Tag: poker

Bodog Cash PerSuit, Win an iPad2

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Bodog Poker wants you to have a new iPad2.  Join Bodog Poker’s new Cash PerSuit promotion and you can win cash bonuses, freeroll entries, and tickets to weekly iPad2 drawings.  Cash PerSuit begins on May 02, 2011 and has three promotional features.  Each week of the promotion there is a bonus to be earned based on how many Poker Points you earn and how many days you earn each level.

Earn 10 Poker Points per day on 4 days and get a $15 Bonus

Earn 10 Poker Points per day on all 7 days and get a $20 Bonus

Earn 25 Poker Points per day for 4 days and get a $25 Bonus

Earn 25 Poker Points per day for all 7 days and get a $30 Bonus

May 2nd-May 8th is Diamond Week; May 9th-May 15th is Club Week; May 16th-May 22nd is Hearts Week; and May 23rd-May29th is Spades Week.  You can earn the bonus each week, but you can only earn one of the bonuses per week.  So if you have 10pts per day for 6 days you can get the $15 Bonus, but if you get 10 Poker Points on the 7th day, you only get the $20 Bonus, not both the 4 day and the 7 day bonus.

You may think it odd that the weeks are named after the suits in the deck and may chalk it up to just Bodog wanting to use the name “PerSuit”.  There is a good reason for the name, however.  At the end of the promotion on June 4, 2011 there is a $10,000 freeroll.  The only way to get into that freeroll is to make a flush on a Texas Holdem ring game.  The flush has some stipulations.  The flush must be in the suit for that week.  Remember the weeks of the promotion are named after the suits in a deck of cards.  You only need to use one card of your hole cards to make the flush, but the hand must go to showdown for a ticket to the freeroll to be issued.  yes, a lot to remember, but it is a $10K Freeroll.

Here are the terms and conditions for the freeroll tickets:

Tournament runs on June 4th at 7:15 PM ET. When a player receives a qualifying flush, they will receive a Tournament Ticket to the $10,000 Freeroll via email by 12:00:00 PM ET the next day. Players can only receive one Tournament Ticket for the $10,000 Freeroll. To qualify for a Tournament Ticket, the flush must be the same suit as the suit of that week (ex: during Diamond Week, a player must receive a Diamond Flush for the hand to qualify), at least one hole card needs to be used, the flush must occur in a Texas Hold’em Cash Game, the hand MUST go to showdown and the hand does not have to be the winning hand. The Tournament Ticket is non-transferrable and can only be used on the $10,000 Freeroll.

Finally, on to the coveted iPad2.  The iPads will be awarded in drawings each week of the promotion.  To get a ticket to the iPad2 drawing, a player needs to earn 10 Poker Points per day for 4 days of the week.

Diamond Week May 2-8, 2011 One iPad2 will be awarded

Club Week May 9-15, 2011 Two iPad2 will be awarded

Hearts Week May 16-22, 2011 Three iPad2 will be awarded

Spades Week May 23-29, 2011 Four iPad2 will be awarded

iPad2 Terms and Conditions:

For the purposes of this promotion, a day is from 12:00:00 AM ET until 11:59:59 PM ET. Every Monday of the promotion, names will be drawn for an iPad 2. To be eligible for the weekly draw, players must earn at least 10 Poker Points per day for 4 days of the week. Draw winners will be notified via phone within 24-48 hours of the draw being held. Draw winners will have a choice to receive either a Bodog branded iPad 2 or a $250 bonus. If chosen, the $250 bonus will have standard rollover: 3x Sports / 20x Casino / 3 Points per dollar.

Take heed.  This promotion is not automatic.  You must OPT-IN to participate in the promotion. To opt into the promotion, simply go to the Bodog Poker home page and click the Cash PerSuit banner located down the left side menu bar.  Enter your Bodog information and you will be signed up for the Cash PerSuit promotion.

