Poker Movie Reviews, Poker News, Poker Book Reviews, Casinos, Poker Humor, Polls and Surveys, Poker Videos, Poker Girls, Site & Blog Reviews, Poker Articles

Rakerace.com's newest partner, the Finnish gambling company PAF entered a sponsorship agreement with the Spanish football league, La Liga. PAF stats that their agreement with Liga Nacional de Futbol Profesional, the top football league in Spain is goint to be a great success, as they'll reach an even wider audience in the regulated Spanish market. As Chief Executive Officer for PAF puts it:

"We are very happy to be able to align ourselves with the world’s premier football league. In cooperation with La Liga, we have the opportunity to provide our customers with unique experiences and products. As relative newcomers to the market, this partnership also gives us greater exposure and credibility with the Spanish people. We appreciate that the Liga Nacional de Futbol Profesional has chosen us as a partner. PAF is an event-oriented company and I am impressed by the Liga Nacional de Futbol Profesional’s activities with its sponsors. I firmly believe that this partnership will strengthen the growth of PAF, which already has gained momentum in Spain.”

Caesars Entertainment and the WSOP have released the list of nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame 2012 induction, as a result of a public ballot.

This week saw the publication of the list of 10 persons who have a chance to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2012, among the greatest names of poker history. The list has been complied as a result of a public voting; the following players and background workers have made it to the final 10:

The IGT network, also known as Entraction, has closed its Stockholm headquarters and is going to shut down by the end of this year. Player bankrolls are safe, IGT rooms join other networks.

International Gaming Technologies (IGT) has notified its partners that, due to the significant drop in revenues from real money gambling services, the company remains to focus on a limited number of high priority, regulated markets. It appears IGT is primarily interested in the Nevada online poker market where their licence request has already been granted.

‘Patpatman’ played a 7 hours long PLO session earlier this week, crushing his opponents.

‘Patpatman,’ whom many believe to be Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, started the 2012 online high stakes season exceptionally well, leading the profit list in January with $858,821. However, the great kick-off turned into an equally large downswing and ‘patpatman’ dropped to the bottom of the list with $835,139 in losses at the beginning of September, continuing to lose.

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) had previously lowered the guaranteed prize pool and now “guaranteed” is gone, too, from the official website.

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) is scheduled to launch in May 2013, planned to be the biggest tournament ever with 30,000 players. The tens of thousands of players will play simultaneously; however, not on the field but at touch screen pads in the seats of the stands. Once the player pool drops to 3,000, players will take their seats on the field at live tables – this is also the money bubble. The final table will be 10-handed.

The enormous tournament had been advertised with an equally large guaranteed prize pool of $30 million, later reduced to a still handsome €20 million. However, this is not certain, either, anymore.

The latest superstar to be added to the marketing faces of the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) is Patrik Antonius. First, three times WSOP and two times WPT champion Michael Mizrachi was signed as an ambassador of the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT), launching 2013. He was followed by European Poker Awards Player of the Year title winner and WSOP $1,000,000 Big One runner-up Sam Trickett.

In the photo: ISPT Ambassadors Patrik Antonius and Liz Lieu with ISPT co-owner Prosper Masquelier (middle):

While the Partouche Poker Tour (PPT) Cannes Grand Final is well under way, a scandal has erupted concerning the €5 million guaranteed prize pool, which had mysteriously melted down to €4.3 million. Patrick Partouche apparently got offended and cancelled any future PPT events, but unexpectedly added the remaining money to the prize pool.

On Day 1B of the PPT €8,500 Cannes Grand Final, registration closed with 573 players, resulting in an overlay, as the amassed money did not reach the €5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. On Day 2, the tournament team published the official payout structure (see at the bottom of this article) that contains handsome sums but not the €5 million many players went for.

The iPoker network split its player pool into two tiers, effective 4 September. Since neither the network nor the rooms have issued any official statements on the matter yet, most players are uncertain concerning their situation. We have looked into it a bit more closely.

As reported, the iPoker network split its player pool into two tiers on Tuesday, 4 September. The network started to rate its rooms, starting 1 July, and getting into the top tier required at least 6,000 active real money players to play in the room every month (an active player being one who generates at least $1 rake), in addition to acquiring 850 new real money players. They also considered player balances and the regular:fish ratio.

Bwin.Party promises significant improvements in its poker operations, including a new software and design, coming early 2013.

Bwin.Party has released its mid-year business report, in addition to interesting bits of information concerning their plans to come back from their recent downswing. According to the report, they are definitively in one, with a drop of 46% in their shares, primarily due to the underperformance of their poker operations.

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: