament could top the $125,000 mark. That will depend on the amount of interest the tournament sparks. The payouts will be based on the amount of entries.

$600 of each entry is going to the house. That is a particularly high number. In other ares where these types of tournaments are run, the house takes anywhere from three to eight percent. The $600 is twenty percent of the entry fee.

The tribe claims that this number is high due to the amount that must be paid to charity. Seventy percent has to go to charity when running a tournament such as this. There are 210 seats available for the tourney.

Proceeds from the event are going to the Miami Beach Health Foundation. The high fees are not a problem for most gamblers since the money is going to a good cause.

“I would mind if the casino was keeping all the money, but if it is going to charity, who cares. $125,000 is still a nice payout for a tournament win,” said Bill Triscol, a South Florida resident who is planning on playing in the tournament.

The Hard Rock is hoping this is just the beginning of the big time tournaments. They are planning on bringing a World Poker Tour event to the Hard Rock in the future.

Binion’s Gambling Hall to Host Second Annual Binions Poker Classic

Binion’s used to be the absolute center of the poker world back when poker wasn’t the international phenomenon that it is now, the Binion family actually ran Binion’s Horseshoe, as it was called back then, and the World Series of Poker was held there every year all the way through 2005. Nowadays, the WSOP is a multi-million dollar operation hosted at the Rio and Binion’s is left scrambling to grab some of the summer poker attention focused on Las Vegas.

To that effort, last year Binion’s introduced the Binion’s Poker Classic, a summer poker tournament series designed to attract players who don’t have quite the bankroll to play the WSOP. Unfortunately, they are also now competing in this space with the Venetian Deep Stack, The Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget, the 2008 Orleans Poker Classic and, to some extent, the Bellagio Cup and it’s WPT championship event. Needless to say, the summer poker schedule in Las Vegas is packed, but Binion’s distinguishes itself with history and the Poker Hall of Fame, giving players the chance to toss some cards under the watchful gaze of some of poker’s greatest legends.

Now in its second year, the Binion’s Poker Classic gets underway today with the $100 Casino Employees tournament and wraps up on July 7 when the $2,000 Championship Event kicks off. During this five-week span there will be 43 events covering a multitude of buy-ins and versions of poker. Satellites will be running regularly at Binion’s for the larger buy-in events.

Comments (0) May 28 2008

Canadian Student Turns Freeroll Win into Top Prize at Titan Poker’s Madrid Open

Titan Poker, the largest poker room on the iPoker Network, presented talented poker player Greg Metzak with a cheque for 40,000 Euros (more than $61,500) this week at the Eurocity Poker Tour (ECPT) in Madrid. Greg, a 23 year-old psychology student from Canada, won his seat to Madrid at an online freeroll tournament staged by Titan Poker exclusively for its top VIP Players.

The skilled poker player was one of 66 players sent by Titan Poker to the ECPT Madrid Open, an exclusive tournament sponsored by the popular poker room at the Casino Gran Madrid, about 30 kilometers outside the city center. Poker enthusiasts from across the globe flew to Madrid this week for this exciting event.

For Greg Metzak, it was not only his first ever experience at a live tournament; it was also his first ever trip to Europe. Despite this, he succeeded in defeating experienced and professional poker players to claim the first prize of 40,000 Euros. He said: “Thanks to Titan Poker, I have had a week in Madrid and now 40,000 Euros - who could ask for more?”

Despite his outstanding victory, Greg plans to initially keep quiet about his success to his friends and relatives in Canada. He added: “I think I am going to wait until I get home and when people ask how it was, say ‘well, you know…poker’s a tough game…anything can happen…’

Titan Poker player Ingo Nassall from Germany finished in second place and took home a prize of 23,000 Euros.

A full report on the Eurocity Poker Tour Madrid Open has been posted on the Titan Poker website.

