Online poker news
Starting next weekend PokerStars players in Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy will have the opportunity to enjoy a very merry Christmas, as the PokerStars Winter Series kicks off. The entire series lasts three weeks, starting December 25 and ending January 17. Players in Spain, France, and Portugal have one set of events, while Italy has… Read more »
As if all of you haven’t been playing enough online poker this year, how about one more gigantic tournament series to close things out? PokerStars has announced the PokerStars Blowout Series, running December 27, 2020 to January 19, 2021, and featuring 268 tournaments. The poker room promises $60 million in guaranteed prize pools the entire… Read more »
Three-day test before full launch BetMGM is in the midst of an online casino soft launch in Pennsylvania. Running Tuesday through Thursday, it is a test run, with limited hours and limited games to be sure everything works and looks good for state regulators. Assuming the soft launch finishes without any major hiccups, the full… Read more »
Lawmakers speed up approval I’m not making any promises, but there is as chance – a chance – that online gambling could go live in Michigan this month. Tuesday morning, the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules voted to forego the 15-day period during which it can evaluate the new online gaming regulations, effectively… Read more »
Yes, we’re looking ahead to next year, too We have one month before we are out of this piece of crap year. I mean, nothing much is going to change on January 1, but still, psychologically, it will be nice to rip up the calendar, burn it, and then shoot its ashes into orbit. partypoker… Read more »
Cross-border cooperation While we poker players like to complain that online poker rooms only care about their profits and not the players, in reality, most responsible online gambling outfits understand that the better they are when it comes to responsible gambling and player protection, the more comfortable players will be patronizing their sites, thus boosting… Read more »
While the most recent heads up match between Phil Hellmuth and Antonio Esfandiari was entertaining, it is arguable that the battle between Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu and online high stakes heads up poker master Doug Polk has been more anticipated. Perhaps not since Johnny Moss and Nick “The Greek” Dandolos sat down in… Read more »
The year 2020 has seen all of our favorite live poker tournaments disappear. It is certainly not the most important consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic – far from it – but it still stinks, right? Fortunately, there is such a thing as online poker and many of the poker tours and tournament series have been… Read more »
Swedish gambling company Betsson announced on Wednesday that it is consolidating its brands in the United Kingdom. Despite online gambling surging this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Betsson has decided to cull eight of its nine UK brands, focusing now on just one: Rizk. The company believes the move will improve efficiency, which makes… Read more »
I am not the greatest poker player this world has ever produced. I’m ok. I haven’t played in a long time – the landscape here in Georgia is barren and I don’t particularly feel like finding underground games – but when I did play, I was a decent low stakes player. I’m ok, if I… Read more »
Professor Plum in the Conservatory with the chip rack Aside from when I finally gave in and bought an ear and nose trimmer, the time I realized I was getting old was when I played the board game Clue with my family and reacted negatively to the fact that there was a flip side to… Read more »
It’s been slightly more than a year since the state of Pennsylvania opened the doors on their online casino gaming industry. When they first opened, none of those with an online casino license opened for online poker, however. That changed in November of last year when Mount Airy Casino and PokerStars brought their online poker… Read more »
It’s been a long time in coming and the path hasn’t always been the smoothest. It now seems, however, that there will be a new addition to the online gaming and poker industry in the States of America. The state of Michigan is working on final approvals with operators and casinos inside the Wolverine State,… Read more »
Finally, the drama and the sniping are over between Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu. Ok, I will admit that’s wishful thinking, but the retired poker player and the Poker Hall of Famer have finally nailed down the rules for the heads-up online poker match they have been discussing on Twitter for a few months. As… Read more »
The GGNetwork put out a statement on Wednesday addressing how it is stepping up the fight against players who use Real Time Assistance (RTA) software. In its announcement, it referred to a “high-profile” RTA case that the poker community has been talking about over the last couple weeks. Though he was not named by GGNetwork,… Read more »
Betfred claims the software glitched A customer dispute with Betfred dating back to early 2018 will now go before a High Court judge in the UK for a summary judgement. The court appearance is expected to occur in October. The case involves a player named Andy Green, who was playing “Frankie Dettori’s Magic Seven Blackjack”… Read more »
Over the last several years, online poker rooms have continued to move toward catering as much as possible to recreational poker players, the kinds of players who play primarily for fun. Oftentimes, “recreational” or “casual” is used as an insult, but there is no need for it to be. Just as there are some players… Read more »
“Safe and fair experience” The effort to curb predatory behavior in online poker continues, this time with the implementation of cash game Active Waiting Lists at PokerStars. It is essentially what it sounds like: a cash game waiting list which requires you to be actively playing to stay on it. In announcing the new feature,… Read more »
Just had to wait it out After nearly a decade, it appears that online poker’s Black Friday ordeal is finally over. On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg to time served and a $30,100 fine for a single charge of operating an illegal gambling business. My friend Earl Burton… Read more »
It’s awful, but it’s clever We’ve all had those thoughts, those random brainstorms in the shower where we think about how we could get away with committing a crime. We don’t really want to do it, nor do we ever plan on doing it, but it’s this dark intellectual exercise where we just want to… Read more »
The second annual PokerStars Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker (PACOOP) begins this coming Saturday, yet another big online poker tournament series during this unfortunate COVID-19 pandemic half-year. Running through Sunday, October 4, PACOOP will feature 50 events and $1.5 million in guaranteed prize pools, the most ever for an online tournament series in the state.… Read more »
Jonathan Little, one of the most respected online and live poker professionals in the world today, has apparently been banned from playing on the popular online poker site America’s Cardroom. Depending on who you believe, the ban is either because Little exercised his “freedom of speech” rights to discuss playing on America’s Cardroom or, if… Read more »
There is one day left in the 2020 World Series of Poker Online $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event on GGPoker as just 38 players remain after this past weekend’s Day 2. Leading the way is Bryan Piccioli with 18,417,494 chips. In my friend Earl Burton’s previous update on the WSOP Online, he said it looked… Read more »
PokerStars is pulling out of China, Taiwan, and Macau, this according to an e-mail that the online poker room recently sent to its customers in the three countries. PokerStars has yet to make an official comment; the e-mail was posted on the Two Plus Two forums. The policy takes effect Tuesday, September 1. The trio… Read more »
On Tuesday, PokerStars announced a minor change to its loyalty program, Stars Rewards. The change, which the online poker room touts as one that gives players “absolutely nothing to lose,” offers players the opportunity to cash in their progress bar for a lower-tier Chest with no restrictions. Until this week, the progress bar had to… Read more »