Contradictions between the U.S. DoJ and Full Tilt Poker

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While Full Tilt Poker players from the US are starting to get antsy waiting to withdraw their funds from their poker accounts it doesn’t seem like it will happen any time soon. The press releases from the US DoJ and Full Tilt Poker are full of contradictions.

Mean while Full Tilt Poker players outside the US are reporting problems withdrawing funds using the popular MoneyBookers ewallet. One player from the Netherlands was offering to trade $50k on Full Tilt Poker for $40k on Moneybookers.

With the WSOP just a few weeks away, players are desperate to get their hands on their money so that they can make their summer plans for Las Vegas. Pokerstars, another online poker site that was indicted by the US, began processing withdrawals yesterday. You can find more information here.

Here are the latest statements by the DoJ and Full Tilt Poker

From the US DoJ:
No individual player accounts were ever frozen or restrained,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in the press release. “Each implicated poker company has at all times been free to reimburse any player’s deposited funds. In fact, this Office expects the companies to return the money that U.S. players entrusted to them, and we will work with the poker companies to facilitate the return of funds to players.”

From Full Tilt Poker:
“Unfortunately, there remain significant practical and legal impediments to returning funds to players in the immediate future,” reads a press release from Full Tilt Poker. “As a result of the recent enforcement action, there exists no authorized U.S. payment channel through which to make refunds; Full Tilt Poker has no accounting of the millions of dollars of player funds that were seized by the government; and the government has not agreed to permit any of the seized player funds to be returned to the players.”

Become a Poker Activist

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Since Black Friday, the online poker forums like ours have been breaking all-time traffic records. It seems that anyone with accounts on any of the Big 3 have wanted to come and share their story. While it is great to see that so many people are motivated, there are, in fact, better ways to spend the energy.

It is nice to hear stories and know each of us are not alone in our struggle to figure out where to go in this New World Order, but that does not bring about change. Many of the things that the Big 3 were doing were wrong and illegal, by the letter of the law. They knew of these laws, and knew the whole time that they were breaking them. In order for things to recover, governmental regulation will be necessary to pick up the pieces.

But, how do our legislators know that we, as a public, want this to happen? How do they know that our outcry is so large, that so many people are affected? I doubt too many spend their days idly browsing the numerous poker forums on the net.

Click Here for Online Poker Sites Accepting Players from the US

Since the indictments, it has been reported that over 70,000 letters have been sent to various governmental officials related to the changes in the poker world. While it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that your voice does not count, those who wrote those letters did not. What did their actions accomplish? Simply visit any of the Big 3 and you will see that have all reclaimed their domain names, that the DoJ has promised to help facilitate cash-outs. This shows just how much power a vocal group can have.

If you want to see changes, if you want your Congressman to know what you think on the issue, write to them! That is the only way that Congress can know what you want, can ever hear your voice. Take a few minutes and take what you were about to write here at Holdem Poker Chat and make it so your voice will be heard by those who can make a difference.

Sportsbook and Players Only Leaving the US Market

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Just when things were starting to settle a bit we have more online poker sites choosing to leave the US Market.

We just learned this information out and wanted to share it with all of you ASAP. Both Sportsbook.com and PlayersOnly.com are going to cease accepting U.S. players and traffic as of May 1st, 2011.

Existing players with accounts created prior to May 1st, 2011 will still be able to wager, deposit, and withdrawal. However no new accounts will be able to be created from U.S. customers. So basically it’s open an account before the end of the month or you’ll never be able to. This one hurts online poker players because both of these poker sites have great banking options and both are Mac compatible.

Post Black Friday Online Poker Deposits – Is it Safe?

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It has now been over a week since the DoJ seized the bank accounts and domain names of Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus. Panic struck the online poker world, US players found themselves unable to play at their favorite rooms, unable to access their money and nobody knew what the future would bring. Since then the dust has settled a bit. Pokerstars and Full Tilt cooperated with the DoJ and got their domain names back. They also promised their US players they would get their money back. Cereus decided to put up a fight and still allows US players to play at their sites although they are unable to either deposit or withdraw.

