Carbon Poker has an ongoing promotion called All-in or Fold in which a player can shoot for a top prize of $2,250. The promotion is comprised of 10 levels the player must climb through of All-in or Fold Heads-Up tournaments, starting with the first level, costing just $1.10 to buy-in.
You don’t have to buy-in at level 1 if you don’t want to. You could skip to level 2 for a $5.50 buy, level 3 for $10.50, level 4 for $20, level 5 for $39, level 6 for $77, level 7 for $152, level 8 for $300, level 9 for $594 or level 10 for $1,180.
Level 1 is the only level with more than 2 players, with 9 players competing for 1 ticket to step 2 or 3 tickets back into step 1. From then on in, through level 10, players vie for a single seat in the next level and if they don’t make it, can start back at the beginning again, or at whatever level for which they wish to pay the direct buy-in. The winner of step 10 wins $2,250 cash. The runner-up wins a free ticket into step 6.
The rules for an All-in or Fold (AIOF) tournament are simple. You play just like you would any other online poker tournament except you are only given two different betting options each betting round: go all-in or fold and try again (assuming you have enough chips left to do so.)
AIOF tournaments are happening at Carbon Poker all the time.
Earlier today it was announced that a federal grand jury returned indictments charging two gambling businesses and three defendants with conducting an illegal gambling business and money laundering. The two indictments were returned on April 26, 2011 and unsealed today. As part of the investigation, 11 bank accounts located in Charlotte, North Carolina; Guam; Panama; Malta; Portugal; and the Netherlands; and domain names associated with 10 internet gambling sites were also seized today.
The following internet domain names were seized pursuant to court order:
Anyone who tries to access those web sites will be directed instead to a banner that provides notice that the domain name has been seized by order of the court. The banners are expected to be posted later today.
ThrillX Systems, Ltd., d/b/a BetEd; Darren Wright; and David Parchomchuk, both of British Columbia, Canada are charged in one indictment. K23 Group Financial Services, d/b/a BMX Entertainment; and Ann Marie Puig, age 35, of San Jose, Costa Rica are charged in a second indictment.
The indictments and seizures were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations; Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Sparkman of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office; Anne Arundel County Police Chief James Teare, Sr.; and Colonel Terrence Sheridan, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
“It is illegal for internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country.”
“These indictments are the direct result of impressive undercover investigative work by our agents, along with the close collaboration of our law enforcement partners here in Maryland,” said William Winter, Special Agent in Charge of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Baltimore. “The proceeds from illegal Internet gambling are often used to fuel organized crime and support criminal activity. ICE HSI will work diligently to uncover illicit transactions involving these types of financial crimes. Together, with our law enforcement partners, we will disrupt and dismantle organizations that commit these crimes, regardless of their location, whether here in the United States or abroad.”
“Internet gambling, along with other types of illegal e-commerce, is an area of great interest to IRS Criminal Investigation,” said IRS Special Agent in Charge Rebecca A. Sparkman. “Laundering money from illegal activity such as illegal internet gambling is a crime. Regardless of how the money changes hands – via cash, check, wire transfers or credit cards – and regardless of where the money is stored – in a United States financial institution or an offshore bank – we will trace the funds. IRS Criminal Investigation will vigorously investigate and recommend prosecution against the owners and operators of these illegal enterprises to the fullest extent possible.”
According to the two count indictments and the affidavit filed in support of the seizure warrants, ThrillX, a registered company in British Columbia, Canada, with offices in Vancouver, Canada and San Jose, Costa Rica, is a software solutions provider producing online sports book and casino software. BMX Entertainment, based in Limassol, Cyprus, operates six websites that offer online sports betting services.
