Poker News

While the majority of players voted in favour of introducing the Shot Clock, others fear it would slow down live tournament play even more.

After conducting a voting among the players of the WPT LAPC festival, WPT has announced that the Shot Clock would be tested at the stops of the series. The concept is as follows:

1. Players would have a 30-second clock to act on their hands. If they didn't act in that time span, their hand would be declared dead and automatically folded.
2. Each player would receive two "Time Buttons" to use each day of a tournament for especially tough decisions. The "Time Button" would have to be introduced before the 30-second clock expired and would give the player an additional 60 seconds to act. Players could use one or both on a particular hand, but after using them, the player would not be able to receive any additional time.

British poker ace Sam Trickett has recently been signed by Everest Poker a Sponsored Pro. Undoubtedly one of the most renowned faces in the industry, Trickett has so far booked a total of $19.8 million in live tournament winnings, qualifying as one the most successful players ever.

Former semi-professional footballer Trickett found poker after an injury he suffered in a cup final as a player of Retford United: after participating in local games around Sheffield, he scored his first big win in 2008. He finished 4th in the WSOP $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $245,927 and 1st in the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) Luton Main Event for $215,178.

Chris ‘moorman1’ Moorman won $1,015,460 in the live tournament and took over the lead on the online multi-table tournament world list without even playing.

On 1 March, the WPT LAPC $10,000 Main Event kicked off with 534 entrants and a prize pool of $5,126,400 at the Commerce Casino. Quite a number of renowned players made it into cash, including Jonathan Duhamel (61st, $18, 970), Andy Frankenberger (60th, $18,970), Mike Sexton (51st, $22,560), Bryn Kenney (49th, $22,560), Naoya Kihara (47th, $22,560), Joe Tehan (44th, $26,660), Jason Mercier (43th, $26,660), Eugene Katchalov (40th, $26,660), Dan Heimiller (36th, $31,270), Greg Merson (31st, $31,270), Matthew Waxman (26th, $36,400), Jennifer Tilly (22nd, $42,550), Ravi Raghavan (19th, $42,550), and Joe Serock (10th, $100,480). Dan O’Brien bubbled the official Final Table, finishing in 7th place for $137,900.

Unibet has recently gained full independence and launched its standalone client. There are 500 cash game players active at the room on average, which qualifies the operator as the 11th largest as regards the .com market rooms and networks, mere weeks into its launch.

Last December, Unibet announced that they would leave the Microgaming (MPN) network and migrate to their own platform. MPN would be available to players until March 2014, when the shift to the standalone client would be completed.

The main questions have ever since been whether the new Unibet Poker, aiming to favour recreational players above all, would be competitive on the market, able to preserve its player liquidity and would the novelties attract recreational players and perhaps keep regulars interested at the same time. It is still too early to try to give answers; however, barely two weeks into the life of the new client and just after the final break-up with Microgaming, the new Unibet does indeed seem a serious competitor.

The Best Live Tournament Player has barely entered any tournaments and the Best Blogger has not posted a word for nine month. Surprising decisions have been made at the latest British Poker Awards.

On 2 March, the fourth British Poker Awards ceremony was held at the Hippodrome Casino in London to award actors of the poker scene in 18 categories. While the festival has grown to be one of the most prestigious event of its kind in the past years, that recognition may have suffered a bit due to some ambiguous decisions this year. For instance, Best Live Tournament Player Sam Trickett has been amazed that he had won the title.

Former online multi-table tournament world list leader David ‘Doc’ Sands has been hired by a hedge fund company retires from professional poker.

‘Doc’ Sands is one of the most renowned figures of MTT poker today: under his ‘SexSeen’ screen name at PokerStars, he has won a lifetime total of $1,375,478 and another $1,277,100 at Full Tilt Poker as ‘Doc Sands’. At the latter room, he has booked his greatest online results, including the FTOPS, $1k Monday and Sunday Mulligan championship titles. His lifetime online winnings total at $3,044,125.