In addition to the ECPT Madrid Open, Titan Poker regularly awards players with seats to the world’s most well-known poker tournaments, such as the Aussie Millions and Various European Poker Tour events. It will be sending players to the World Series of Poker 2008 in Las Vegas and the Asian Poker Tour in Manila later this year. At the end of the month, it will also host the European Championship of Online Poker II (ECOOP) where skilled poker players will compete for a share of $3,600,000 dollars.

GSN has Yet to Order more High Stakes Poker Episodes

WPTE’s Contract with GSN Expires May 24

High Stakes Poker, which once spent four seasons as the top-rated show on GSN, has yet to put in an order for more episodes. Although President and CEO of Poker PROductions Mori Eskandani confirmed that GSN has not yet contacted his production company for new shows, he wouldn’t rule out that GSN would never buy more High Stakes Poker episodes again.

According to Eskandani, that could happen as soon as tomorrrow or a decade from now. If GSN wants new shows, he said they will produce them. He reiterated that just because GSN has yet to place a call to Poker PROductions for new episodes in the last few months, it doesn’t mean that they never will.

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Keith Wintermans Wins First World Poker Tour Canada Event

With a field that boasted some of the top Canadian poker players the Coast-to-Coast Poker Championships kicked off World Poker Tour Canada’s inaugural season last weekend at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, BC.

“The sport of poker has long been growing in Canada, fostering poker fans and creating world-class poker professionals. It was only a matter of time before WPT offered a tailored tour unique to Canadian poker fans, and couldn’t be more thrilled to finally launch it today,” Steve Lipscomb, WPT Founder, President and CEO.

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Women’s Poker Spotlight: Liv Boeree, New European Ladies Champion

23-year-old Olivia “Liv” Boeree is more than just the new European Ladies champion; there’s an educated astrophysicist behind those darting eyes. Boeree, originally from Kent, became the UK spokesperson for Absolute Poker this past February. Eagar to jump into the poker world, Liv has won several titles in Europe and Las Vegas. Besides her work for Absolute, she has also served as the television commentator for GutShot TV at last year’s WSOP.

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Poker pro offers game tips

SAN MANUEL RESERVATION - There may be no better example that gambling continues to grow as a leading recreation for adults than the poker boot camp on Wednesday at the San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino.

That’s right, a camp for adults to spend $500 for a day of learning from esteemed poker pro Annie Duke.

It was a bill to pay for Josh Woods, a 25-year-old San Bernardino man who has been playing poker in casinos for about a year.

“I was losing a lot of money at poker so I thought, `Why not spend some money to learn that I’d just lose instead,”‘ Woods said.

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Comments (1) May 15 2008

French Couple Travels the World on Titan Poker’s Tab

Titan Poker, the largest poker room on the iPoker Network, funded skilled poker duo Bruno Peyrou and Marise Massabo, from Marseille, France, to fly to Madrid for the Eurocity Poker Open Madrid this May. This is the third time that the couple has flown to a major live tournament thanks to their shared passion for Titan Poker’s online tournaments.

The French couple’s world poker tour began last May when Marise won a seat worth $14,000 to Pokerface 2007 in Las Vegas — and brought her husband along for moral support. A few months later, it was his turn to win them a vacation, with an $8,000 seat to the World Poker Showdown (WPS) Costa Rica in January 2008. This month, Bruno won them yet another exciting poker trip, with a $3,000 ticket to Titan Poker’s sponsored ECPT Madrid Open 2008.

The couple flew to Madrid for this elite tournament, which was staged from the 9th to the 12th of May at the Casino Gran Madrid.

Following their shared poker victories, Bruno said: “I’m very happy to find myself in this tournament in Madrid. Thanks to Titan Poker and a wink to everyone in customer service for all their help. I intend to enjoy myself to the max at this tournament, and… why not go with the wallet a little bit thicker so I can enjoy a few more of Titan Poker’s tournaments here and there.”

Titan Poker regularly rewards its players with seats to the world’s most well-known poker tournaments, such as the European Poker Tour and the Aussie Millions. Later this year, Titan Poker will be sending players to the World Series of Poker 2008 in Las Vegas, and the Asian Poker Tour in Manila. The popular poker room also frequently awards its online players with huge cash prizes. At the end of this month, the poker room will give away $3,600,000 in its second European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP II).

