Poker Guru Blog

As Rakerace.com reported earlier in June, the iPoker network will separate on 4 September, following a network segregation policy. The division of the network into two distinct tiers will be based on performance of the rooms. iPoker requirements to a Poker room were the following: 6,000 active players grinding at its tables (active meaning generating at least $1 rake) plus 850 new real money players each month,  and they also considered player's balances and the regular-fish ratio. If a room does not qualify, it will be moved from the primary to the secondary network.

The web-based cashier is launched by PokerStars for mobile players of the Spanish and European clients.

PokerStars Mobile Cashier - iOS - Photo Courtesy of PokerFuse

The PokerStars mobile client has been activated for almost all markets through this year and the market leading company now launched an update for its iOS/Android users. The web-based Cashier is a solution for those only playing on their mobile devices, making it possible to make real money deposits and cash-outs  without the need to download the desktop client.

Former FTP managers try to use the ruling in the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) case to have some of the charges dismissed or delayed in a status conference. US District Attorney Preet Bahara says the EDNY case has neither binding nor impact on the Southern District of New York (SDNY) lawsuit.

According to Judge Jack Weinstein’s ruling in the US v Lawrence Dicristina case at the EDNY, poker is predominated by skill instead of luck, which means the defendant had not violated the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA). The ruling was a blast in the poker community for legally establishing in the US that poker is not gambling.

Sam Trickett announced via his Twitter that he had signed up as an International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) ambassador.

Sam Trickett

ISPT, preparing what is supposed to be the biggest poker tournament ever, is tuning up its advertising campaign to get players coming to the mega-tourney in 2013. They have already signed 3-times WSOP and 2-times WPT champion Micahel Mizrachi and then got Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) as a supporter organization.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York has made a ruling that every poker player can be happy about: poker is a game of skill and not an illegal gambling activity.

 
 

Belarus Mikalai Pobal won the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona €5,300 Main Event. The tournament featured a record number of participants for a total prize pool of €5,247,700. Pobal won €1,007,550 for defeating Ilari Sahamies heads-up.

Mikalai Pobal

A record number of 1,082 players entered the first Main Event of PokerStars EPT9 in Barcelona, amassing a total prize pool of €5,247,700. The 8-handed final table was played down yesterday to decide the fate of the €1,007,550 first prize. The finale was set up as follows:

As Everest Poker's global and French traffic decreased gradually in the past few months, the company decided to give up their indepedence and join the largest poker network, the iPoker Network.

Both clients of Everest Poker (the global, licensed in Malta and the French one, licensed by ARJEL) lost 30-40% traffic during the last 6 months according to PokerScout. Even though the .fr client held its 3rd place on the regulated French market, the .com client fell behind.

This might be behind the decision Everest Poker has made recently, namely they are joining the biggest poker network,  iPoker. This will affect Everest Poker players in many ways including the ability to play at much more tables, and the iPoker Speed Holdem fast-fold game will also be available to them.

PokerStars is planning on introducing a “run it twice” option. The feature that would reduce all-in variance may become available for testing in the TestPokerStars client in August.

"Running it Twice" as seen on FTP

The latest PokerStars feature to be introduced is a “run it twice” option that may debut in the TestPokerStars client this month, according to a short summary published by the room via the 2+2 forum.

The PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller event has ended with the victory of Aussie Millions High Roller champion Dan Smith for €962,925. He made a deal with JC Alvarado and defeated him heads-up for the Shamballa bracelet.

Dan Smith

Play in the 8-handed Final Table of the PokerStars EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller commenced on Level 16 (4,000/15,000/30,000) with Smith, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald and Alvarado holding 80% of the chips in play. The final table setup was as follows:

Dan Smith is in the chiplead of the incredibly strong final table of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona Super High Roller event.

Dan Smith

On Day 2 of the PokerStars EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller event, players still had the opportunity to buy or re-buy entries, which resulted in a total player pool of 64 and a total prize pool of €3,072,960.

The PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona Super High Roller event has launched, with Steve O’Dwyer in the lead after Day 1. In second place follows Erik Seidel.

Steve O'Dwyer

On 17 August, the PokerStars EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller event started with 54 participants. Since registration is still open and re-buy is possible on Day 2, there is no official prize pool yet.

The field primarily consists of the biggest names of the industry, including Steve O’Dwyer, who packed away 1,249,000 in chips at the end of Day 1 for a massive chiplead over 2nd finisher Erik Seidel (738,000).

Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom continued his insane high stakes session from yesterday, but this time around, he left the tables with major losses. He was beaten in games which he doesn't usually play. As we reported yesterday, Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom returned to PokerStars tables after he and the poker room parted ways, and he logged a marathon session of 24+ hours and won more than $400,000. He continued his grind on Thursday after a few hours of sleep, which proved to be less of a success than the previous day; he lost all of his profits and his PokerStars bankroll took a serious hit as well.

Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom

PokerStars will not renew Viktor ’Isildur1’ Blom’s professional contract: they part ways on a mutual agreement.

PokerStars head of corporate communications, Eric Hollreiser announced that Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom and the room will not continue to work together: on a mutual agreement, the professional contract of the young poker star has not been prolonged.

The latest poker scandal is delivered by Matt Marafioti: the Bandidos motorcycle gang may have cheated a number of high stakes players out of their money with the help of hackers.

Matt Marafioti

It is not the first time Matt ‘ADZ124’ Marafioti gets into the centre of attention with a scandal: in July, he treated his ex-girlfriend Lauren Kling with little to no respect, calling her names via his Twitter. His latest issue, however, goes beyond everything we saw from him before, even though the exact nature of his role in all this is yet unclear. 2p2 forum member ‘cbt5000’ posted Skype and Facebook chat logs of Marafioti’s with Swedish IT professional and hacker Samer Rahman. Based on these logs, Marafioti and Rahman planned to install Trojan programs on high stakes players’ computers during the PCA to cheat them out of their money later, seeing their hole cards.

PartyPoker's highly anticipated fast-fold format is here; FastForward, "the turbo-charged way to play cash games" is released to real money tables. As we reported a few days earlier, slowly but surely PartyPoker's fast-fold game arrived to the tables. As the debut went very well, without any hitches, PartyPoker already released the format to its real money cash game tables as well. Real Money games are currently at NL4-NL25 tables, and an NL50 heads-up table is also offered, but at the time of writing of this article nobody played there.

FastForward does not seem to offer radically new features as the competitors' solutions. Players can connect to the very same table 4 times, and the Forward Fold button will instantly fold the players hand, even before their turn in the given hand.