Category: Online Poker

Last Updated on March 19, 2013

Next time you get a bad beat at Americas Cardroom you can still walk away from the table a winner, with the site’s Bad Beat Jackpot. At Americas Cardroom a Bad Beat is when you lose with a hand of four 8s or better. In order to qualify as a Bad Beat, both of the player’s hole cards must be part of the bad beat hand.

When the Bad Beat Jackpot is hit, Americas Cardroom awards 30% of the jackpot to the player with the Bad Beat hand, 20% to the hand’s winner, 10% split among the rest of the players in the hand, 10% to the house, and 30% to reseed the next Bad Beat Jackpot.

In order to be eligible to receive a share of the Bad Beat Jackpot should it be hit at a table where you’re sitting is to have played in at least one hand at that table where you made a contribution to the Bad Beat Jackpot. Contributions are made through a Jackpot fee taken from every Jackpot table with at least 4 players dealt in, the amount of the fee dependent on the stakes of the hand. The jackpot fee for stakes of $0.05/$0.10 is $0.10 per hand. The jackpot fee for stakes of $0.10/$0.25 to $1/$2 is $0.08 per hand. And the jackpot fee for stakes of $2/$4 and higher is $0.33 per hand.

The Bad Beat Jackpot is only awarded in its entirety when it is hit at tables with stakes of $2/$4 and higher. When it is hit at tables with stakes of $0.10/$0.25 to $1/$2, only 50% of the jackpot is awarded, and when it is hit at tables with stakes of $0.05/$0.10 only 20% of the jackpot is awarded.

Last Updated on March 18, 2013

 

US online poker is making a comeback, and 888 Poker, for one, is helping see to it. After halting US operations in 2007 after passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) the parent company of the site, Gibraltar based 888 Holdings, has just signed a joint venture agreement with a company called Avenue Capital Group to create the All-American Poker Network, the first legal U.S. based online poker network.

Avenue Capital Group, which is an investment first based in the U.S. and which has the funds it would take to establish the 888 Poker brand in the United States. 888’s Chief Executive Officer, Brian Mattingley, told The Financial Times that this makes the perfect marriage for launching the 888 brand (or re-launching it, really) in the U.S. markets, making use of Avenue Capital Group’s land based casino and entertainment holdings and operations.

The All-American Poker Network will most likely start out by operating on a state level, entering the markets where intrastate gambling is permitted, and then moving onto a federal level when the climate permits. The first poker room to be offered on the new All-American Poker Network will be Treasure Island. This is named for the land-based casino of the same name on the Las Vegas strip, with which 888 signed a recent partnership agreement in February 2013.

888 is also a part of the World Series of Poker deal recently made with Caesar’s Entertainment.

Licenses have not been issued to 888 and Treasure Island yet for this venture to take place, but they expect to be given them at a March 21 hearing before the Nevada Gaming Commission.

Last Updated on March 14, 2013

While Nevada and New Jersey dominate the legal online poker headlines, two more states are considering online poker legislation while two others which such legislation pending turn it down. New York and Texas are the next two states considering saying Yes to legal online poker while Hawaii and Iowa have just said No.

In New York, the Senate Majority Coalition of the state senate added to its 2013-14 budget proposal, co-signed by state senators Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein, a resolution in support of state-authorized intrastate online poker.

In Texas, legislators in that state have already introduced a consitutional amendment to introduce state-authorized online poker, but only if it is regulated according to federal law. Author of the proposal, which would require Texas to enroll automatically in a federal opt-in program permitting legal online poker if federal law ever allows such a thing, is state senator Leticia Van de Putte

Meanwhile, the online poker fight is not doing so well in two other states: Hawaii and Iowa, both of which have let legal intrastate online poker bills fold. In Iowa an online poker measure that got preliminary approval by a full-Senate subcommittee two weeks prior has since failed to clear that committee.

In Hawaii, a bill that cleared the state’s Judicial Committee and its Economic Revitalization and Business Committee was not successful in getting a hearing from the House Financial Committee of the state, with a lack of support from Republicans and Democrats alike cited by local news outlets as the cause of the failure.

Last Updated on March 14, 2013

This March, Juicy Stakes Poker is hosting another Match & Win promo: this time with a $20,000 prize pool up for grabs. Taking place from March 1st through 31st, 2013, the March Match & Win promo splits the month into four weekly contests, running:

•    March 1st thru 8th
•    March 9th thru 15th
•    March 16th thru 22nd
•    March 23rd thru 29th

Each weekly contest culminates in a $5,000 freeroll held on Saturdays, March 9, 16, 23, and 30.

To participate in the Juicy Stakes Poker Mat & Win promo for March 2013 just play as often and for as long as you can at the site, earning Gold Cards as you do so. Match the Gold Cards you earn to the weekly game board and earn prizes. Earn a Club-suited Gold Card (e.g. 5 of clubs) and get a seat in the following Saturday’s $5,000 freeroll.