A change to the World Series of Poker main event

The World Series of Poker, poker’s most prestigious event, will kick off in a few short weeks. The WSOP features world championships in various forms of the game, all leading up to the granddaddy of them all, the $10,000 buy-in Main Event.

This year, however, the Main Event will be just a little bit different.

Harrah’s, the operator of the WSOP, with input from the Players Advisory Council, decided to postpone the final table of the Main Event until November 9, 2008 – a delay of more than three months. That’s right; more than 7,000 players will start play on July 3 and battle down to the final nine on July 14 at which time play will come to a stop.

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World Series Of Poker Merchandise to be Broadly Distributed by XP Events

The World Series of Poker just announced it has reached a multi-year alliance with XP Events to broadly distribute WSOP-branded merchandise across multiple retail touch points, including a new WSOP-branded brick and mortar store in Las Vegas, an online shop, and retail kiosks.

Through this agreement, XP Events, a leading retail merchandise management and fulfillment house based in Denver Colorado, becomes the official branded-merchandise provider for the globally recognized World Series of Poker brand.

XP Events will manage the officially-licensed WSOP online store, officially-licensed retail outlets throughout Las Vegas during the May 30-July 14, 2008 tournament, and manage a new Official World Series of Poker retail store, coming soon.

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Strip Poker: IFC to Host Celeb Charity Tourney at Orleans

International Fighting Championship is Putting on the Event to Benefit the Caring Place

When most people hear about the International Fighting Championships, they might think of mixed-martial arts and fighters duking it out. But on May 25 at the Orleans, the gloves are coming off, and the only fight going on will be the fight against cancer.

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World Poker Association Hosts Conference

The World Poker Association is launching their first educational event for their members. It will be held at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, on May 28 -May 29, 2008, prior to the launch of the World Series of Poker tournament that takes place in Las Vegas in July. The conference will be moderated by Mike ‘The Mad Genius of Poker’ Caro, and is titled ‘63 Money Making Tips To Win A Bundle At The WSOP’.

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RECORD REVENUES FOR EVEREST POKER PARENT

With more real money players and soaring revenues, the Taiwan firm Gigamedia, which owns the Everest online poker company, delivered good news to investors this week in releasing its Q1 2008 results.

Gigamedia’s chief executive Arthur Wang re-emphasised the importance of the company’s deal with Harrah’s for high profile World Series of Poker sponsorship by the Everest brand, pointing out that the poker spectacular is beamed into 350 million homes through television coverage.

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PKR to Produce Advanced Poker Magazine for its Players

PKR announced it has signed a year-long deal with Dennis Publishing to produce a quarterly magazine aimed at advanced PKR poker players, with an inaugural issue coming June 2008.

It will be distributed free of charge to an international selection of PKR customers.

The name of the magazine has not been revealed yet. Dennis Publishing already publishes a range of gambling titles, including Inside Poker and Poker Player.

Tim Farthing, commercial director at Dennis, said: “Dennis Publishing has already established themselves as the world’s leading gambling publisher. This perfectly places (us) to bring PKR into the print spectrum as we have a long and successful working relationship with them.”

Simon Prodger, marketing director at PKR, added: “PKR has been a great success in the digital world, and we are pleased to offer our online players more content with this new print magazine. This partnership is a good opportunity to enhance the relationship our brand has already formed with our loyal players and to build on the huge success of our online output.”

Full Tilt Poker Awards Bounties for Busting its Team of Pros

Win Your Buy-in Back Up to $200 for Each Pro You Send to the Rail

Full Tilt Poker started offering its Knockout bounty tournaments recently, but the site has had prices on the heads of its red-named sponsored pros for quite some time. Players have a chance to win their buy-ins back in virtually any scheduled multitable tournament on Full Tilt through this ongoing promotion — which goes along quite nicely with the bragging rights.

