Category: Online Poker

Last Updated on January 16, 2014

For the month of January 2014, Poker Stars is holding a Free $20+$14 offer. Just make you first deposit ever into a new Poker Stars account by January 31, 2014, and as long as your deposit is at least $20, you’ll get a $20 free bonus plus $1 per day for the next 14 days to apply toward any real money ring game or tournament, which you redeem by simply playing that day at any real money ring game or tournament. Just be sure to use the code FREE20+14 when making your qualifying deposit so you’ll be sure to get your full bonuses.

Playing anytime in January of 2014 also entitles you to participate in the January Challenge, a PokerStars promotion that awards $15,000 per day. You can win yourself a share of that daily award by opting in to the promotion with the Star Code CHALLENGE. Then complete the daily challenge and you’ll win a ticket into a Daily Challenge All-in Shootout, a tournament you need not be present to participate in, and which awards $1,000 to the first place winner. In an all-in shootout, all players are automatically placed all-in on every hand until there’s a winner. The more Daily Challenges you complete, the more rewards you can win. Challenges may include playing certain games online or on a mobile device, earning VIP Player Points in certain ways, or making minimum deposits. Complete 10 Daily Challenges and be entered into the Final Challenge All-in Shootout with $100K in added cash value and 10K added in PokerStars gifts.

Last Updated on January 14, 2014

It is now (semi)-official: an online poker bill will not appear on any ballot presented to Iowa voters in 2014, though some hope lingers that such a move could happen as soon as 2015. This from an article released recently in Casino Enterprise Management, which reported on the declaration of Wes Ehrecke, the President and CEO of the IGA or Iowa Gaming Association, when he was interviewed as a guest on a panel for 2014 Gaming Predictions. For the coming year, Ehrecke said, the state’s focus will remain on land-based casino gaming operations.

Part of the problem with getting online poker on the table this session is purely logistical: the typical 100-day Iowa legislative session has been cut by two weeks this year. In the coming year, however, Iowa lawmakers will be watching closely what happens in Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey, the three states where online poker and other forms of gambling have been legalized and launched for players residing within those states. If things go well in those pioneering online gambling states, it may bode well for Iowa’s online gambling prospects in 2015.

The general analysis of this predicament is that it represents the norm we can expect in the short term, as states considering iGaming (as the Internet gambling industry has now been dubbed) will sit tight for a while and see how things play out in these other states before taking any action in their own. So while Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey have helped nationwide iGaming in the long run, some short term collateral danger seems clear and present.

Last Updated on January 14, 2014

With the next Super Bowl almost upon us, Bovada Poker is celebrating with a special themed promotion for its sports-loving fans. It’s called Eyes on the Prize and it promises to award weekly bonuses plus a shot at one of four large screen televisions.

Just play at Bovada Poker’s real money tables and tournaments between January 6 and February 2, and all the Poker Points you earn during this time will count toward a bonus award and entry into a special drawing for the grand prizes.

It starts by opting in to the promotion using the red Enter Now button which can be found on the Eyes on the Prize promotion’s page on the Bovada Poker website. Then get playing.

At the end of each week, get a $10 cash bonus if you’ve earned at least 75 poker points, a $20 cash bonus for at least 150 points, and a $30 cash bonus for earning at least 200 points that week. Over the four weeks of the promotional period, that makes for up to $120 in possible cash bonuses you can earn in all.
Then, you’ll also get entries into that week’s drawing for a 52” TV or your choice of a $1,000 cash alternative. Get 1 entry for earning 75 points in a week, 2 entries for 150 points, and 3 entries for 200 points. From there, you’ll earn an additional entry in the weekly drawing for every 50 poker points you earn above the first 200 points that week.

Bovada Poker’s Eyes on the Prize Grand Prize Drawings will be held January 13, 20, 27 and February 3, 2014.

Last Updated on January 13, 2014

Win a share of $50,000 in prizes in 888 Poker’s The Big Bang promotion, which started on January 6 to and awards a variety of great prizes, including the latest models of the most popular video game consoles and more.

To win your share of this prize booty, play cash games at 888 Poker and earn points on a leaderboard. You earn points from the first 150 hands of each day. To earn points either win a hand after the flop or get to the showdown of the hand. The amount of points you earn each time you qualify depends on the ranking of your hand at the time.

Win with high card and get 10 points, a pair gets 20 points, two pair gets 30 points, 3-of-a-kind gets 50 points, a straight gets 80 points, a flush gets 100 points, a full house gets 150 points, a four-of-a-kind gets 200 points, a straight flush gets 300 points, and a royal flush gets 500 points.