The indictments allege that the defendants own and manage illegal gambling businesses involving online sports betting. The affidavit alleges that online gambling sites are run by companies located outside of the U.S., while the majority of customers are in the U.S. Internet gambling operators rely upon the U.S. banking system, and more specifically, money-processing business generally called “payment processors,” to facilitate the movement of funds to and from their customers, the gamblers. Typically, an internet gambling operator directs the payment processor to collect funds from individual gamblers which are used to wager with the gambling organization. Those gambling proceeds are transferred to an offshore foreign bank. The internet gambling operator then sends a check or wire transfer from an offshore bank to the payment processor, directing the payment processor to distribute the money to gamblers for their winnings.
The affidavit filed in support of the seizure warrants alleges that Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore, Maryland opened an undercover payment processor business, called Linwood Payment Solutions. Linwood allowed undercover agents to gain person-to-person contact with top managers of gambling organizations to discuss the Internet gambling business, to negotiate contracts and terms of the processing, and to handle the intricate movement and processing of collection and payment data from the gambling organizations to the banks.
The affidavit alleges that on November 12, 2009, a Maryland-based online gambler and cooperating informant confirmed that he/she frequented gambling sites, opened accounts and gambled in Maryland. The gambler agreed to set up online gambling accounts and was provided $500 to place bets on gambling websites. The gambler created an account on a BetEd website and placed several bets. On March 30, 2010, BetEd used Linwood to wire transfer $100 in winnings to the gambler’s bank account.
Linwood allegedly processed gambling transactions since 2009 for BetEd, K23 and other gambling organizations using banks located in Guam and Charlotte, North Carolina. According to the affidavit, between December 2009 and January 2011, Linwood processed over 300,000 transactions worth more than $33 million, including transactions for individuals in Maryland. Between February 2010 and March 2011 alone, BetEd directed Linwood to wire transfer over $2.5 million of collected gambling proceeds to bank accounts in Panama; and between February 2011 and April 2011, K23 directed Linwood to wire transfer over $91,000 of gambling proceeds to bank accounts in Portugal and Malta.
The indictments and affidavit seek the forfeiture of the bank accounts used to process the gambling transactions, as well as domain names of websites used by the defendants to further the online gambling transactions.
The defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for operating an illegal gambling business and a maximum of 20 years in prison for money laundering. No court appearance has been scheduled.
UPDATE: We have it on good authority that DoylesRoom will continue to cater to US players and may even get their domain name back. We’ll keep you posted.
Bookmaker is already back up and running under a new domains and sent this email out to all players;
As you may already know, Bookmaker has temporarily lost the rights to the Bookmaker.com domain. We are confident that in time, it will be returned to us, until then, we have launched a new, temporary site: bmaker.ag.
Despite having lost the domain, none of the business operations have otherwise been affected. Player account balances and information are safe and secure. Effective immediately, players can log on to bmaker.ag. and it’s business as usual.
You likely won’t notice any other changes at all and will experience all the same features and benefits as our original site; just on a new address.
We sincerely apologize if you were affected by our interruption. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please call our customer service department at 1-866-9Bookmaker.
If you live in the U.S. and you used to play at Full Tilt Poker, before they were forced to shut you out, then you probably got an email from the recently giving an update on their plans and progress returning player funds still held up in FullTilt accounts due to the site’s closure of U.S. operations and freezing of U.S. assets.
On Friday the site issued a statement explaining that all player funds in Tournament Dollars (T$) and tournament tickets have now been converted back into cash in the player’s account. Can the players withdraw that cash yet? is the next question.
And the ansewr is: Not yet.
Full Tilt is converting T$ at a 1:1 ratio, or $1 for every T$1. All unused tournament tickets are being converted back into their full original cash value. Ring game tickets that were unused, either in full or in part, and have expired as of April 15 (“Black Friday” to the online poker community) have been credited as cash for the full value of their remaining unused portion.
Additionally, players’ Iron Man and Black Card statuses will be left as they are, even if the players can’t get back onto the site.
But what Full Tilt is still unable to do is refund any of these monies to players’ hands. That, they say, they’re still working on.