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Danish Supreme Court Ruling Encourages Poker Players

After five months of worrying about the future of Danish poker, the game’s enthusiasts finally have received some good news. The Supreme Court in Denmark has decided to bring up the case where the question is: Should tournament poker in private clubs be legal in Denmark or not? The second highest legal body in Denmark, its Landsretten, decided to vote against legalisation, and after an appeal put together by Frederik Hostrup and the Danish Poker Federation, the Supreme Court is ready to handle the case.

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Poker’s Top Asian Pros Eye Top Plum at APT Manila

Manila, Philippines - The top professional poker players with Asian heritage are aiming for nothing less than the top prize at the upcoming Asian Poker Tour Philippine leg this coming May 27 to June 1.

Korean-born Steve Sung, Vietnam-native Quinn Do and Vietnamese-American Nam Le are all hoping to be the last man standing at the finals table of the 2008 Asian Poker Tour’s first leg to be held at the Dusit Thani Manila Hotel. The three poker pros of Asian-descent will duke it out with over 400 other pros for a chance to win the first prize chunk of the guaranteed prize pool of US$ 1 million.

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Comments (2) May 14 2008

Titan Poker’s Nine-Man Delegation Spices up the Salzburg Cup

Popular online poker room Titan Poker sent a delegation of its top players to compete in the historical city’s newly renovated casino.

Titan Poker, the largest poker room on the iPoker Network, sent a delegation of nine players to compete in the Salzburg Poker Cup 2008 in Salzburg, Austria. The internationally renowned online poker site was represented at the tournament, which took place in April, by players from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

The players received all-inclusive prize packages, including accommodations, flights, buy-in to the tournament’s Main Event and a side event.

Nelson Rodrigues, from Madeira, Portugal, was excited to have the chance to celebrate his 27th birthday with fellow Titan Poker players at the tournament welcome party. He has been playing poker for three years and this was his biggest live tournament to date.

Fellow player Frederic Arhanchet, from France, was the Titan Poker star of Salzburg, finishing in 19th place with a win of 930 Euros. Chris Royston, from the U.K, who is a rookie at poker with only six months experience, said that it was “my first time in a casino this week!”

All players were able to experience the joys of Salzburg as they explored the city’s numerous historical sites. The city is not only famous as the birth place of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but also for its scenic beauty. Titan Poker’s players were also treated to a private beer tour and an exclusive lunch.

A blog listing the experiences of Titan Poker’s players was posted on its website.

Titan Poker is sponsoring the Eurocity Poker Tour Madrid Open this May and has sent players to the Aussie Millions and various European Poker Tour events. In addition to awarding players seats to the World Poker Showdown in the Dominican Republic in May, Titan Poker will host the European Championship of Online Poker II (ECOOP) where skilled poker players will compete for a share of $3,600,000 dollars.

Ontario man wins $1 million at poker tournament in Barcelona

An Ontario man who captured the million-dollar first prize at a poker tournament in Barcelona on the weekend says his only goal was to win enough cash to put his granddaughter through university.

Jack Hinchey of Oshawa says his 10-year-old granddaughter Victoria was on his mind throughout the competition, where he faced off against some of the best poker players in the world.

After winning the World Poker Crown, Hinchey came home Sunday night and was greeted by friends and family.

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Gold and Kardashian Host Celebrity Poker Fundraiser May 17 at Playboy Mansion

2006 World Series of Poker main event winner Jamie Gold and Khloe Kardashian from E!’s show ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ will host the third-annual Celebrity Poker Tournament and Casino Night fundraiser for the Urban Health Institute, at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills California on 6pm Saturday, May 17. Over $50,000 worth of prizes will be awarded to top finishers in the tournament.

The Urban Health Institute (UHI) provides direct care, medicine and medical equipment in response to natural and man-made disasters

The buy-in for the tournament is $1,500, which includes general admission; general admission alone costs $500. Other casino-style events will also be available, as well as a silent auction which includes items such as a private poker lesson from Gold.