888 Poker is hosting 3 leaderboards for each country or region represented by the following 6 categories: Russia, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, and International (for all other countries).

On January 28 the top players on each leaderboard advance to a Big Bang Final Leaderboard that runs through February 3 and awards a Sony PS4 500 GB with the game Killzone Shadow Fall included to each of the top 3 players, an iPad Mini WiFi 16 GB to 4th through 10th places, a PlayStation Vita 3G with WiFi to 11th through 20th places, an Xbox 360 Console 250 GB to 21st through 30th places, a $100 bonus to 31st through 50th places, a $50 bonus to 51st through 80th places, and a $20 bonus to 81st through 100th places.

Last Updated on January 3, 2014

As the new year gets underway, Party Poker has several satellite tournament series’ running for various stops on the World Poker Tour, including the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic, the WPT National UK, and the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Festival.

The WPT Borgata Winter Poker Festival Satellite Series at Party Poker runs through January 12 and awards $6,000 prize packages that include the $3,500 buy-in for the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Festival main event, 6 nights of hotel and hospitality, and $1,300 for additional travel expenses. The WPT Borgata Winter Poker Festival takes place from January 25 to 31, 2014.

The WPT Fallsview Poker Classic Satellite Series at Party Poker runs through February 9, 2014, and awards $7,000 prize packages that include the $4,800 buy-in for the main event plus $1,500 to apply toward travel and expenses, however you see fit. The next WPT Fallsview Poker Classic takes place February 21 to 24, 2014.

The WPT National UK Satellite Series runs at Party Poker through February 23, awarding $310 main event buy-ins for the event taking place February 27 to March 2, 2014.

Full qualifier schedules are running now at Party Poker that include freeroll entry options giving players the chance to win these packages for absolutely nothing except solid poker playing. There are $1 sub qualifier speed events, rebuy events, and more ways to climb that satellite ladder and win a seat in one or more live World Poker Tour events.

Last Updated on December 30, 2013

In our final installment of this three-part look back over the year that was, we round out the top poker stories of 2013 with these quick bites (in no particular order)

•     World leader in online poker, Poker Stars found itself shut out of the legal U.S. poker market this year, after one debacle after another. First the settlement with the U.S. DOJ, then a 5-year bad-actor clause keeping Poker Stars out of Nevada, then the Atlantic Club rescinded on a deal with the site with no time for PokerStars to form a new deal in time to get one of those few coveted licenses to operate in New Jersey, then an ugly legal battle, followed by a new deal with Resorts Casino that was then thwarted when the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement suspended PokerStars’ application for foreseeable future. And Delaware is doing its own thing. Which leaves PS in the US, SOL.
•     American player Ryan Riess becomes the first player born in the 1990s to take down the World Series of Poker Main event, for an over $8 million takeaway, with poker pro Jay Farber taking the $5+ million runner-up prize.
•     The World Series of Poker launched its WSOP Asia-Pacific, with its first ever stop on the tour taking place in Melbourne, Australia where, among the 11 days of events, was a $2,200 Mixed Event that Phil Ivey won.
•     Billionaire sourpuss Sheldon Adelson came out in force against legalization of online poker, publicly calling for a federal ban on the activity, a call that seems to be getting scant little takers.
•     Poker legend Doyle Brunson turned 80 years old on August 10 of this year, and just a month after landing his 35th in the money finish in a World Series of Poker event. Happy Birthday indeed, Texas Dolly.

 

Last Updated on December 30, 2013

Full Tilt Poker Pays Players Back… Or Starts The Ball Rolling

The launching of legal online poker in Nevada and New Jersey only scratched the surface of the poker news of 2013, one of the other biggest stories of the year being the beginning of Full Tilt Poker’s repayment of U.S. player funds seized back in April of 2011 when the U.S. Department of Justice shut down Full Tilt Poker, among several other online poker sites. Those other sites had already long-since remitted player funds unable to be withdrawn after the seizure, but Full Tilt Poker had yet to catch up. Now it looks like the remission process is underway and players can start to look for the return of their long held-up funds sometimes around March or April of 2014.

888 Poker’s Rise and Party Poker’s Return

888 Poker became the official World Series of Poker sponsor this year, which includes sponsorship of the WSOP APAC (World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific), WSOPE (World Series of Poker Europe), and WSOP Vegas.