Players earn Gold Card when they contribute to the rake in any ring game hand, regardless of whether they win, lose or fold out of the hand.

In addition to all this, Juicy Stakes Poker is also awarding $1,000 in cash to any players receiving a Ace of clubs Gold Card anytime in March 2013.

When a player redeems a Gold Card in this promo for a cash prize or a ticket in a freeroll, that Gold Card is removed from the player’s collection.

That’s $20,000 in freeroll prizes and $1,000 in cash prizes plus the regular selection of Match & Win game board prizes that Juicy Stakes Poker offers month after month.

Last Updated on March 12, 2013

On April 7, 2013 at 7:00 pm ET, players can compete for a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool over at America’s Cardroom. Replacing the usual $50K GTD event that runs on most Sundays, on that particular Sunday players will compete for 4 times that amount.

The direct buy-in for Americas Cardroom’s $200,000 guaranteed event is $200 + $15 but players can win their seat in the event instead through a series of satellite tournaments. There are two satellite series, once of which is an entirely freeroll series.

In the Freeroll Series for the $200K GTD, there are 8x daily freeroll Super Satellites (at 6 am, 8 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm and 10 pm) that each advance the top 25 finishers to a 8:30 pm nightly Weekly Final Satellite (as it’s the satellite into the weekly final) also a freeroll, that advances the top 50 finishers to the Weekly Final, another freeroll, taking place at 4:00 pm on Sundays and each awarding 5 seats in the upcoming $200K guaranteed.

Alternatively, players can pay a $0.55 + $0.05 buy-in to enter a Super Satellite starting at 20 minutes past the hour every hour. Each event awards 1 seat in the 6:15 pm nightly satellite at which 1 seat in the $200K GTD event will be awarded. The direct buy-in for this Satellite is $25 + $2.
The $200K GTD tournament starts players out with $10,000 in starting chips and raises the blind levels every 15 minutes. Americas Cardroom offers late registration and re-entry into the tournament during the preliminary 12 levels (or 180 minutes on the clock).

Last Updated on March 7, 2013

With states like Nevada and New Jersey recently passing legal online gambling legislation, sites like Poker Stars and 888 Poker are jockeying for a position in those burgeoning industries and fast. Sometimes at the challenge of land-based gambling establishments in those same markets.

In Nevada, home of the gambling capitol of the country, Las Vegas, the online gambling company 888 Holdings, parent of 888 Poker and other sister sites, just cleared a major hurdle to offering online poker to players inside the state with the recent recommendation for approval of its state interactive gaming license by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

888 Holdings, based in Gibraltar, has stated intentions of working in cooperation with Caesar’s Entertainment Corp which runs, among other properties, Caesar’s Rio Casino.

Interestingly enough, that same land-based gambling giant, Caesar’s, is at the center of another story on the opposite end of the country, in New Jersey, home of the Las Vegas of the East Coast, Atlantic City. There Caesar’s Entertainment is in a heated battle with Poker Stars to dominate the burgeoning online poker market there.

Caesar’s actually approached Poker Stars about purchasing the Caesar’s Rio property in Las Vegas to help the site get a toehold in online poker in that market, but Poker Stars declined, setting the stage for an adversarial relationship in the effort to get a foothold in this other major online poker market. On behalf of Caesar’s, which is one of its clients, lobby group The American Gaming Association filed with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and Division of Enforcement a brief expressing their opposition to the petition from Poker Stars for authorization to operate an interim intrastate online casino.

Last Updated on March 7, 2013

Throughout this entire month of March 2013, America’s Cardroom is holding a $5,000 SNG Race for its sit ‘n’ go tournament players. To participate simply play in as many sit and go tournaments at America’s Cardroom as you can this March of 2013, all the while not only playing for each given SNG’s prize pool but also earning SNG Race Leaderboard points. At the end of the month, Americas Cardroom will pay out the top 150 positions on the leaderboard a share of the $5,000 prize pool.

First place will get $500, second place will get $250 and third place will get $200. The lowest cash prize on the payout structure, awarded to each of the 100th through 150th place finishers on the leaderboard, is $10. Everyone in the top 9 will win at least $100.

Different SNG tournaments award different amounts of points on the March SNG Race Leaderboard. To make it easy for players to know in advance which tournaments offer the most points and how many points are offered by any given tournament they’re interested in, Americas Cardroom hosts a Calculator on its site that players can use. The calculator multiplies the tourney fee by the number of registered players and divides the amount by 5. The result is the amount of SNG Race Leaderboard points you would earn for playing in that SNG.

Notice that performance in America’s Cardroom’s SNG Race Leaderboard is dependent solely on the SNGs you play, regardless of how well you do in those SNGs.