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Historic ’03 hand changed poker forever

Can you believe it’s been five years since Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Tennessee playing in his first live tournament, arrived in Las Vegas as an unknown and left as a poker icon?

Qualifying online at Pokerstars for only $39, Moneymaker participated in the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event, outlasted 838 other players and inspired generations of poker enthusiasts. This aptly named young gentleman fulfilled the dream of every aspiring poker player to become WSOP world champion.

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Introducing DuplicatePoker.com. Play U.S. Legal Skill-based Poker. Get $3 Free to try.
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Online Poker: FTOPS VII Heads-Up Event Goes to “GoToChurch”

Shortly before the seventh installment of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series began Full Tilt Poker’s management announced the addition of the shootout tournament format to their site’s offering. The new format also allowed the site to begin offering large field heads-up tournaments and that’s exactly what Event #8 of FTOPS was.

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ESPN to Televise Enhanced Two-Day World Series of Poker Final Table Format on November 11

May 1, 2008 — ESPN’s exclusive coverage of the 2008 World Series of Poker® Presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light will feature a new enhanced format for the Final Table. The final nine players of the Main Event (the $10,000 World Championship of No-Limit Texas Hold’em) will compete on November 9-10 instead of the originally scheduled date of July 16. ESPN will televise coverage of the Final Table in a two-hour program on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 9 p.m. ET.

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Full Tilt Poker to Offer $25K Heads-Up Tournament

Players looking for ways to spend their Full Tilt Online Poker Series winnings, or those just looking to sit down for one-on-one matches with the pros, now have the option of entering the Full Tilt $25K Heads-Up World Championship.

The event will take place on Saturday, May 24th and Sunday, May 25th, just a week after the FTOPS VIII concludes, and will go down as the most expensive online buy-in tournament in history.

The event kicks off at 3 p.m. EST on the 24th and will be hosted by 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Champion Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. Team Full Tilt stars Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer and Jennifer Harman will also be in attendance, while the biggest names in live and online poker are expected to flock to the record setting tournament.

The maximum field size will be 64 players, with ‘no byes’ rules, so players are encouraged to buy-in early to avoid being refunded. If the field doesn’t sell out, the max will drop to 32 or 16 entries, if necessary. If the $25K buy-in is a little steep, Full Tilt is offering a couple of $500+$35 qualifiers at 3 p.m. EST on the 22nd and 23rd.

PKR Confirm Return Of Poker Festival

PKR, successful online poker room and ‘the future of online gambling’, announced that their Super Series of tournaments will be starting this year on June 14.

As well as the usual array of tournament games one would expect at a poker festival, PKR have devised some new hotly-anticipated structures such as the Terminator; the Deep and Steep and various Bounty tournaments.

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Poker Strategy: When NOT to Raise

As a beginner to poker, one of the fundamentals of the game you learn is this : if you have a big hand and feel you probably have the best of it, raise. It is a crucial principle to play by, but as you develop as a player, you will realise there are a number of spots in which it best to go against this advice. Our example by which we will illustrate this principle will be of interest; if you agree with the reasoning, you will see that even the highest rollers can make a costly mistake.

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World Poker Tour Loses $2.8 Million

America’s World Poker Tour (WPT) Enterprises Incorporated has reported a ten percent overall increase in quarterly revenues compared to the same period last year but a $2.8 million net loss for the quarter.

The Nasdaq-listed firm stated that online gaming revenues decreased from $600,000 over the first quarter of last year to $200,000 for the most recent period, reflecting the lower levels of player activity on the Cryptologic network versus the site operated by WagerWorks in 2007.

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Qualify Cheaply for Three Absolute Poker Main Events

Absolute Poker is giving its players a chance to get into its three flagship tournaments much more cheaply with its Triple Header promotion. Players can win $1,796 worth of tournament entries for as little as $6.60.