Petter ‘NorthugJr’ Northug was playing $50/$100 Pot Limit Omaha during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

Northug is one of the most successful Norwegian cross country skiers ever: the two times Olympic champion won the 50 km classical mass start and freestyle team sprint in Vancouver in 2010, in addition to his 11 world championship titles. The 28-year-old ace was a member of the Norwegian team in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and, while not achieving outstanding results this time, he managed to get some eyebrows raised by his pastime activity.

The States of Nevada and Delaware have struck the first ever Multi State Internet Gaming deal, which allows operators to pool their player liquidity across state borders.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed an agreement between the two US states that makes poker history: the Multi State Internet Gaming deal allows operators on the two regulated markets to pool their player liquidity.

Eight years ago, PokerStars organised its largest weekly major tournament for the first time. On 2 March, they celebrate the anniversary with an $8,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.

PokerStars makes a habit of celebrating anniversaries in a larger than life fashion, which, of course, makes players happy in turn. On 2 March, the room offers yet another incredible tournament: on its 8th birthday, flagship weekly major event Sunday Million is featuring an $8,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The buy-in is $200+$15 as usual, which means a minimum of 40,000 players need to participate if the tournament is not to have an overlay. Talking about the undisputed market leader, it still cannot be taken for granted to happen, although it is most likely to; last year, over 50,000 users registered. Participants can earn their seats through a wide range of qualifiers from $1 to $33.

Apparently, the Winter Olypmics have gotten Daniel Negreanu thinking as he came up with the idea of a Poker Olympics with the participation of six countries.

While a lot of countries with little to no snow throughout the year are represented at the Winter Olypmics, the games are obviously most popular with states where winter sports are second nature to most. Canadian poker pro Daniel Negreanu is accordingly enthusiastic about them and they have even given him the idea of a Poker Olympics.

The streets of Kiev are a combat zone once again as thousands of protesters clash with the riot police in the direct vicinity of Russian Poker Tour venue Khreschatyk Club.

Russian Poker Tour Kiev 2014 Day 1A

On 17 February, the events of the Kiev stop of the Russian Poker Tour kicked off; even though the Ukrainian capital had seen violent riots, the three weeks of relative peace convinced organizers they could hold the event undisturbed. Players obviously expected to be able to relax and win big, yet they are now more interested in getting out of the club unscathed.

The iPoker network has become unable to maintain its operation on the regulated Spanish market; leading skin Poker770 announced its withdrawal as of 1 March.

The failure of the segregated markets to meet preliminary expectations has been reported on several occasions; player numbers keep dropping in Spain, Franc and Italy alike and operators find themselves in an increasingly difficult situation. While their incomes are diminishing, their taxes and fees are not; as a result, less and less of them are able to remain in business on these markets.

Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates won the WPT Alpha8 High Roller Johannesburg event for $500,000, besting a field of only nine players.

This weekend, the Johannesburg stop of the WPT $100,000 Alpha8 High Roller series took place at the Emperors Palace Casino. Three stops had been held before, all with at least 20 participants; this time, however, only nine players entered, essentially turning the event into a high stakes SNG with an illustrious line-up: Phil Ivey, Antonio Esfandiari, Cates, Jason Mercier, Max Altergott, Philipp Gruissem, Erik Seidel, Jeff Gross and South African businessman Kinesh Pather sat around the table.

Become a real poker pro and make their decisions in this latest poker coaching application.

A poker coaching site with a difference has launched recently; although few will become a true professional based on the information available on it, 1to5.com offers a unique way to both entertain and educate by making it available to all to act in the name of one of the superstars of poker in real spots. The site recreates hands actually played by the participants in one of the most renowned tournaments, like those of the WPT, WSOP, EPT and Aussie Millions series, and cash game shows, including Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker and the PartyPoker Big Game. Players get to make decisions in key spots well played hands.

ARJEL has fined MyBet operator Personal Exchange Limited €300,000, the largest amount ever in France since the regulation of the market.

Even though the French online gaming regulator ARJEL has not appointed a new head since the resignation of Jean-Francois Vilotte over the decision of the French National Assembly not to support the amendment of the law regulating the market in order to be able to open a common one, the regulatory body has been operating actively. News of this has even reached the French mainstream media, which reports that three unlicensed online poker rooms have been fined by the Paris Municipal Court after ARJEL had prosecuted them.