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Ahead of the launch of its online gambling industry on November 26th, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has released the names of ancillary casino service industry enterprises and internet gaming related vendor registrants who have received preliminary approval to enter the market.

A total of 42 vendor registrants and 12 ancillary service industry enterprises were named by the DGE in a document which read: ”Pursuant to section N.J.S.A. 5:12-92a(3) of the New Jersey Casino Control Act, Ancillary Casino Service Industry Enterprise’s (“CSIE”) are those enterprises that provide goods or services ancillary to gaming activity. ”

The names of the internet gaming related vendor registrants were published as follows:

Acculink, Alexander Schneider USA, BlueSheep, Cable Design Services, Clickatell, Counting House Services, DDB Worldwide Communications, Digital Envoy, Duo Security, Ecomaccess, EmailVision UK, First Data Merchant Services, Forte Payment Systems, I2C, Initial Rewards USA, Innovative Systems, Interactive Communications Intl., ITC Financial Licenses, Itex, Jumio, Kalixa USA, Maxmind, Mazooma, MMGP, Money Network, NBX Merchant Services, Neustar, PayNearMe MT, Paysafecard-com, Radbit Computers, Sightline Interactive, Silverprop Systems, Skrill USA, Softcat, SRC Security Research & Consulting, Thomson Reuters Prof. UK, Trustnet, USA, Vantiv Payment Systems, Virgin Enterprises, We!, WorldPay and Zycko.

The names of the 12 casino service industry enterprises were published as follows:

Aristotle International, Certegy Check Services, Cognitive Box Consulting, DBI Staffing, GeoComply, Locaid, Player Verify, Poker Venture, PokerTrip Enterprises, Secured Trading, US Casino Marketing and XYVerify.

On November 21st, those Atlantic City casinos which have received approval from the Division of Gaming Enforcement to offer online casino and poker games, will launch a trial run of their services with their partner software providers. If the systems prove to meet all the requirements set by the DGE, they will be allowed to go live on November 26th.


New Jersey Names Online Poker Service Providers

Despite launching five months later than online poker rival Ultimate Poker, WSOP-com has already bridged the traffic gap between the two sites. According to PokerScout-com, earlier this week WSOP-com surpassed Ultimate Poker by moving to a seven-day average of over 130 players. Ultimate Poker slipped to under 120 players.

Speculation has be made that the difference was made up due to WSOP-com's superior software. PokerNews has attempted to speak with several players that spend time on both sites, and all are very quick to announce that WSOP-com's software is the better of the two. The main complaint with the Ultimate Poker software is the frequency of times it crashes during the day, deterring high-volume players from wanting to continually spend time multi-tabling on the site. None of the players PokerNews spoke with cited the WSOP-com software crashing.

A few other reasons could also lend their hand to the continued rise of WSOP-com. Most recently, the site introduced a new and improved Action Club Loyalty Program, which features higher WSOP Point multipliers for Action Club tier members. While many of the players still believe Ultimate Poker's loyalty program is the better of the two, one can't argue that the new program on WSOP-com doesn't help boost traffic numbers. Especially when WSOP-com is thought to have the superior software.

The WSOP-com Online Championships recently completed, attracting many more players to the site during this time. The biggest reason why the Online Championships were so successful was because of all the added money to the series — $500,000 to be exact. Unlike guarantees, added money is just that, added money. No matter what, there is going to be an "overlay" created and the value in events with added money goes way up. The drawback is of course the fact that the site has to add the money no matter what, whereas with a guarantee there is a solid chance the guarantee is met and covered. The question here would be as to whether or not WSOP-com continues to host their bigger online series with added money or switches to the more common form of guaranteed prize pools.

WSOP-com has also been running a promotion for a deposit bonus of 100% up to $400, and this certainly helps to bring in traffic. Ultimate Poker also has a first deposit bonus, but the maximum payout is $50.

Last, but not least, is the fact that the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event final table completed action on Monday and Tuesday. With live coverage on ESPN and ESPN 2, there's no doubt that playing poker at the WSOP was on everyone's mind. With the ability to now hop online to WSOP-com and play, traffic to the site certainly saw a boost.

Moving forward, WSOP-com plans to begin running more satellites to its live events, which should attract even more players to the site to play. It wasn't too long ago that Nick Rosen turned a $215 mega satellite entry into a €10,450 seat in the 2013 WSOP Europe Main Event. With the WSOP Circuit in full effect and the 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific and WSOP Las Vegas events next year, WSOP-com will be the place to go to win cheap entries for those allowed to play.

