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PokerStars Officially Acquires FTP - Relaunch Soon - Non-US Players To Be Reimbursed

The news all Full Tilt Poker players were waiting for is finally here: PokerStars officially announced the acquisition of Full Tilt Poker and the settlement with the United States Department of Justice. PokerStars will relaunch the site and reimburse all players outside of the United States in 90 days.

PokerStars - Full Tilt Poker

PokerStars released ther statement yesterday, which you can read in its entirety below.

Tony G Qualifies for the Olympics in Team Lithuania

Poker pro Tony G participated in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics as part of the Lithuanian Olympic Team.

Tony G at the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony
Tony G at the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony

Even though poker is not yet an Olympic sport – but given place in the World Mind Sports Games for the first time –, the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games has not passed without some relevance to the game. Tony Guoga, aka ‘Tony G’, who has over $4.8 million in live tournament winnings and is famous for his trash talk at the tables, participated in the entrance as part of Team Lithuania.

First Stop of EPT 9 Coming Up, 300 Players to Qualify Online

On 15 August, the PokerStars European Poker Tour Season 9 kicks off in Barcelona. A record number of 300 players are set to qualify online.

European Poker Tour

The PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Season 9 will be special in more than one ways. First of all, a record number of 300 players can qualify online for the first stop in Barcelona, held between 15 and 25 August. This is about 130 more than the number of players who won their seats in the EPT Barcelona 8 Main Event via satellites.

Significant Drop in Zynga Shares, Real Money Gaming Comes 2013

Zynga’s Q2 financial reports have been released earlier this week, showing a disastrous drop in the value of the social gaming company’s shares, contrary to optimistic predictions. However, this seems to have a positive effect on Zynga opening to the real money market.

Zynga

Only a couple of days ago, Zynga CEO Marc Pincus confirmed: the company is investigating the option to enter the real money market. Still, no specifics were revealed, which did not do much against concerns that the company’s intentions are not very serious after all.

Earlier this week, the Q2 financial reports of Zynga have been released, revealing a significant drop of 40% in the company’s shares, which goes straight against analysts’ expectations of a minor rise. It appears that Facebook shares followed in the footsteps of those of the social gaming company and showed decline as well.

Betfair Signs Elisabeth Hille

Norwegian Elisabeth Hille has already played the WSOP in Betfair colours and now she is officially a sponsored team pro member.

Elisabeth Hille
Elisabeth Hille

Prior to the World Series of Poker 2012 Main Event, Elisabeth Hille worked as a waitress. Then, she finished the tournament in 11th place out of the 6,598 contestants for $590,442. Hille arrived to Las Vegas together with his boyfriend, Harald Olsen, who finished 5th in one of last year’s $1,000 NLHE events. He sponsored 50% of her Main Event buy-in this year.

PKR Introduces Social Features in Latest Update

PKR Poker has always been famous for creating a poker atmosphere unlike anything you can encounter in any other online room. Now they topped even that, integrating the all popular social features in their real money game environment.

PKR Poker

With their latest update, version 2.08, PKR Poker has raised the stakes as far as recreational poker and social gaming are concerned: with the ability to stack one another, send a virtual drink, read players’ expressions and boast hands via YouTube, players of the room can now feel the further enhanced excitement of a real casino, and even more.

WCOOP 2012 Schedule Released

PokerStars have released the official schedule of their World Championship of Online Poker 2012 (WCOOP), starting 2 September.

WCOOP 2012

Running 2 – 23 September, 2012, this year’s WCOOP will feature 62 events. On most event days, three tournaments kick off, with buy-ins ranging from $109 to $10,300.

The $5,200 Main Event takes place on 23 September with a guaranteed first prize of $1,000,000. Last year’s champion Thomas ‘Kallllle’ Pedersen earned $1,260,018. In 2011, the total prize pool of the Championship was a whopping $47,120,800.

German Players Moved to PokerStars.eu

Effective 19 July, 2012, poker players from Germany are migrated to the PokerStars.eu client, maintaining full access to the .com player pool.

PokerStars

PokerStars migrated its German users to the .eu domain of the room, which is promised to affect them in a positive way only. Sharing the player pool of the .com client, the sole purpose of the move is to have German player under a more beneficial tax system.

Presenting the October Nine

We are presenting you the October Nine, the finalists of the World Series of Poker Main Event, with their past successes and results.

