Tag: online poker

Bodog Releases New Tournaments and Cash Game Features

Last Updated on

Bodog has decided to give their players a few special treats in the holiday season, and they will start with a few different tournament options for multi-table tournament players, and also some cash game variations that should bring a smile to quite a few people’s faces.  Bodog Poker has always been one of the online poker sites that are very open to change, and creating an excellent all around atmosphere for players, and this will do just that.

For starters, they have decided to offer a few different tournament types such as Shootout events, where players will have to win their table in order to move on, Knockout tournaments in which players will receive a bounty for knocking out each player throughout the event, and Heads up tournament which will feature only heads up play.

Now let’s take a look at the ring game options that have changed.  The creation of “anonymous tables” should definitely draw some interest, as it allows players to not be tracked by their opponents, and they will also have no idea who they are up against.  It makes it so that the poker is purely based on your own skill.  Bodog has also made it so that you can play more tables at one time.  While players are only allowed to play four cash games or sit-n-go’s at a time, they have made it so that players can play more multi-table tournaments now.  In total, they will allow players to have up to 20 games tables going at once between the three types of games.  Last but not least is the addition of “rabbit hunting”, which is where players can see the next card that would have been dealt after they fold their hand.  This is something that is added to help players see if they made the right decision to fold.

One last addition that’s interesting, is the option for players to play Blackjack on the poker side of things.  It will be an in-client game so that players can keep themselves entertained between hands or on breaks from tournaments.  You will be able to fund the Blackjack game right from your online poker account as well.

America’s Cardroom Offers $15,000 Secret Santa Jackpot

Last Updated on

The holidays are already in full swing over at America’s Cardroom, with a number of festive promotions such as the $15,000 Secret Santa jackpot. This is no ordinary jackpot either, in that it isn’t only available to one lucky winner. Rather every single player at America’s Cardroom stands to earn up to $15,000 all for themselves in cash and prizes. Better yet, the Secret Santa jackpot promotion is running at America’s Cardroom all month long throughout December 2011 and January 2012.

It’s a simple jackpot to accumulate. Just collect Frequent Player Points (FPPs) by playing at America’s Cardroom’s real money cash ring game tables throughout the two-month promotional period. Every time you hit a milestone number of points, you earn a prize. After your first 2,500 FPPs you earn a $5 prize, and then another $5 after you earn another 2,500 points. From there you earn your next prize, a mystery “Special Surprise” for 3,000 FPPs. From there the prizes and the points requirements keep increasing, each prize added to the prizes you already earned ahead of it.

America’s Cardroom awards players 1 FPP for every penny in rake they generate at the cash game tables.

The best part of all of this, perhaps, is that you don’t even have to give up your FPPs to collect the jackpots they earn you. You keep the prizes and the FPPs, giving you the opportunity to reap additional value from each of those FPPs in the future.

This is but one of the many holiday related promotions happening this winter at America’s Cardroom. Return here soon to find out about more.

Martin Staszko Added to Team PokerStars

Last Updated on

Martin Staszko is fresh off of an incredible run at the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event, in which he outlasted almost the entire field and ended up finishing in second place.  While he was not able to win the event, he was one card away from sending the eventual winner, Pius Heinz, home; and winning the event himself.  A few weeks back, it was reported that Pius Heinz was added to Team PokerStars Pro roster, and there had also been rumors that Staszko could be added to the roster as well.  These rumors ended up being true, and Staszko will now represent the online poker site starting this upcoming week at the European Poker Tour’s Prague event.

Staszko is an impressive story in the world of poker, as he actually didn’t start playing the game until 2007.  It took until January of 2010 for him to pick up his first live tournament cash, when he finished just outside of the final table at the European Poker Tour’s Deauville Main Event.  Staszko finished 11th there, and picked up a pay day of $50k for his efforts.  After that he pulled in a 10th place finish at the Unibet Open a few months after, but hadn’t cashed any events after that until this year’s World Series of Poker.  He had a few cashes at the WSOP, but the one that everyone was focused on was the $5.4 million pay day that he got for his second place finish in the Main Event.

He didn’t have an easy task though, as he was actually in third out of three when they were down to only him, Pius Heinz, and Ben Lamb remaining.  He was up against the Player of the Year in Lamb, and a player in Heinz who was playing incredibly well, and already had another final table at this year’s World Series.  Staszko is 35 years old, and he was up against the young and aggressive style of the two players listed above, but he never blinked in his efforts, and sent Lamb home on the fourth hand of the three handed play.  All in all, the decision to add Staszko to their pro roster was a good one for PokerStars.

Carbon Poker Giving Double VIP Points in December

Last Updated on

The Carbon Poker 2X VIP Points offer that started in October and ran through November continues in December 2011 with 2X VIP December.

To receive the double VIP points at Carbon Poker this December, you must be playing on Mondays and/or Tuesdays between December 1 and 31, 2011. All games are eligible, whether cash games, multi-table tournaments or SnG tournaments. The promotional period each week is 00:00 server time Monday through 23:59 server time Tuesday.