Meanwhile former insignificant rooms and networks like Bodog, Merge and Cake Poker suddenly became major players in the US poker economy. In little over a week time Merge doubled its player base and both the Cake Network and Bodog gained 30%. Not really a surprise considering the huge amount of American players looking for new rooms where they can play their favorite game.

One question keeps rising and that is: is it safe to deposit? If the DoJ can take out the biggest sites on the internet, then for sure they can reach the smaller sites. Having money stuck on Pokerstars is bad enough, nobody is waiting for more money to be stuck on another room. Will the DoJ come after the other remaining US rooms?

Click Here for a List of US Accepted Online Poker Sites

The case built around the Big Three is based on the testimony  of one of their former processors. Australian citizen Daniel Tzvetkoff is a 27 year old entrepreneur who made millions processing deposits and withdrawals for the major US facing sites. This made him millions but it wasn’t enough for him, he started scamming his very own customers; the poker sites. The sites found out about this soon enough and sued Tzvetkoff and even ratted him out to the authorities when he was in Las Vegas for a conference in April 2010. Tzvetkoff was arrested and faced 75 years in jailtime. This convinced him to cooperate with the US government and his inside information on how Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Cereus handle their money proved invaluable to the DoJ and lead to the actions taken on April 16. Ironically, the people that ratted Tzvetkoff out are facing the same charges he did when he initially got arrested. Tzvetkoff is currently in witness protection and is said to reside in the New York area and is probably unable to ever return to his home country, Australia.

The lack of action taken against the remaining rooms that are open to US players tells us that Tzvetkoff didn’t have any dirt on them. If he did, the DoJ would have brought them down in the same run. Obviously it is impossible to know where the DoJ is up to but it appears that the smaller room have escaped their radar for now. They have nothing on them or they are going after the big fish first in case that can easily drag for years. With Lock Poker, Bodog  and Intertops offering Quicktender, and Usemywallet it is still very much possible for the US player to fund their online poker accounts. Sports Interaction Poker on the Cake Network still facilitates eCheck deposits. There are still plenty of options left to play the game played by millions other Americans within the borders of the United States.

But again, the golden rule in gambling counts: Only play with money that you can afford to lose. If in an unlikely event the DoJ freezes funds again, it might take a while before you get your money back.

Exit Bobby’s Room Enter Ivey’s Room

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A few days back Daniel Negreanu made an interesting tweet on his twitter account @kidpoker. ‘Pretty amazing that Bellagio lost ALL of its hi limit action. Players banded together and moved the game to Aria due to poor treatment.’ This caused quite a stir in the poker community since Bobby’s Room in the Bellagio  used to be the home of the high stakes action in Las Vegas since it opened. What’s wrong with the Bellagio and what is the Aria anyway?

The Aria is a new hotel casino which opened his doors last year and is located right next to the Bellagio. Unlike other Vegas casino’s the Aria doesn’t have a theme. Instead it is a high tech hotel which incorporated a lot of technology in its design and even won a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification, the biggest hotel ever to do so. Pretty impressive for a hotel/casino built in the Nevada desert where environmentalism seems to be the last thing on people’s mind.

After Daniels tweet more people raised their voices and it became clear why the Bellagio lost their players and the Big Game. According to the players, the low comps, low level of service and rude floor people of the Bellagio have been an annoyance to the players for a long time. When the Aria opened their own high stakes room called Ivey’s room, named after Poker pro Phil Ivey, it was an easy switch. The Aria provides their high rollers with food, rooms, calls players when their seat is open and the setup of the room is much nicer. The Aria also allows the highest game running the be seated in Ivey’s room where as the Bellagio always refused to let any game below  $400/$800 in Bobby’s Room.