Even though there are no real big names in this year’s WSOP finale, the Final Table is relatively balanced and basically each one of the nine players has a real chance of winning the $8,527,982 first prize and the coveted golden bracelet. They are not going to make it easy for each other, either, so let us take a look at the people in contest for the championship title.

Jesse Sylvia – Stack: 43,875,000
Age: 26
Total live tournament winnings: $23,777
Nationality: US

Final Table chipleader Jesse Sylvia was born in the state of Massachusetts. A cash game player under the screen name ‘4JesseJames4’, he has been observed at the PokerStars high stakes tables. He was introduced to poker as a teenager and he lost several $50 deposits before he decided to study the theories behind poker instead of playing it for a while.

Collecting every possible book on poker, he managed to improve his game quickly and today he is an 888Poker sponsored pro.

He moved to Las Vegas, where he is considered a live regular today. Sylvia claims he usually plays 40-60 hours a week. No major MTT performance of his has been recorded yet, his best result being a 2nd finish in the 2008 Mega Stack Series $200 NLHE event for $15,078.

Jesse Sylvia
Jesse Sylvia

PartyPoker Removes High Stakes Tables

PartyPoker decided to remove their cash game tables higher than $5/10 No Limit and 30/60 in case of Fixed Limit games. They reason that the decision was made in order to make improvements to their poker ecology. PartyPoker released the following statement to the poker news site Pokerfuse:

"We have removed some of our super high stake games, this decision has been taken to make improvements to our poker ecology and in our players best interests. We believe this change will improve the action at our tables and is in the best interest of the poker room as a whole."

PartyPoker

WSOP Main Event: The Final Table is Set

Following Event Days 5, 6 and 7, the World Series of Poker 2012 Final Table is now set. Nine players return in October to decide the fate of the $8,527,982 first prize and the ultimate golden bracelet.

Gaelle Baumann
Gaelle Baumann

282 players returned on Day 5 of the WSOP $10,000 NLHE Main Event to play it down to 97. One of the highlights of the day was a hand that is bound to be in the focus of heated debate for long throughout the industry, especially considering the events of Day 7 (see below).

WSOP Game by EA for the iOS Platform

Electronic Arts division EA Mobile TM and Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc. teamed up to launch a WSOP-themed poker application for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, which they promise to be “the most authentic poker game on the planet.”

WSOP Game by EA

“The new, true-to-life, play-for-fun poker app brings one of the most trusted names in poker to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices worldwide” – reports WSOP.com. The new application by EA Mobile and Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc. (CIE) features virtual bracelets and rings, VIP statuses and Pro levels to go after, like in the real World Series.

WSOP Main Event Days 2 – 4: The Bubble Burst, 282 Players Left

It is time to review what happened in the past days of the 43rd World Series of Poker. Among others, the bubble has burst and only 282 players are returning to Day 5.

Vanessa Selbst
Vanessa Selbst

Players from Day 1A and 1B were united on Day 2A/B for a total player pool of 2,054, of which 842 players made it to Day 3. Two ladies were in the Top 10: Vanessa Selbst (350,400) and chipleader Gaelle Baumann (505,800), while favourites who were eliminated included Kevin MacPhee, Mike Sexton, Tony Dunst, Justin Bonomo, Scott Seiver, Brian Rast, Erik Seidel, Martin Staszko, Mike Matusow, Barry Shulman, Galen Hall and Isaac Haxton.

120 Hours of Play – Phil Laak’s Record Broken

British Barry Denson has broken Phil Laak’s poker endurance record, playing 120 hours and 20 minutes in a row and earning £850 in profits, which he will give to charity.

Barry Denson
Barry Denson

On 2 June, 2010, during the annual World Series of Poker, WSOP and WPT champion Phil Laak started his poker session to break the Guinness World Record of poker endurance, set by Paul ‘The Marbella Kid’ Zimbler at 74 hours, playing heads-up during the 2009 WSOPE. ‘The Unabomber’ aimed at 80 hours to play in the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

WSOP National Championship: Ryan Eriquezzo is Champion

Yung ‘Andy’ Hwang started in the chiplead at the 8-handed final table of the WSOP National Championship. The WSOP Circuit (WSOPC) National Championship was organised in 2011 for the first time as an invitational-only event for a golden bracelet, despite not being an integral part of the World Series.

WSOP Circuit

In 2012, WSOP organised the event with a different structure: in addition to the best 100 players of the WSOPC Season 2011/2012, the best 100 WSOP and WSOPE players of the past two years could also register for $10,000. The entire sum from the buy-ins went to the prize pool.

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