In order to be eligible for the double VIP points for playing during those hours you must first opt-in to the promotion by visiting your Carbon Poker player admin and clicking the button that says Activate Promo. All 2X VIP points earned during that period will be credited by 02:00 server time the following day.

As before, these bonus points can be used for purchases at the VIP store, for tournament entries and for VIP points for cash exchanges; they will not, however, be used by Carbon Poker to determine which VIP tier to place you into for the month of January 2012. This only applies to bonus points, however. The regular VIP points you earn during these promotional period do count toward the tier you’re placed into the following month.

In related news, Carbon Poker is also reviving its new Fat Stack, Slim Stack promotion for the month of December. Starting December 2, players can enter two new types of tournaments that are rake free. What’s more, buy-ins are only $2 and $5. Both buy-ins are available for weekly Fat Stack tournaments, with 25K/50K starting blinds and a $1 million starting stack, and Slim Stack tournaments, with 0.5/1 starting blinds and a 10 chip starting stack.

Pokerstars 10th Anniversary Extras

Last Updated on


Yesterday we brought you word of two of the latest additions to the PokerStars 10th Anniversary festivities: Ring Game Leaderboards and the $10K High Roller tournament. But PokerStars has also released several other promotions under the heading of 10th Anniversary Extras. These extras are: $10K Class Freerolls, Ten Cent Trivia Tournaments and special deals on certain VIP Store items.

The $10,000 Class Freerolls take place December 10. There are 10 of them in all, one for each year of PokerStars history. Each boasts a $10,000 prize pool and offers a prize package worth nearly $16,000 into the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Entry into these events is determined by the date each player first signed up for their PokerStars account.

From December 1 – 18, players can enter 100 different $0.10 Trivia Tourneys, so-named because they are password protected by the answer to a PokerStars trivia question in the form of a year. Before players can pay the 10 cent buy-in to register for the event, they must first correctly guess the four digit password to that tourneys trivia question. Each $0.10 Trivia Tourney has a $1,000 prize pool making for a total of $100,000 up for grabs in this promotion.

Finally, as of December 1 players visiting the VIP store will notice an influx of special edition items honoring PokerStars’ 10th Anniversary–caps, t-shirts, card protectors and more–all of which will be on sale for an attractive discount. And all of which are expected to sell out fast. Find these items listed under the category “10th Anniversary”.

Pokerstars Adds Three More Events to 10th Anniversary Schedule

Last Updated on


Pokerstars has just added three more promotions to its 10th Anniversary schedule, among them: Ring Game Leaderboards and a $10K High Roller Tournament.

From November 23 to December 2, PokerStars will be keeping leaderboards for its cash ring game tables. There are four leaderboards in all, covering Micro, Low, Medium and High stakes play. Players in Fixed Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit games are tracked on the same leaderboard with each other according to these stakes ranges, as well as players in Hold’em, Stud and Omaha.

PokerStars is giving away $1 million total in this contest, awarding $50,000 daily to the top VPP earners in each 24-period in each stakes range. The Micro stakes leaderboard has a $5,000 daily prize pool with $500 going to first place. The Low stakes leaderboard has a $10,000 daily prize pool with $1,000 going to first place. Medium stakes players will vie for a $15,000 prize pool daily with $1,500 going to first place. And High stakes players will vie for a daily $20,000 prize pool with first place getting $3,000.

Additionally, players in the top 1,000 of each leaderboard will win a seat in a December 11 freeroll with a $500,000 prize pool. Only one freeroll ticket will be awarded per player, regardless of the player’s number of top 1,000 leaderboard finishes.

Meanwhile, Poker Stars tournament players can sign up for a December 18 high rollers tournament with a guaranteed $500K prize pool and a $10,300 buy-in. There will be no satellites or qualifiers into this event: direct buy-ins only. Although observers from the cyber-rails will be perfectly welcome. The action starts at 3:30 pm ET.

Luvin Poker Holds Regular Freeroll Frenzy

Last Updated on

Luvin Poker has just released details on a new $2K first depositor freeroll as well as a frenzy of daily freeroll tournaments with both cash and points buy-ins.

The freeroll action at Luvin Poker starts with $2,000 worth of first depositor freerolls for first-time players at the site. All you have to do is register for a new membership at Luvin Poker (only one account allowed per player) and make your first deposit to fund your new player account. After that, Luvin Poker will instantly credit you with entries into four exclusive freeroll tournaments with prize pools of $500 each. Luvin Poker schedules two of these freerolls per month, so qualifying deposits must be made within two months of their start dates.

Additionally, Luvin Poker offers daily freerolls for all its players. Monday through Saturday the site hosts freerolls with $5 prize pools four times per day. And on Sundays the site hosts a Freeroll Frenzy with a new $5 freeroll starting every 2 hours. There’s also a special $100 Ladies Only Freeroll scheduled for the first Monday of each month.

