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PartyPoker Set to Merge?

The weekend is a time where most online poker players spend hours of their time playing at the virtual tables of their chosen poker room but players at Party Poker and Bwin Poker were given the news that their sites could be set to merge into one poker room.

A merge between the two online poker rooms could see the value of the joint business hit $3 billion, a huge addition to the online poker community.

Initial reports have indicated that PartyGaming Chief Executive Jim Ryan is leading the bid to merge the two companies after having spent time over the past summer weighing up if the merge would be a good move for both companies involved.

PartyGaming online poker division PartyPoker has been a step decline in profits over the last few years after removing themselves from the US based player market in line with the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) back in 2006 but the hit has only meant that their player base reduced from the US rather than worldwide, leaving the brand still one of the biggest online poker rooms on the internet.

Bwin is better known for their betting area of internet based gambling and so a merge between the two companies would mean that they both have alot to offer each other after the PartyGaming owned PartyBet seemed to flop on release.

A spokesman for Bwin told media that the company is not involved in any advanced talks with PartyGaming at the present moment, issuing a statement that said “We are always talking to everyone, because we believe that there will be more consolidation in the sector. (But) we are not in any advanced talks, including with PartyGaming.”

The news of the merger has also lead to the shares of both companies raise in price, with many people looking to buy into the two companies before any deal is conducted in the hope that they will see a good return of investment.

PartyGaming shares saw an increase of more than 4% with Bwin stock also seeing an increase of 2.5% since the news was broken into the international media.

Bwin have been in the news already about a possible merge with another big name gambling company with the stories linking the firm with a merge with 888.com.

At the present moment the news seems to be nothing but rumors but with the PartyGaming company already making steps to improve its business within the online gambling industry, acquiring both the rights to the World Poker Tour (WPT) and capturing the bingo company Cashcade, its thought that they will be looking to capture the Bwin signature in order to place themselves into the biggest names within the online gambling brands in the world.

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Priest Wins $100,000 in Poker Game

A priest has shown that its not all about staying in at home and reading the bible when he’s not conducting a service at his parish.

The South Carolina based priest entered into a poker tournament with his hopes set firmly on taking the $1 million first place prize money with the view to donate it back into the church.

Reverend Andrew Trapp entered the Pokerstars.net Million Dollar Challenge in a bid to help Saint Michael Cathlic Church reach their $5.5 million fundraising objective that they have set themselves to pay for a new facility.

Trapp said that he was also looking to strike a public relations blow for priests all over the world, showing that been a priest is not just about studying the holy book in their spare time.

The assistant pastor said that even if he didn’t win any prize money, he hoped that his participation would remove the tag that priests were boring and that they too could have fun and pass their spare time like everyone else.

The first place payout went to a retired New York Police detective but Trapp took $100,000 from the prize pool that will be untaxed profit and placed straight into the churches fundraising account which already contains $4 million in funds after 4 years of continued fundraising.

In his Sunday Mass the priest told his visitors that God had given him the gift of playing cards and that he was really excited that he could use his hobby and interest to aid the church in their goal to build a new facility for the church.

The church congregation will head to the church on Sunday to see a televised version of the game that saw their assistant pastor cash in the hugely popular tournament.

To get into the final of the poker tournament, Trapp had to finish within the top 10 players in a tournament that saw over 10,000 hopefullys take to the virtual felts. After finishing within the top 10 places the priest then had to submit a two minute audition tape to the tournament organisers to be considered.

Trapp revealed that he knew that if he could reach the top 10 players within the tournament to win a chance to audition for the poker final that he would be a certainty for selection as a poker player priest would attract a huge amount of attention and viewers.

Taking to the live poker table he entered wearing his priest attire, saying that he was so used to wearing it that if he didn’t wear it he would have felt uncomfortable.

The assistant pastor told Pokerstars.net that the fact that he was playing in the tournament was not a gamble as it was at no cost to him nor the church so there was nothing on the line for the priest to lose.

Trapp finished his interview by saying “It’s a question of moderation — just like anything else,” he said. “We believe it’s fine to enjoy a beer or glass of wine, but not to abuse it to get drunk.”

Poker Pro Peter Murphy Aims For Double

Peter Murphy is known for making a public challenge to himself that could be seen by players on Doyle Poker.

The challenge that the player has set himself was that he could deposit $100 into the site and increase his inital stake by 1000%. You could be thinking that this is something that is seem across a huge number of sites but never talked about but this poker professional didn’t believe in giving himself much margin for error, laying down the challenge across a set time limit of 10 days.

The rules were that the player had to earn his money through playing on the site, so no donations or heads up action on real money tables was allowed as well as if he did not hit the target of $10,000 or higher within that time scale he would fail.

The player went on to succeed in the challenge and meant that many players where now ready to take the online poker professional seriously.

Once news travelled of the players success more and more players began to lay themselves the same challenge, with the site seeing an increase of players funding their accounts by $100 and hitting the tables from the off.

Many of those players of course failed to hit the target of the $10,000 with some losing their inital stake within the hour of placing their funds into the site but others successfully managed to do just as Murphy had done.

Most noticably Adrian McCarthy, who saw Murphy playing on the site and thought that he too would be able to echo the professional players successes.

On McCarthy’s attempt, he had no idea just how well he would do from an inital stake of $100, seeing himself win 6 straight victories within the $20 sit and go tournaments which offered a jackpot. This meant that the player had successfully generated more than $10,000, infact earning $35,000 as a jackpot payment from Boyle Poker.

With days left to spare, the player decided that he would look to further raise the bar set by Murphy, entering into a guaranteed $2.5 million tournament in the hope that he would place within the money, after all he had nothing to lose as he had already topped the professionals achievement.

After playing in the $2.5 million guaranteed tournament, McCarthy placed in 6th place, boosting his bankroll by a further $100,000.

This meant that within the time scale that professional poker player Peter Murphy had set himself to make $100 into $10,000, McCarthy had made his $100 into $135,000!

Murphy commented on the success of McCarthy saying that he wanted to offer the player his congratulations but this would not be something that would trigger him into making higher bets in terms of increasing funds by the amount that the player had done.

Now that the achievements seem to have fallen into the hall of fame for players online, Murphy is back and this time he is looking to offer the challenge that he can generate $40,000 from the $100 in a period of 11 days.

Keep an eye out for the result of the challenge but one thing is for sure, anyone playing against Murphy on Doyles Poker will have to tread with caution as he is a man on a mission.

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Jeff Lisandro Wins Third World Series of Poker Bracelet This Year

Winning a World Series of Poker winners bracelet is something that almost every poker player dreams of doing in their time at the tables, happy with taking just one if they could get the opportunity but Jeff Lisandro wasn’t happy with just one, nor was he happy with two instead he entered another tournament and took another victory and WSOP winners bracelet by winning the $2,500 razz event 44.

Backers for the player will have been cheering all the way to the bank with the player betting odds offering a great return as the player was expected to be an underdog and by no means was expected to win his third WSOP bracelet in this years tournament schedule.

Lisandro bypasses a number of known professionals who have taken to the World Series of Poker tournament scene in a bid to build on their tournament cashes in a bid to add more winners bracelets to their collection, many seemingly finding themselves stuck on 2 winners bracelets.

Lisandro took to the tournament alongside 315 other players, all aiming for the same winners spot and the infamous WSOP winners bracelet.

Common opinion for the tournament was that Lisandro managed to make the play look easy, beating out the whole field in a very fast time indeed and making it look easy from the start, something that is almost unspoken of when you look into the standard of players who take to the World Series of Poker tournaments.

Lisandro took a vast lead as the tournament began to reach its climax, holding over 50% of the chips in the tournament when there were 5 players left in the tournament meaning that he was carrying a huge chip lead even at this point.

This latest win places Jeff Lisandro into the history books, being the first player since 1973 to win 3 winners bracelets in one tournament schedule.

Pokerstars Offer Their Support to Poker Players Alliance

With the ongoing legal battle between online poker and the US Government still very much alive, players and companies alike have been teaming up to aid the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) in their bid to keep online poker legal within the United States of America.

The Poker Players Alliance is a 1 million strong group of poker players who are joining together to place pressure onto the President of the United States to keep online poker legal within the country.

With many companies and players offering their signatures onto a petition to keep the US poker market legal for online players, their strength has just been multiplied with the new backing of an online poker room.

Pokerstars, the worlds biggest online poker room, with over 20 million members have now added their name to the cause, offering tournaments exclusively for the players who sign the petition that is open to signatures of players who would like to keep online poker legal within the United States.

With this new announcement by the biggest online poker room been made public, its thought that up to half of their player base could be turning their attention to signing the document in order to gain entry into the tournament.

With over 1 million names already on the list and what is thought to be a 1000% increase of names due to the help of Pokerstars, the US Government will certainly have to sit up and listen to the players who are set to take full advantage of their freedom of speech in order to be heard.

Its seeming that states within the country are leaning towards keeping the online gambling game legal within their borders, allowing players to continue to place wagers at online poker sites.

When will this end?

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Bodog Poker Announce $100,000 Turbo Qualifier

Bodog Poker know exactly how hard it is for some players to be able to play multi table tournaments (MTT’s) due to the time that many of them take, with increasing participation numbers all over the internet.

With the length of time that some tournaments take means that some players are unable to play them due to the time constraints that they require, no player wants to play half of a tournament to have to sit out the remainder of the tournament due to having to do something else, seeing their hard work go to waste as they are blinded out of the game.

Bodog has decided that to cater for all players with their recent promotion, with their qualifer tournament for their $100,000 prize pool tournament been placed as a turbo tournament, with blind levels been increased every 3 minutes of the tournament.

This means that play is fast moving and frequent, keeping players having to think about playing their cards otherwise face been blinded out of the game faster than they would in a regular multi table tournament.

With the increase in game speed comes an increase of poor play and unthought out plays made by the less experienced players in the tournament, with the time that they have to think about their play been reduced by half.

A tournament that offers $100,000 as a prize pool is definitely going to get alot of interest, especially with it been played online, with the accessibility to players from all over the world been as simple as logging onto the computer.

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Tom McEvoy Takes Champion of Champions Title At WSOP Champions Invitational

Winning the World Series of Poker Main Event is not something that many poker players can hold their hand up to, with competition been tough to say the very least.

To win the tournament players need skill, ability and a little luck in order to secure the title and to make their name within the poker industry.

With ability been something that the winners of these tournaments don’t lack, the World Series of Poker brand decided that it was about time that the champions of the main event tournaments locked horns and battled it out for the ultimate champion of champions title in the WSOP Champions Invitational.

The tournament isn’t like many other live tournaments which allow any player who can stump up the buy in fees, this tournament was created for the best poker players on the planet. This meant that players had to both of received an invitation to the tournaments and won a World Series of Poker Main Event.

A total of 20 players entered into the tournament that offered a prize that has never been offered before, with the Binion Cup and a fully restored 1970’s corvette stingray convertible.

The names that graced the table were certainly impressive and the talent on show was definitely something that was not to be missed.

Tom McEvoy managed to take the title, beating his opponent Robert Varkonyi out of the title with a higher flush than Varkonyi was holding.

With that McEvoy was then presented the trophy by the World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffery Pollock and Jack Binion.

On receiving the Binion Cup McEvoy joked

This is the first time he [Jack Binion] handed me a trophy instead of money

Tom McEvoy was the 1983 World Series of Poker Main Event winner so he is no stranger to winning tournaments and in his fashion he took this win with a pinch of salt.

The final ten at the final table were big names, consisting of Berry Johnston, Carlos Mortensen, Peter Eastgate, Robert Varkonyi, Tom McEvoy, Huck Seed, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth, Jim Bechtel and Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson.

World Series of Poker Gives Away Their Second Bracelet

With World Series of Poker bracelets giving you the highest respect as a poker player from all of your fellow players, many poker players try desperately to get their hands on one, with this years tournament schedule offering out more than 50 bracelets there is plenty of opportunity for players to get their hands on one of the gold bracelets.

It has become an unwritten law that should a player have won a gold World Series of Poker bracelet, playing against this player should be done with caution and respect as the prize is contested by more than your local poker player from the club around the way, professional players are also gunning to take the prize and the money that comes with it.

With the second World Series of Poker tournament opening as a $40,000 buy in no limit texas hold’em tournament, the expected turn out for the event was set to be a big one due to the increase in hold’em players all over the world.

The tournament boasted a 201 player pool and a total winnings pot of $7.72 million, with professionals and amatuer players locking horns in a bid to be crowned champion of the second event.

37-year-old Russian poker professional Vitaly Lunkin of Moscow managed to take the title and the bracelet after a long an tightly contested tournament which offered spectators a great show, offering over 3 hours of heads up play at the final table between Lunkin and 23-year-old poker professional Isaac Haxton.

Play was drawn to an end as Lunkin looked into this pocket cards to see that he was holding pocket aces, playing them to well as he eliminated Haxton to take the first place and the winnings that came with that title but not without a scare, seeing Haxton turn his cards after an all in call to see that he has a pair of eights but also a diamond flush draw available to him with 2 cards still to fall.

Lunkin was pleased as the cards ran dead, giving Lunkin the title and the first place.

Haxton, 23 from Las Vegas still offered a great show with his varied play from start to finish and with his second place finish finds himself taking home $1.17 million in prize winnings, not a bad return on his $40,000 buy in.