While many players have vociferously expressed their displeasure at Full Tilt Poker’s holdup in getting U.S. player funds refunded, what with Poker Stars having already begun the task, Full Tilt Poker pro Tony G. issued a Tweet requesting players give the site their patience as they are doing the best they can.
Bradley Franzen, one of the 11 people charged last month in the case that shut down U.S. operations for Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, pleaded guilty Monday in Manhattan federal court, admitting he illegally helped link gambling companies with banks to process millions of dollars.
The charges that he pleaded guilty to were: conspiracy to commit bank fraud; accepting funds in connection with illegal gambling; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Franzen said he was contacted in 2009 at his Costa Rica home by an Internet poker company owner who wanted to process checks online. He said he agreed to link online poker companies with banks even though he knew it was illegal.
Bodog Poker is now holding $15,000 worth of freeroll tournaments each month. Players qualify for these freerolls using Bodog Poker Points earned through the regular course of play at Bodog Poker’s cash game and tournament tables. Or you can skip the qualifiers and pay the buy-in, also in Bodog Poker Points of course. Either way, twice per month, Bodog is holding these events, and giving away at $7.5K prize pool at each.
The cheapest way to get in is for 25 Bodog points. That’s the buy-in for the 10:40 pm daily freeroll (weekends included), each of which sends the top 15 players to the $7.5K freeroll final. For 200 Bodog points you can get in the 6:10 pm daily freeroll (weekends also included) from each of which 10 players advance to the $7.5K final.
In between these two buy-ins is an event for 150 Bodog points that takes place all day every day. It’s a Sit & Go, of course, six-handed, each one sending its winner to $7.5K final.
Remember, there are no cash entries into these freerolls and their freeroll qualifiers. To earn more Bodog poker points to use toward entry into any of these events, simply play poker at Bodog’s real money tournament and cash tables. Every time Bodog takes a fee from your tournament buy-in or a rake from your cash game pot, you earn points.
On the 2nd and final Saturday of every month, Bodog Poker will hold the $7.5K Freeroll final at 2:20 pm, with the top 20% of its players splitting the $7.5K prize pool, and the winner receiving $1K.
The Party Poker Monthly Million took a seasonal turn recently for Spring, with an additional Spring Million added to the calendar. Now the site is doing the same for Summer with a special Summer Million tournament coming up on August 7, 2011, with another guaranteed $1 million prize pool.
Leading up to the big million dollar event, Party Poker is raining a spring shower (or maybe a summer storm) of qualifiers down on players, with an abundance of different ways to get in on all the action.
First stage sub qualifiers start out with buy-ins ranging from $1 to $47. These are all speed events, and some are rebuy events as well. The qualifiers into which these events lead have direct buy-ins themselves ranging from $27 to $172. All of these are daily events, with the exception of the $55 MEGA Friday Satellite, awarding 10 seats guaranteed. At all of these qualifiers Party Poker vows to award multiple seats in the $1 million guaranteed Summer Million, based either on the number of players entering or the amount of money in the prize pool.
In addition to all these routes, there are also Daily Country Specific Freerolls with the top 10 from each country or region advancing to the Summer Million Special, and Daily Player Points Qualifiers for buy-ins of 10 PPs and 25 PPs, also which lead into the Summer Million Special, another 10-seat guaranteed event taking place on Fridays.
The Party Poker Summer Million has a $640 direct buy-in and operates with a Championship Blind structure.
Quicktender – UseMyWallet issued the following press release today regarding the recent problems with recent transactions. It appears they still do not know the true issue of the problem but do fear that the US bank accounts used to process transactions have been seized by the US Department of Justice.
The management of Quicktender would like to make the following statement
regarding the current situation with UseMyWallet/Quicktender withdrawals:
We have operated a reputable and reliable payment mechanism for US customers
since 2006. Our reputation is important to us, and until recently there has
never been any question that players and merchants would be paid. In order
to achieve this, we have built over many years relationships with payment
intermediaries that share our values of honesty and integrity. In the
jurisdictions from which we offer our services we are proud to be properly
licensed and constituted, and have even worked with US law enforcement on
occasions where criminal activity has been identified.