All in all, both WSOP-com and Ultimate Poker benefit from each other and the competition between them. Having a competitor to push you to be better creates a better product for the players. The players also enjoy having options, much like they enjoyed having the choice they had between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker a few years ago. In the end, though, shared liquidity amongst states will be a very, very big factor in the growth of online poker in the United States. Without it, many heavily fear that the full potential won't be achieved and sites could die out — something that no poker lover wants to see happen.



WSOP-com Moves Ahead of Ultimate Poker in Nevada Online Poker Traffic | PokerNews

Bicycle shop owner Lawrence DiCristina, prosecuted for running an illegal poker game, has petitioned the US Supreme Court to rule on the case.

Mr DiCristina was charged with running two table No Limit Hold’em game where he charged 5% of each pot and in return “provided card dealers, food, and drinks.” The games were held regularly at his bicycle shop in New York.

Initially Federal Judge Jack Weinstein ruled that the game of poker is “predominated by skill” and dismissed the indictment. However, this decision was reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where it was ruled that the “game of skill” argument was immaterial to the case.

The petition asks the court to rule on two more fundamental points of law—the Supreme Court will only decide to hear the case if an important issue is at stake.

The first point concerns the appellate court ruling that state laws predominated. The appeal argues that ruling that “state law alone defines the offense,” is incorrect and contradicts “the ‘uniform federal definition’ doctrine,” In other words, the court wrongly ruled that state law applied, when in fact federal law should have been used.


Secondly, the appeal argues about the appellate court’s interpretation of the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA) clause that says that gambling “includes but is not limited to pool-selling, bookmaking, maintaining slot machines, roulette wheels or dice tables, and conducting lotteries, policy, bolita or numbers games, or selling chances therein, makes it a federal felony to host poker games.”

The essential question that the Supreme Court is asked to rule on is “how to interpret ‘including but not limited to’ clauses.”

The appeal suggests that Congressional debate on the act concentrated on its main purpose—to counteract the involvement of organized crime in gambling. It suggests that the inclusion of obscure games such as “bolita” reflects this interest, and that had Congress wanted poker to be included in the list it would have done so.


DiCristina Poker Case Referred to US Supreme Court | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

Nevada became the first state to offer regulated real money gaming. It chose to launch with only poker. Delaware and New Jersey will add casino games banked by the house to their mix. This is a great idea for the bottom line of operators but it will come at the expense of poker players.

Online casino games will hurt poker players. Recreational players only have so much disposable income. If that money is lost in the casino then it can never enter the poker ecosystem. These negative expectation games can also be a temptation for some poker players. Operators will also be more motivated to promote online casino games over poker due to its higher return and lower amount of support necessary.

Importance of Casino Games for Bottom Line

Online casino games are often the highest revenue generating product for an interactive gaming company. For example, in the first half of 2013, online casino games were 51 percent of Playtech’s revenue. Its services department, that includes providing support for its licensees, was 29 percent of total revenue. On the other hand, poker was just 4.5 percent of total revenue. These numbers were taken from a company press release. Playtech owns iPoker, a network of sites that make up the second largest online poker room in the world.

Bwin.party owns the PartyPoker Network. It operates two brands on the network and licenses a handful of partners. Poker made up 18.1 percent of total revenue for bwin.party during the first half of 2013, according to a company press release. Poker is a higher percentage of revenue for bwin.party. The company operates most of its network sites as opposed to licensing skins like Playtech does. It also makes more money from sports betting, which is bwin’s primary business.

Challenges Unique to Poker

One challenge facing online poker rooms is liquidity. A pool of players with similar game interests must be available. These players must agree on what games to play for there to be action. If they cannot, the number of players available in the pool is irrelevant.

Launching an online poker room is far more complicated than it appears. Some might think it is as simple as adding every game of every limit imaginable. This is not the case. A new poker room needs to limit the games offered so that the small pool of players is not spread too thin. There must be increments between limits. Higher limit games that might bust poorly bankrolled players must be rolled out slowly.

There are also challenges in building a tournament schedule. Offering a new tournament every 5 minutes dilutes the player pool. Canceling dozens of tournaments a day due to a lack of interest can leave a bad impression on players. Events must be properly spaced out with reasonable buyins. Guarantee tournaments must be placed well within the schedule with reasonable prize pool expectations that will appeal to players but not force the poker room to cover substantial overlays.

Chips move between players every hand. That is the point of playing. This also allows cheaters and thieves to take advantage of it. Two or more fraudsters can sit at a table and work as a team against unsuspecting players. A fraudulent deposit may be moved from one player to another through chip dumping. Player and observer chat can also change the outcome of a hand. These are reasons why poker requires an experienced security department. Security can become a major expense for a poker room.

Poker also requires unique promotions. A future USPoker article will cover ideas involved there.

