Although the regulations for online poker went into effect over a year ago in Nevada, it took some time for anyone to step up and open shop with their own online poker room. In April, that momentous occasion occurred when Ultimate Poker (owned by Station Casinos) became the first online poker site to open for business. Now, three months later, Ultimate Poker is celebrating its first major milestone while questions remain as to who will join them in the burgeoning industry or when it will be.
On Thursday, Ultimate Poker reached its 10 millionth hand dealt after a week of celebration of that occasion. Once 9 million hands were reached, players on the site battled it out on the cash game tables as 21 other milestone hands were celebrated leading up to the 10 millionth hand. Ultimate Poker awarded all of those milestone hand winners $500 (while each player on the virtual table received $50) but, of course, the big payout would be for the table involved in the 10 millionth hand.
That hand was deal out at 1:22PM on Thursday and it was a familiar name to many poker fans who took down the pot and the $5000 award (each player on that table received $500 in the penultimate hand). Poker professional Steven Kelly, playing under his screen name ‘SteveKelly,’ was on a $.25/$.50 No Limit Hold’em table and took down a pot of $6.85 with only ace high. That was the magic hand, however, as Ultimate Poker cracked the 10 million hands played mark and awarded Kelly (who cashed five times at the recently completed World Series of Poker and has over $1.1 million in career tournament poker earnings) the $5000 prize for winning the hand.
“It’s incredible to be talking about our 10 millionth hand only three months after opening the doors,” the Chief Marketing Officer of Ultimate Gaming, Joe Versaci, noted after the 10 millionth hand was dealt. “It gives us a good opportunity to look back at how far we’ve come and an even better excuse to run a great promotion.”
The week of celebration over their 10 millionth hand has definitely driven Ultimate Poker up in the rankings of the online poker industry. According to PokerScout.com, Ultimate Poker is now the 33rd ranked online poker room in the industry, peaking at 700 players while the players attempted to be a part of the 10 millionth hand on Thursday. Since that time, the peak numbers on Friday (328) and Saturday (292) have dropped down to their normal average.
With Ultimate Poker passing the 10 million mark in only three months (and with final regulatory approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission to operate at the end of July), it does leave the poker community wondering where the potential competition for the online site is and when they will come online.
After massive promotion throughout the WSOP and a great deal of hype over its debut at some point during the event, Caesars Entertainment has yet to roll out their WSOP branded online poker offering for the state of Nevada. During a conference call on the second quarter financials of Caesars Entertainment, the chairman, Chief Executive Officer and president of the company Gary Loveman, expressed some excitement over the debut of their online poker site sometime during the third quarter of 2013, but added no exact date for that debut to occur.
The Caesars Entertainment effort is supposed to be spearheaded with their partnership with 888 Holdings (who operate the Caesars operations on an international basis).
Other potential operators, such as Boyd Gaming and South Point Poker, also have yet to get off the ground. Boyd Gaming, partnering with bwin.Party Gaming (who has another agreement for providing software with MGM Resorts), has also been pushing their interests in the upcoming opening of the New Jersey online casino gaming industry (Caesars Entertainment is also working in that area), while South Point Poker has been working on developing their own software. Neither company has announced an exact date when they will enter into the Nevada market.
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