Pokerstars to Air High Stakes Cash Series on Fox
March 29, 2010
The world’s biggest online poker room, Pokerstars has finally made the move into marketing the brand one step further, announcing that they are going to be holding a high stake real money game series televised on the Fox network.
The game will be free for Pokerstars professionals to enter but will allow professionals from all the online poker sites to enter the high stake game which will feature blinds of $200/$400 and an ante of $100.
The online poker room recently posted on their blog that they had not made the step over into high stake televised action as yet and that they were considering the move, now creating the series been named ‘Big Game‘.
The action on the series will definitely leave poker fans rushing for their remotes, with the minimum buy in for players wishing to take part being set to $100,000.
To increase the popularity of the series within the online poker world, Pokerstars have announced that they are going to run qualifers for the series, allowing non professional players the chance to get into the action via a strict audition process that will see only players who make it into the top 200 places within the qualifying rounds being able to submit an audition tape to the casting crew at the online poker room.
High stakes poker is something that Pokerstars is already building a name for its self within, with Pokerstars professional Daniel Negreanu hosting a high stakes show already for the brand, named Did You Know.
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Lock Poker Decide To Leave Cake Network
March 26, 2010
Lock Poker, an online poker room that currently resides within the nest of the Cake Gaming Network has this week announced that they are to leave the network with Merge Gaming Network the targeted location for their new home.
The US friendly poker room was only forged 24 months ago but since making a stand for the acceptance of US based online poker players at a time when the US government were clamping down on the playing of online poker, making it harder for US based players to play online, the site has seen their members base grow significantly.
Founder of Lock Poker, Jennifer Larson who also carries the title of Chief Executive Officer spoke out about the decision, saying that their new home within the Merge Gaming Network was perfect for the site, saying that the network that they were leaving for was “aggressive, innovative and progressive in design and development”.
The move means that members of the online poker site will now be offered a wider range of gaming selection with the addition of Badugi and Triple Draw Poker been added to the lobby, something that the Lock Poker brand thought was in the interest of both the site and its members.
Anthony Taylor, the Chief Executive Officer for Merge was also happy to comment about the newly forged partnership, saying “We are thrilled to be working with such an innovative and experienced marketing group. This deal will bring even more liquidity to the network and aid our continued growth.”
Tony G Challenges Isildur1 To Appear At Big Game IV
March 26, 2010
News has hit the media that Party Poker are looking to host Big Game IV, a tournament that will be based on a 48 hour cash game over a 3 day period.
The tournament will feature a twist from the previously popular games as this year the game will feature “evictions” which will be decided by players around the table being able to nominate their rivals to be replaced with the player with the most votes been replaced every 2 hours.
With the news that the tournament is set to take place April 11th until April 13th, Party Poker professional Tony G has spoken out in a recent blog post that he made on the sites official blog, saying that he is challenging Full Tilt Poker phantom player ‘Isildur1′ to appear at the tournament.
Tony G said in his post on the poker blog that he is even willing to pay for the flights, hotel and to stake the player for the length of the game, meaning that all Isildur1 has to do is agree to feature in the game.
The aim of Tony G was to call Isildur1 out into the public eye but with Party Poker still wary that the player could still be looking to keep his identity a secret, they have moved to say that should the player want to remain secretive, they would allow him to do so and would use any power they have to keep his identity out of the public eye.
We’re not sure that the player will take the bait on the call out by Tony G but should he do so we believe that we can expect to see some sort of disguise used as the mystery surrounding the player is seen as one of the players best fear factors to other high stake players.
When Isildur1 broke into the online poker scene at Full Tilt Poker a number of months ago, rumors were been circulated about the player been a possible ex professional player who has recreated their image.
The list of players who are looking to enter into the Big Game IV schedule is growing quickly, with some of pokers biggest names placing their name into consideration to participate in the game.
Will Isildur1 respond to the call out by showing his attendance or will the player ignore the attempt to bring him into the public eye in order to retain his air of mystery?
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Are Big Online Poker Rooms Phasing Out Affiliates?
March 22, 2010
There seems to have been an influx of action within the online poker rooms that have had thousands of online poker affiliates pushing readers of their websites to certain online poker rooms in exchange for a deal that benefitted both the affiliate and the poker room.
The actions that have been recently recorded seem to be looking to reduce the rewards that online poker rooms such as Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker are looking to offer to online webmasters for their role in referring new players to their sites.