Lunkin thought showed strength throughout the tournament to take the $1.9 million in prize money as well as the much sort after WSOP gold bracelet.

Both players did well at the tables, managing to out play the well known Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, who this year could only place in third place after his 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event victory.

As Raymer moved all in and got the call he revealed his cards to see that he was facing over cards, joking as the flop fell “I kind of wish I had two big cards right now” after seeing 2 face cards and a ten placed onto the board, a turn and river of two red three’s sealed his fate in the tournament, knocking him out in third place, giving him a cash winning of $744,927.

Raymer than stood up from his seat and headed around the corner of the casino floor to take his seat at an invitational tournament that was offered to players who were pasted winners of the main event.

The tournament was the richest tournament that the World Series of Poker has held, with the $40,000 buy in been placed due to this year been the 4oth year that the brand has been offering poker tournaments to players all over the world.

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Eric Lynch Signs With Lock Poker

Poker professional Eric Lynch has this week signed a contract that partners him and Lock Poker.

Lynch became a household name after claiming over $800,000 in World Series of Poker winnings in recent years, giving the site the perfect professional to attract new and existing online poker players to their site.

Fresh of the back of their Bluff Online Poker Challenge, the site is now gearing up for World Series of Poker 2009.

Having a name like Eric Lynch playing at the site is definitely bound to increase the popularity of the online poker room, giving players the opportunity to try their luck against a player who has cashed almost $1 million in World Series of Poker winnings, something that would offer ultimate bragging rights at their next night out with the guys!

Lynch was a feature in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, beating out over 8,700 players to lock horns with the eventual winner, Jamie Gold.

With the new World Series of Poker 2009 schedule due to begin, he was asked about his thoughts on missing out on the title 3 years ago.

I don’t really go through any “what ifs” in a negative sense. I’m happy with pretty much every play I made in the tournament minus the pocket aces call versus Erik Friberg. I’m even happy with the infamous A-6 offsuit play against Jamie Gold.

With the past firmly behind him now, Lynch outlined his intensions for this years tournament

I’m playing around 15 events, but some of it depends on how well I do since I can’t play some events if I’m in Day 2 or 3 of others. I’m not taking the entire family out for six weeks this year like the last two years, so I’m flying out for eight or nine days and then back for five or six days in three separate trips.

I’ve targeted No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Hold’em, and Pot Limit Omaha events of varying buy-ins ranging from $1,500 to $10,000. However, if I go deep in an early event or two and get into the WSOP Player of the Year race like I did in 2007, I’ll probably start playing a lot more events of all types.

Well with his thoughts laid down, its now over to Eric to once again make a name for himself within the World Series of Poker schedule and to try to improve on his current prize winnings.

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World Series of Poker Brand Owners Go Interactive

News within the past week has confirmed the thinking of media and insiders of Harrah’s Entertainment about the company looking to move into the interactive ages.

The confirmation that the company have now contracted the former CEO for PartyGaming, Mitch Garber, after weeks of speculation and rumours now adds strength and true to the thoughts of the media.

Garber, was responsible for helping to create PartyGaming into the huge online betting name that they are now and Harrah’s will be looking to use his knowledge and experience in the online marketing fields to boost their fight on the online world.

The aim for Harrah’s Entertainment is to use the experience of Garber in a bid to increase and promote the World Series of Poker brand even further, giving the brand a higher visibility level in what is seemingly a very competitive market.

Harrah’s Entertainment CEO and Chairman Gary Loveman issued a statement on their website saying

Harrah’s is taking a proactive approach toward international and interactive expansion, it is important we position ourselves to explore new markets as well as new technologies with our best in class brands.

Further rumours about the next move of the brand are already in circulation, with the strongest been that they will be looking to create an online poker room that will be available to players across Europe.

With the size of the reputation that the brand already carries due to its huge live tournaments, the possiblity of this site becoming a very quick contender for becoming one of the biggest online poker rooms on the internet is definitely one that should not be written off.

Although the online poker room creation has not yet been revealed by Harrah’s Entertainment nor is it thought to have been discussed at this moment in time, players are already talking about becoming some of the first to place their chips at the virtual felts there, leaving their current poker room due to she draw factor that the site offers.

Should the brand move into creating the online poker room, the promotions for their live tournments will definitely become a huge hit but could this pose an issue for existing online poker rooms who are offering packages and seats into the live tournaments? Will the brand decide that they should take the exclusive rights to been able to offer such prizes?

Only waiting to find out what the brand has planned will confirm or deny the flood of rumours that come with such huge poker industry news.

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