The WSOP always brings a lot of poker players into town for the summer and fills Las Vegas poker rooms with action at all stakes. This year however might very well be different because of the recent events on Black Friday. The Big Three online poker sites, Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus traditionally provide a lot of the online qualifiers for the WSOP. With no US qualifiers this number will be significantly lower this year and with that the amount of poker players in town. This will force the poker rooms to compete more then ever for their players.  A full poker room cannot be take for granted anymore. Maybe the Bellagio will see this as well and clean up their act in time to regain the high stakes action this summer.

US Online Poker Pros Moving Abroad

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The crackdown of Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UB on Black Friday took the favorite pastime away from millions of American poker players. Other poker sites such as Lock Poker, Bodog and Cake Poker are working around the clock to provide all US players with a new home.  They are doing a great job, most of the  casual players are happy to play at those sites. Some things are different though, the choice in games offered is lower and the waiting time for some sit and go formats is a bit longer. Does this mean the DoJ actions didn’t have an impact on the US poker players? No, there is a group of players which found itself in serious trouble: the online poker pro.

When we think of poker pro’s we usually picture the high profile players who we see on tv shows like High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark or the Big Game. These pro’s represent the big sites, live the good life and make millions in the process. There is however another complete different order of poker pro’s and they aren’t nearly as visible and high profile as the established pro’s like Doyle Brunson, Tom Dwan or Daniel Negreanu.

These online poker pro’s make their living playing or teaching online poker and they don’t make millions. Instead, they grind out the cash tables and sit and goes all day and most of them make only a modest salary. On top of that, grinding online poker can be a very stressful job. Playing poker is probably the only job in the world where you can end the day with less money then you started with. Variance is the one thing you can’t use when you are depending on your play to pay the rent. Variance is the enemy to the online pro and to limit it they play as many tables as they can, sometimes up to 24 tables.

Suddenly unable to play at the Big Three, they are in serious trouble now. Because they can no longer play the amount of games they used to, they don’t make enough money anymore to pay their rent. Some of these players played professionally for years and have considerable gaps in their resume’s, others decided to drop out of college to play poker full time. Their options are limited: Finding a job in the current economy is very hard, they can’t wait until the US regulates online poker and they also don’t have the time to wait until other sites and networks offer the games they need. On top of that their entire bankroll is currently frozen and they can’t touch it. This bankroll is not only money for them, they need it to make money, it is their livelihood.

Moving abroad has become a viable option for them and a lot of grinders are looking into that option now. Canada is the favorite haven to play followed by Malta. The UK is also amongst the top destinations because online winnings aren’t taxed there. The short term goal for the movers is to regain access to their frozen funds. For the long term they can keep playing at their favorite sites abroad until the US has figured their legislation out. The DoJ’s actions of Black Friday really had an impact on these people that nobody ever anticipated.

Is this a bad thing for poker? Not really. With a lot of these mass tabling grinders out of the way the game becomes more fun again. No longer waiting for the guy who plays more tables then he can handle to finally act and less grinders in the sit and goes means the casual player will most certainly see his ROI improve. People wondered when the next poker boom would be after the Moneymaker boom in 2004. Well, this might be it.

PokerStars Questions Answered

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This is a compilation of information from PokerStars on the recent withdrawal from the United States market.

Statement from PokerStars on why USA players can no longer play for real money:

On 15 April 2011, PokerStars ceased providing real-money poker to residents of the United States and related territories. Real money play and deposits by US residents are strictly prohibited.

An agreement has been reached with the US Department of Justice to allow United States PokerStars customers to cashout their funds. PokerStars will work diligently to expedite those withdrawals. All PokerStars player deposits are completely safe.

Players from the United States can continue to play on our site for play money only. New players who wish to create an account will need to do so using our play-money-only software.

Why USA players could not access the web page or support email

The Justice department seized all the .com name including access to the .com support address. As part of a deal with the Department of Justice, USA players can now, again, access any of the .com sites including the support email address.

Can I get my Money?

PokerStars has reached an agreement with DoJ to refund players their money. Because the recent issue removed all of the old processing structure, at this time, the cashout option in the cashier is disabled.  It will be enabled when a new system is put in place. PokerStars says that getting funds to players is their top priority.