Pokerstars who are known for being the worlds biggest online poker room, were the first to reduce what they were willing to offer to their affiliates, altering the number of points that players had to create in order to qualify for such deals as the CPA deals that were available.
Having decided to alter the number of Pokerstars Player Points that are required but more than double the amount that was originally stated, affiliates have reacted in a fashion that even the online poker room couldn’t have expected.
Affiliate webmasters have vented their anger surrounding the decision within the very close nipped online poker affiliates community with many friends deciding to remove Pokerstars from their sites completely in order to divert their traffic to alternative online poker rooms or simply dropping the site further down their recommendation rankings in order to deter players from opting for the world’s biggest poker room.
With Pokerstars seemingly looking to reduce their rewards for the affiliates who they have had serving them for a number of years, many turned their back on the site in favour for Full Tilt Poker, the worlds second largest online poker room.
Well low and behold it didn’t take long for Full Tilt Poker to take the same steps as their rival, placing a cap on the poker rakeback deals that affiliates had signed up to at time of setting up their account to promote the site.
The cap means that the affiliate will now only earn a maximum of 3% of the rake that their referred players create at the site during their time at the tables.
Why Full Tilt Poker decided that they were going to follow the poor decision that Pokerstars had already made is beyond anyone here at ThatsGambling.com but we can confirm that the CPA deals that the site offers are remaining the same.
It seems that as the Online Poker craze continues to peak, online poker rooms are looking to create new custom solely through promotions that they generate themselves, such as sponsoring tournaments and promotions as well as breaking into the television programming network.
Does it still pay to be a poker affiliate? Yeah it does but that could soon be a thing of the past as the online poker rooms that have grown with our help seem to look to find ways to phase us all out….
Tournament Heist Mastermind Caught By German Police
March 22, 2010
Its been one of the biggest poker news stories in months that a live poker tournament that was been hosted by a casino hotel in Berlin as part of the German aspect of the European Poker Tour was held up by a group of armed robbers who stormed the building leaving staff and players shocked.
The group of five men burst into the casino while the tournament was still playing, just at the time that the prize funds were been escorted to the casino’s main holding safe for protection of the winnings.
Armed with rifles and hand guns the robbers bust into the venue and demanded the prize money from staff, amounting to over $1.3 million.
Recent days have seen members of the gang begin to be brought into police custody and today we can reveal that German police are proud to announce that they feel that they have captured the fifth member of the gang, believed to be the mastermind behind the robbery.
German police issued a statement saying that they had caught the 28 year old Lebanese man on Sunday night and they are sure that the suspect is the final member of the armed gang as well as the man who created the plan behind their heist.
The incident took place on March 6th, proving to be very similar to the heist that was depicted in the box office film ‘Oceans Eleven‘ where a group of robbers planned a heist from a casino.
Investigators who have been working with the German police are still trying to locate $358,000 of the stolen prize money and will continue to search for the funds until their leads dry up surrounding the matter.
The tournament continued after the raiders took off with the winnings and with over 1 million Euros paid out for first place, the field were determine to try to outlast each other, with American online poker player Kevin MacPhee taking the title and the first place payout.
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EPT Berlin Poker Tournament Suspect Released
March 15, 2010
News that the European Poker Tour Berlin Poker tournament was robbed is something that was revealed into the poker media very quickly after a group of robbers bust into the tournament location and made off with a haul believed to have been worth more than $1,000,000.
We can reveal that a suspect who was been questioned in regards to the robbery by local police has been released without charge due to a lack of evidence that places the suspect at the scene of the robbery.
Police are looking to locate a fifth person who is believed to have been the member of the gang that was carrying the firearm that was used to threaten the staff into revealing where the money was located.
Details about the robbery are leading officers to think that the robbery is somehow related to an insider due to the fact that the robbers hit the location within the 2 minutes that the funds were been transported from the main safe, any earlier and they would have had to leave the venue empty handed.
Questions are been asked regarding the matter that the tournament sponsors Spielbank Berlin had placed unarmed security onto the protection of the funds, with many feeling that security guards who are handing such amounts of money during its transportation should at least have a member of the team that carries a side arm.
Maybe this will lead the tournament organisers of poker tournaments all over the world think about how they are going to better protect both players and prizes from what seems to be a growing trait, holding up poker tournament locations.
If your interested in seeing a little of the CCTV footage from the incident, you can do so here.
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