However, we cannot always predict some of the vagaries of the US
administration. Over the past 2 weeks we have in good faith transmitted
withdrawals initiated by Quicktender account holders to beneficiary bank
accounts in the US. The money left our account in Europe. It was only in
response to increasing complaints from our customers that we recognised
there was a problem, and asked our bank to investigate. It emerges that the
money has been accumulated in our bank’s correspondent banking partners
accounts in the US, and has been frozen. We suspect it is possible that
these funds may be subject to a seizure order by the US authorities. We
would stress that we do not have bank accounts in the US of our own, and
that the funds have left our account Europe.
It is our express intention to ensure that the funds of our account holders
are safe. For this reason we have decided to suspend future withdrawals
until we understand what has happened to the money that has been frozen. If
we continue to transmit bank wires into the US we could find that these
funds also do not reach their ultimate beneficiaries. This would simply make
the problem worse.
We ask our customers to bear with us in these difficult times. Please be
assured that we have always honored our obligations in the past, and that we
will make every effort to overcome these current difficulties. It is not in
the interests of anybody to attempt to financially impact QuickTender
further. These actions may impact the future viability of the company and
the ability of the company to pay its customers. We are assessing our
current exposure, and how best to reintroduce withdrawals safely.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their past
loyalty, and to reiterate that we will take all possible steps to ensure
that our customers money is secure.
In addition to its standard first depositors bonus, Carbon Poker is offering new players another incentive to join the site. It’s a personalized 30-Day Cash Chase, during which it’s you against a leaderboard against the time. For 30 days you play as much and as well as you can and as you do you’ll advance up a leaderboard and earn increasingly rewarding prizes.
How it works is you earn VIP points by playing at Carbon Poker’s real money cash ring games, multi-table tournaments and sit and go tournaments. As you accumulate these points, you climb the leaderboard. As you climb the leaderboard you earn more and more cash prizes, starting with $5 (at 500 VIP points) and working your way up to the $500 mark (for 25,000 VIP points).
The time clock starts the instant you place your first deposit into a real money Carbon Poker account.
You don’t need to opt-in to this promotion to qualify for prizes. Every first-time depositing member is automatically opted in to the promotion. Players can track their progress and view their current VIP points standings through their Player Admin page. Prizes are automatically deposited into player accounts within 24 hours of the close of their 30-day Cash Chase promotional period.
These prizes are cumulative, so as you advance up the leaderboard and qualify to earn new prizes, you still get to keep the prizes you’ve previously earned. You also get to keep your VIP points after your prizes are awarded, getting you started for a lucrative time as a new Carbon Poker member.
Every month, all month long, Lock Poker keeps SnG Leaderboards with cash prizes for the highest performers. All Sit and Go tournaments at Lock Poker qualify for placement on the SnG Leaderboard, including Bounty SnG tournaments and satellite SnG tournaments. Leaderboard points are determined using a formula that takes into account the disparity in tournament stakes and other factors.
There are two sets of prizes awarded at the end of each month’s SnG Leaderboard competition. One distributes a $10,000 prize among the top 25 finishers on the monthly leaderboard. The first place finisher gets $2,000; second gets $1,250; third gets $1,000 and down from there, to the 25th place finisher who gets $100. The other leaderboard distributes a $2,000 prize among those who had the best winning streaks of the month, with the top finisher getting $750; second place getting $500; third getting $350; fourth $250; and fifth $150.
Besides the buy-in, also used to help determine leaderboard points are the number of entrants in a SnG and a player’s final position, with an additional bonus called the Final Placing Bonus applied for the top finishers of each qualifying SnG. Ordinarily, in MTTs (multi-table tournaments), a final table bonus would go out to all the players who made the final table. In the case of SnGs, this has been altered to apply a scaled bonus to the players in a 6-seater or 10-seater SnG based on when they bust out of the event.