Meanwhile, Party Poker hasn’t been available to U.S players for a lot longer than the sites closed down on Black Friday, April 15, 2011. Party Poker closed its own doors to U.S. players 7 years ago. But now its back, in New Jersey at least, in the form of two real money online poker rooms opened with this year’s legal intrastate poker launch in the state, in league with the Borgata, for half the N.J. online poker market share already.

Last Updated on December 30, 2013

Legal U.S. Online Poker Launched

As we get ready to ring in the New Year, it’s a good time to take a moment and look back over the year that was. A lot happened in the world of poker, online and off, in 2013. So much poker news that it’s taking us three posts to review it all.

Of course of greatest interest to the readers of this blog, no doubt, are the strides made this year in legal U.S. online poker. Three states  – Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey – launched their real money online poker games to their residents.

Nevada was first to pass legal intrastate online poker, back in 2011, and the first to implement it, in April, when its first real money online poker site, Ultimate Poker, went live. Later in the year, in September, Caesar’s opened WSOP.com, a site branded after the World Series of Poker.

This was followed by Delaware’s launch of its legal real money online poker offerings for residents of that state. And while its a much smaller market than either Nevada’s which preceded it or New Jersey’s which followed it, it’s one more state on board with online poker legalization, and that’s no small reward, especially to the players living in that state.

After Nevada and Delaware came, in November of this year, New Jersey rolling out its legal online poker sites. Already, just one month after this launch, statistics show over 100,000 New Jersey residents have signed up for real money accounts with these new intrastate online poker sites.

What states will we see pass legal intrastate online poker legislation in the coming year?

Last Updated on December 27, 2013

In celebration of the 2014 New Year, Carbon Poker, on Sunday, January 26, 2014, will be holding a $10,000 value added tournament called the $10K Dollar Frenzy. For this special tournament event, Carbon Poker is adding $10,000 to the prize pool created by players’ buy-ins, which means the actual prize pool will be significantly higher.

It’s called the Dollar Frenzy because the buy-ins is only $1 and there is no fee. Further, that $1 buy-in can be paid in the form of cash, and entry coupon, or VIP Points. The entire buy-in for this event will go into the prize pool. The event starts at 16:00 Server Time.

You can even get in on the Carbon Poker $10K Dollar Frenzy for free by winning your seat at one fo the daily $10,000 Dollar Frenzy Freeroll tournaments. They take place at 19:00 Server Time daily and at each event, 25 seats in the $10K Dollar Frenzy will be awarded. Registration for this event opens 30 minutes before freeroll start time, and only 250 players will be permitted to register.

What’s more, also in celebration of the 2014 New Year, in addition to Carbon Poker’s regular weekly Sunday Big Ticket $100K Guaranteed and Sunday Big $11 – $10,000 Guaranteed events, on Sunday, January 26, 2014 the site will be  adding two more tournaments to the schedule with the same guaranteed cash prize pools. In preparation for these events, Carbon Poker will be holding, on Saturday, January 25, 2014, two Sunday Big Ticket Qualifier tournaments.

Last Updated on December 27, 2013

The qualifier series for the 2014 Aussie Millions is now officially underway at Poker Stars, offering players 8 guaranteed free seats in the Aussie Millions Main Event tournament plus over $10,000 in added value in the form of tickets into series events. Specifically, in addition to those 8 guaranteed main event seats Poker Stars will be giving away in this series a total of $10,464 in free tickets. Here’s how to get yourself one or two of those.

To play the Poker Stars Aussie Millions Mega Satellites, you can either buy-in directly or win your seat in an added value feeder satellite. These events are running nightly before each Mega Satellite starts. The direct buy-in for the Aussie Millions Mega Satellite is $700. There are two of these events currently scheduled. One is on Sunday, January 5 at 4:36 am ET and will award  3 Aussie Millions Prize Packages guaranteed, and the other is on the following Sunday, January 12. 2014 at 1:26 pm ET and will award 5 Aussie Millions Prize Packages guaranteed.

Feeder satellites into each of these events run for the two weeks prior to each event. There is a $5.50 + Rebuy Aussie Millions Mega Satellite Nightly Qualifier that runs Monday through Saturday at 4:30 am ET, 6:30 am ET, 1:30 pm ET, and 3:30 pm ET. At each of these 2 $109 Weekly Qualifier tickets will be awarded. That event, the Aussie Millions Mega Satellite Weekly Qualifier, takes place every Sunday at 3:15 am ET and 12:00 pm ET for a $109 direct buy-in and awards 5 Aussie Millions Mega Satellite seats guaranteed.

To register for any of these events, just go to your PokerStars lobby and find Events under APPT.