What’s more, there are also Luvin Poker Player Points Freerolls. At 1:30 pm Monday through Saturday players can enter a $10 freeroll for 50 player points. At 3:00 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, players can enter a $50 freeroll for a 150 player points buy-in. Every Sunday is a $100 added tournament that you can win a free voucher into via ongoing SNG qualifiers for 25 player points.

888 Poker Spearheads Super 2012 Event Qualifier Action

Last Updated on


888 Poker was the first the online poker site to offer qualifiers into the upcoming 2012 Super Poker Event of Europe. The event, which takes place in Dublin, Ireland between February 25 and 26, expects to attract 4,000 players for the largest playing field ever in a live, land-based poker tournament event in Europe. It features a €1.2 million estimated prizepool based on a buy-in of €300 + €48.40. Players can get in on the action for much less, however, through satellites and qualifiers at sites like 888 Poker.

Nightly, 888 Poker is hosting satellites for only a $2 + $0.20 buy-in. This event includes a $2 rebuy opportunity for 1,500 chips, available to anyone who busts out before the break, followed by $2 add-ons of 4,500 chips from then on. These Step 1 satellites take place every night but Thursday night at 19:25 GMT and on Thursday nights at 18:25 GMT. These events offers 1 seat per $22 in the prize pool in the weekly Super Poker Event 2012 qualifier that takes place on Thursday nights at 19:10 GMT for a direct buy-in of $20 + $2. These seat-only qualifiers award entries worth €340 each into the Super 2012 tournament for every $480 in the prize pool. They do not, however, cover any travel or accommodation expenses.

Players interested in skipping the qualifiers and buying in to the Super 2012 tournament direct can do so through Moneybookers/SKRILL. Professional poker players already registered for the 2012 Super Poker Event of Europe include John O’Shea, Andy Black, Liam Flood, Nicholas Newport, Dara O’Kearney, Sam Holden and Jean-Paul Pasqualini.

Major Poker Network Finally Covers Loss of Online Poker in the US

Last Updated on

In a bit of interesting news, one of the largest TV networks out there today has finally covered the loss of online poker in the United States.  They did this by talking with an online poker player who doesn’t have the same type of reputation as some of the biggest in the game do, such as Phil Ivey, or Phil Hellmuth; but instead went with a player who is a mid-stakes player, but one that still makes his living off of playing the game of poker online.

Since Black Friday, many TV networks have shied away from covering this topic it seems, but it is one that is huge among not only players, but also fans of poker as well.  The idea behind this story is that it takes a look at the issues that were caused at Full Tilt Poker, and gives you the insight of how a player on their site went through the situation.  The story is called “Did Poker ‘Ponzi’ steal my rent?”, and featured a player named Shawn “Jordankickz” Busse, who is a young online poker pro who had made over $300k from online poker in the past three years.

The main situation is that not only has Shawn lost his livelihood, but he also has around $60k still stuck on the massive online poker site, Full Tilt Poker.  The idea behind the story is to help point out that while many of the larger names in online poker have made moves to other countries, a lot of players who play this game as a full time job are left here without being the play the game that they love.  While Busse was making around $100k a year, he chose not to leave his life and family, and was left with around 35,000 other Americas who were surviving by playing online poker.

This loss of income for players, and also the fact that the US Government could also potentially be losing a ton of money in tax revenue are a few things to consider; but we are also left with many people who don’t have jobs at this point, and are now out there looking for work.  Realistically, only time will tell what the outcome of Black Friday will be, and if or when online poker will be allowed in the United States again.

Three More Poker Stars 10th Anniversary Offers Revealed

Last Updated on


At the start of this month of November, 2011 we announced Pokerstars upcoming 10th Anniversary and the promotion to honor it, make up of 10 smaller promotions to be revealed a little at a time as the actual anniversary in December nears. At the time, the only two of these promotions revealed was a giveaway for 2012 PCA seats and a special Sunday Storm with a $10 million prize pool, $2 million of which is going to first place. Now, Poker Stars has revealed three more of its 10th Anniversary offers: a World Record Tournament, an Easy $10 Reload Bonus and a Sunday Storm Special.

The World Record Tournament is a $250K guaranteed event taking place December 4 at 12:30 ET. For only a $1 buy -in players can enter the event and vie for the top prize of $50,000. Already, Poker Stars holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest online poker tournament playing field, with 149,196 participants in 2009. Now the site is trying to top itself with a 150,000 playing field.

Meanwhile, between November 14 and 30, players can get a 10% reload bonus on deposits of up to $1,000 for up to a $10 bonus. Just use the bonus code “10” when making your deposit to be credited the bonus. What makes this reload bonus so easy is that to clear those funds for withdrawal you only need to earn 1 VIP Player Point, or VPP for each dollar.

And the Poker Stars Sunday Storm taking place on December 11 will be a special $1 Million Guaranteed Special Edition with a buy-in of $11, a prize pool of $150,000, and an additional set of $100 bounties for eliminating many pro members of Team PokerStars.