The $200+16 Triple Header tournament runs every Monday at 20:30 ET. Seats in the Saturday $150,000 guarantee ($500+$30), the Wednesday $100,000 guaranteed pro bounty ($1,000+$50), and the Sunday $75,000 guarantee ($200+$16) are awarded as a three-pack for every $1,742 in the prize pool. (A bit more than one out of every nine entrants will snag the three-seat package.)

Players can qualify for the Triple Header for $6.60 in a satellite wherein one seat is guaranteed.

Comments (3) May 12 2008

Titan Poker, the largest poker room on the iPoker Network, is currently staging a Super Satellite Series, offering players a chance to win seats at the land-based Asian Poker Tour (APT) Manila tournament, which will be staged at the Dusit Thani Manila hotel in Makati from May 27th through June 1st, 2008. Participants in the Manila tournament will compete for an unprecedented One Million Dollar prize pool, the largest ever offered in Asia.

Winners of the Super Satellites, continuing every week through May 12th, will receive a prize package worth $6,000, including buy-in to the Asian Poker Tour Main Event and money for flights and spending. Titan Poker will reward four packages to Manila at every Super Satellite.

The popularity of poker in Asia is growing rapidly and APT tournament officials expect to attract at least 400 poker players, amateurs and top professionals, from around the world.

Manila is the first stop of the 2008 Asian Poker Tour. After Manila the tour continues in South Korea, Macau, and Singapore.

Titan Poker is sponsoring the Eurocity Poker Tour Madrid Open this May and has sent players to the Aussie Millions and various European Poker Tour events. In addition to awarding players seats to the World Poker Showdown in the Dominican Republic in May, Titan Poker will host the European Championship of Online Poker II (ECOOP) where skilled poker players will compete for a share of $3,600,000 dollars.

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Comments (0) Apr 29 2008

Best Online Poker

THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP OF ONLINE POKER II (ECOOP II)

Get set for the SECOND European Championship of Online Poker THIS MAY!!

The European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) is a thrilling online tournament series where skilled poker players compete for a share of millions of dollars over an action-packed ten days.

Our first ECOOP in December 2007, was an incredible success - and we gave away $2,500,000 in just TEN DAYS!! Click here to see the results of our first ECOOP.

The ECOOP II will run from the 23rd of May to the 1st of June - and it’s set to be bigger and better than ever before!! This second championship is going to award an astonishing $3,600,000!

What’s more - play for your place on our special ECOOP II leaderboard and you could also win a seat in a $50,000 Freeroll!! i All top 100 PLAYERS will be eligible to play in the $50,000 GP Freeroll, which will be staged 72 hours after the Main Event. Check your place on the leaderboard here.

DON’T MISS OUT - START PLAYING TODAY FOR YOUR SHARE OF $3,600,000!!

Titan Poker

Comments (1) Apr 22 2008

Titan Poker, the largest poker room on the iPoker Network, sent a delegation of seven players to compete in the European Poker Tour (EPT) in San Remo, Italy, this month. The internationally renowned online poker site was represented by players from a range of countries, including Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

All players were awarded a prize package worth $10,000, which included $2,500 for flights, accommodations, and spending along with free entry to the 4,700+ 300 Euro Main Event.

Daniel Walker, winner from the U.K, said that “the player that busted my pocket Jacks with his Queen-6 was Anthony Lellouche, who played extremely well and went on to finish in second place. He definitely put my chips to good use! Thanks again for organizing a great week - I had a spectacular time!”

Another Titan Poker winner, Kenneth Tomming, from Denmark, had the chance of a lifetime to play at the same table as professional poker player Daniel Negreanu. In addition to San Remo, Kenneth has also won a seat to the upcoming Titan Poker sponsored EuroCity Madrid Tournament in May.

Titan Poker regularly awards its players with seats at the world’s most well-known poker tournaments, such as the Aussie Millions and various European Poker Tour events. Titan Poker will also be sending players to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the World Poker Showdown in the Dominican Republic later this year. In May, Titan Poker will host the European Championship of Online Poker II (ECOOP) where skilled poker players will compete for a share of $3,600,000 dollars.

Comments (1) Apr 21 2008