Lock Poker leaderboard rules forbid Team Play under a single account.
April 15, 2011 will forever be known in the online poker world as Black Friday. It was on this day that the US Department of Justice seized the American domains of the three largest online poker rooms, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. This put an end to millions of players wagering at these sites. Poker has moved from being a mere source of entertainment to a professional occupation that enables persons to earn a livelihood. In the last few years with the woes of the economic downturn many persons have relied only on playing poker at online sites for the roof above their heads and the bread on the table. In one stroke this was snatched away on Black Friday.
Poker Players Alliance is a body that is lobbying for legalization and regulation of online poker in the United States. After Black Friday, John Pappas its executive director revealed some very pertinent figures. He said 8 million to 10 million Americans play poker online for money. About 50,000 claim to be full-time, professional online poker players, while an inestimable number use online poker to supplement income from day jobs. The three online poker sites that were shut down on Black Friday catered to roughly 70% of the American online poker market.
Hence it is easy to realize that there has been a massive loss of poker income on account of these sites being forced to shut down. There are two types of online poker players that are most affected. One is the player whose substantial savings were lying as deposits at these online poker rooms. PokerStars has initiated the process of refunding the deposits and others will follow, but this will take time. Meanwhile money locked up at the poker sites is money lost. It cannot be mobilized to create other income, not even to play poker at land casinos. One such sad tale is that of Ziethlow. He now sings for donations outside casinos to earn a fraction of what he earlier did.
The other type of online poker player who is badly affected is the one who is physically challenged and hence has little other opportunity for earning a living. ESPN did a story on Brian Ford after Black Friday. Brian is confined to a wheelchair because of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. His work of doing data entry dried up in 2008. Since then he has been surviving on online poker. Online poker has given Ford more than an income. It has given him income with the comfort of anonymity. Now both are lost. It’s estimated that thousands of disabled Americans play online poker daily to supplement their meager disability income.
Loss of income to poker players is the direct fallout of Black Friday. There is considerable collateral damage as well. The closure of these online poker sites will lead to job losses there. Absolute Poker employees in Costa Rica are already beginning to feel the heat. Then there is the poker training industry consisting of poker software, poker books and online classes. There are agents who represent players in getting them the best sponsorship deals. With income to the poker sites drying up, their sponsorship activities will take a hit and affect the representation business as well.
Earlier today it was announced that a federal grand jury returned indictments charging two gambling businesses and three defendants with conducting an illegal gambling business and money laundering. The two indictments were returned on April 26, 2011 and unsealed today. As part of the investigation, 11 bank accounts located in Charlotte, North Carolina; Guam; Panama; Malta; Portugal; and the Netherlands; and domain names associated with 10 internet gambling sites were also seized today.
Bradley Franzen, one of the 11 people charged last month in the case that shut down U.S. operations for Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, pleaded guilty Monday in Manhattan federal court, admitting he illegally helped link gambling companies with banks to process millions of dollars.
Quicktender – UseMyWallet issued the following press release today regarding the recent problems with recent transactions. It appears they still do not know the true issue of the problem but do fear that the US bank accounts used to process transactions have been seized by the US Department of Justice.
Every month, all month long, Lock Poker keeps SnG Leaderboards with cash prizes for the highest performers. All Sit and Go tournaments at Lock Poker qualify for placement on the SnG Leaderboard, including Bounty SnG tournaments and satellite SnG tournaments. Leaderboard points are determined using a formula that takes into account the disparity in tournament stakes and other factors.
The other type of online poker player who is badly affected is the one who is physically challenged and hence has little other opportunity for earning a living. ESPN did a story on Brian Ford after Black Friday. Brian is confined to a wheelchair because of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. His work of doing data entry dried up in 2008. Since then he has been surviving on online poker. Online poker has given Ford more than an income. It has given him income with the comfort of anonymity. Now both are lost. It’s estimated that thousands of disabled Americans play online poker daily to supplement their meager disability income.