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

Poker group goes all in with $1-M tourney in RP

MANILA, Philippines—If morality were a poker game, then organizers of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) have just gone “all in” with their chips, whipping up a cash-rich tournament with a total pot of $1 million.
The tournament, which kicks off Tuesday at the Dusit Hotel in Makati City, offers a top prize of $280,000 with a buy-in of $2,500. And while organizers do admit that the tournament is still a form of gambling, they are scrambling to position poker into a particular niche in the sporting world.

“Obviously, poker is made up of 70 percent chance, 30 percent skill,” said Christopher Parker, the director of the Asian Poker Tour (APT).

“But as far as the APT is concerned, we’d like to channel it through sports [and that means] focusing on the 30-percent skill rather than on the gambling aspect, the roll of the dice.”

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Bodog Announce Miniature World Series of Poker

Bodog have announced a cheaper option for those not jetting off to Vegas next month for the World Series of Poker – a series of online tournaments replicating the 25 Hold‘em events of the festival for a fraction of the price.

At the culmination of the series’ 25 tournaments, a final tournament will be hosted on July 10 awarding three seats to the 2009 WSOP Main Event. This makes Bodog the first site to offer seats to next year’s tournament.

The event will run from May 30, starting off on the same day as the $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Hold‘em event with a $100+$9 PLHE tournament.

‘We’re happy to offer those not able to attend in person an affordable and exciting online alternative,’ says Alwyn Morris, Morris Mohawk Gaming Group CEO.

Buy-ins ranging from $10 to $100 means that the festival – dubbed the ‘Mini-SOP’ – is excellent value for all players. It would cost nearly $100,000 to enter all the Hold‘em events of the WSOP but for only $821 a player could enter all of Bodog’s events.

The site will run a Tournament Leader Board which will determine who is awarded the seats to the 2009 Main Event.

Poker Book Review: Barry Tanenbaum’s ‘Advanced Limit Hold ‘em Strategy’

Professional cash game player Barry Tanenbaum’s Advanced Limit Hold ‘em Strategy: Techniques for Beating Tough Games marks an important contribution not just to that category of texts devoted to limit hold ‘em, but to the greater overall knowledge of poker strategy and theory. While of particular benefit to middle- and high-stakes LHE players, the book has a lot to offer to players of other games, too. With its many helpful lessons and careful, clear presentation of difficult concepts, Advanced Limit Hold ‘em Strategy deserves a place alongside other must-have books for the serious poker player.

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David Singer Wins Richest Online Heads-Up Poker Tournament

The online poker world was buzzing after Full Tilt Poker, a leading industry giant, announced their inaugural $25,000 buy-in heads-up championship – the most expensive online poker tournament ever.

The field consisted of pros and high-stakes players; sixty-four highly skilled players including 22 Full Tilt-sponsored professionals and Team Full Tilt members. David Singer, environmental lawyer turned pro poker player, took down the top prize by beating several players in successive heads-up matches.

Other notable finishers included CardRunners.com instructor Brian ‘Stinger’ Hastings who came 3rd and American poker professional Andy Bloch who came 4th. Both won $168,000 for their high finishes.

In addition, Full Tilt offered sweat tournaments whereby ordinary players could enter a rather more modest $5.50 heads-up tournament running in tandem with the $25k event. These acted as places to wager on the outcome of the main event – the winner scooping a share of a $5,000 added jackpot.

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy Signs On To Become an Ultimatebet Pro

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy has inked a deal with Ultimatebet.com to become an “UltimateBet Pro”, joining the likes of Shawn Rice, Scott Ian, Gary “Debo34″ DeBernardi and Mark “P0ker H0″ Kroon.

“JohnnyBax” is an online poker legend, making the transition from being a stockbroker to dominating the virtual felt in mid-2004. He is a highly respected member of the online poker community - for Ultimatebet, the signing is a no-brainer. Everyone these days seems to be signing with Full Tilt Poker, so for Ultimatebet to land “JohnnyBax” is a major coup. They are obviously hoping that his presence will help to win back some of the online poker community, who turned their backs on the company after the Absolute Poker scandal (Ultimatebet and Absolute Poker are owned by the same company, Tokwiro Enterprises). There are many in the community who will certainly be surprised (and angered, I’m sure) that Josephy has signed a deal with Ultimatebet.

Josephy is one of a handful of players in the world who can claim to have over one million dollars in online tournament cashes and one million dollars in live tournament cashes. “JohnnyBax” has over $1.3 million dollars in total “live” cashes, with his biggest score coming at the 2006 Ultimatebet Aruba Poker Classic, where he collected over $440k for his second place finish. He is also a WSOP bracelet holder, having taken down the $1500 Seven Card Stud event in 2005 for $192k.

Play Texas Hold’em. Get up to $100 Free with First Cash Deposit.
Skill-based games are U.S. legal. DuplicatePoker.com

MANSIONPOKER.com Extends WSOP Mania!

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.com 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.com 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.

Comments (1) May 27 2008