Cashouts that were requested before April 15, 2011 will be cancelled and returned to players accounts. Players can view the cashier, but US players cannot transfer to other players. Any tournaments tickets or T$ will be converted to cash, though PokerStars stresses that this will not happen immediately and asks for patience. At this time, PokerStars has yet to work out a fair plan for monetary consideration in exchange for FPPs.

All US Players who were registered in future tournaments have been unregistered and their buyins have been refunded to their accounts.

Trying to get around the restrictions

I am sure many of you are scheming or hoping there is a way to get around the new order of things. PokerStars has answered some of those common thoughts.

Players thinking they can just change their address to a new country need to know that just changing their address does not allow them to play for real money again. PokerStars needs copies of photo identification as well as a recent utility bill showing your new physical address.  If you can prove that you have left the USA, your account balance will be restored to you, including VIP status and your FPP balance.  You cannot play for real money by just taking a trip outside the country. Accounts are blocked until you show proof of new address.

If you cook up some IP rerouting scheme like a VPN, PokerStars says they will revoke your privileges for trying.

Foreigners traveling to the United States will not be allowed to play on PokerStars while in the US.

US players can buy into PokerStars live events using their real money account balances, providing they have the money already in their accounts. They cannot deposit the money and then use it to play the event.  PokerStars live events like European Poker Tour will proceed as planned. Players from the United States who have won packages to these events will still be allowed to play.

US players are welcome to play for play money if they so choose but will need to set up a new .net account.

Safe Online Poker Sites for US Players

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With the US closure of the biggest online poker sites we’ve been on the look out for who the next big poker sites will be and the list is not as long as some would think. In this New World Order there a few online poker sites that have begun to stand out from the rest. Given all the changes we’ve also decided to add a few new sites to our list of approved poker sites.

Our decisions have been made with safety first in mind. We know that poker players are looking for a safe poker site to play on. With that in mind the first thing we’ve looked into is financial strength. Another major factor in our decisions has been their processing. A poker site may have good funding and good software but if players can’t deposit and withdraw with relative ease then they are no good to anyone. We’ve used every means at our disposal to gather up this information and feel that the sites listed below are the cream of the crop.

In analyzing online poker traffic reports the Merge Poker Network, which includes such poker sties as, Carbon Poker, Lock Poker and Sportsbook Poker are growing the fastest. But if you look at just the US player base at prime time hours it’s Bodog Poker and sites on the Cake Poker Network which include Cake Poker and InterAction Poker that are doing the best. InterAction is the only site we have listed that is currently processing eChecks.

Like you, we do not know which poker site or sites will become the next Pokerstars or Full Tilt Poker. We’re guessing that all of the sites mentioned above will continue to see tremendous growth and that they will all be making adjustments in the coming months to better serve player needs and wants. Make sure to check Holdem Poker Chat for all the latest news and updates on the safest USA Poker Sites to play on.

Absolute Poker and UB Not Backing Down

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The owners of Absolute Poker and UB are not following the lead of Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker. All four online poker sites had their bank accounts seizured along with their domains by the United States Department of Justice. Absolute Poker and UB have decided not to agree with any offer from the U.S. Department of Justice including the return of player’s money because they are insisting that this seizure on their domain name and bank accounts is illegal.

Poker Sites Still Accepting Players from the USA

A spokesperson for Absolute Poker has stated that management is reviewing the offers made by the US government and has retained Blank Rome LLP as United States counsel to provide legal advice. They also have the backing of the Antigua Government if they choose to fight the charges brought against them. The Antigua Government has suggested that Absolute Poker and UB should not concede to the US Government so quickly and wait for the World Trade Organization to intervene.

Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker have signed an agreement with the US DOJ which includes the use of their domain name for returning players the funds that may be in their player accounts. The US DOJ is monitoring the sites so that no new players are registered or deposits taken. Absolute Poker and UB have so far refused to work with the DOJ and are looking for alternative solutions.