Why Operators Prefer Casino Games

An online casino game does not require other participants to operate. Players generally play a video version of a casino game heads up. There is also no concern about players cheating at the game without hacking the system, which these days borderlines on impossible and would be detected. Casino players require far less support as there is little to investigate during a slot pull, video poker hand or roulette spin.

Players will also lose their money to the house faster at casino games than at poker. A hand of poker can take about one minute. A video poker hand, slot pull or roulette spin is over in just a few seconds.

A player betting $1 a spin on double zero roulette will theoretically lose about $.50 a minute, assuming a spin every six seconds. That is about five times higher than the rake paid by a $50 No Limit Texas Hold’em player.

There is no level of skill that can overcome the house advantage in most online casino games. On the other hand, skill is a contributing factor to a poker player’s success. Winning poker players can add expense to an operator through payment processing and also take money out of the system that may have been otherwise lost in the house games.

It is certainly within the rights of casinos to offer these games. These companies are in the business to make money off those willing to give action for entertainment. States that offer casino games will hopefully be able to strike a perfect balance that keeps the casino games from hurting the poker liquidity. Players are depending on it.


Online Casino Games Great for Operators Not Players |

Nice details,I will definitely check this out

A handful of well-known Internet betting firms were given the OK on Friday by New Jersey gaming regulators to soon offer games to those physically within the state.

The Division of Gaming Enforcement released a couple of documents (here and here) that said firms such as Bwin.party, Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Ultimate Poker, 888, Bally Technologies, Betfair, Paddy Power and Amaya Gaming are allowed to do business in the Garden State.

Most technologies firms will be doing business on behalf of their brick-and-mortar partners.

There are 12 casinos in Atlantic City and most are expected to offer web gambling.

New Jersey will kick off statewide web gambling on Nov. 26. The soft trial will begin Nov. 21.

PokerStars was notably absent from the lists, and a spokesperson for the firm explained why:

“Our application remains under review by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and we remain committed to working with them to complete the process,” Eric Hollreiser, Head of Corp Communications for PokerStars, said in a statement.

PokerStars has partnered with the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel.

New Jersey will allow its casinos to offer a wide array of casino games on the web.





Online Poker Sites Get New Jersey Approval

Online poker is slowly being reintroduced to the United States, but there are still hundreds of emigrants around the world who left the country to continue playing online. One such player is Jae “YugiohPro” Kim, who relocated to Korea in order to have the freedom to pursue a livelihood.

The son of first generation Korean immigrants, Kim was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Fullerton, California. As a teenager he was on the wrong path of being what he called an “Asian gangster,” but before long he found that education provided him a different conduit. Kim ended up studying English and creative writing at the University of California Berkeley followed by law school at Washington University in St. Louis. Unlike so many others, Kim put off turning pro to complete his education, which he did in 2011.

With a Juris Doctorate in his back pocket, Kim turned his attention to poker. Unfortunately, this was around the same time Black Friday struck. “After Black Friday, I decided to just pack up and head over to Korea because I didn't have many online poker friends at the time and didn't think I would enjoy Mexico or Canada,” Kim explained. “I've spent a lot of summers in Seoul growing up and I'm very comfortable here.”

It proved a wise decision as Kim is currently ranked as the 43rd best online poker player in the world by PocketFives. He has more than $2.1 million in lifetime online winnings, with the vast majority of that coming on PokerStars where he won the Sunday Warm-Up in August 2010.

Kim is the latest subject in our popular Online Chat series, which seeks to introduce readers to the players behind the online screen names.




What’s next for you as far as poker is concerned? Will you be traveling to any live events anytime soon?

I'm torn between online and live right now. I have two mutually exclusive major goals, one for each that will require a lot of devotion and dedication to accomplish. The online goal would be to move to Vancouver to be close to my mentor/coach “BigBluffZinc” and good friends “Frenzuh” and “MrPaintBall.” My dream online goal would be to hit Supernova Elite and also top three in the Yearly Tournament Leader Board. Elite requires one million player points in a year, and I've never made more than 300,000. I think I could accomplish it and print money easily, but I would end up giving up a lot of my social life and making my girlfriend unhappy.

The live goal would be to attend every live series for the Asian Player of the Year plus try to satellite into EPTs and play the full WSOP schedule. The winner of the Asian Player of the Year would get a one-year sponsorship with PokerStars LIVE! in Macau. It’d help get my foot in the door to accomplish the dream poker goal of mine to get signed by PokerStars. I would need to win quite a few more live titles to do that, though.

The live goal seems a lot healthier to me, but both sides have pros and cons. I'm just in a wealth-building mode right now to help my family out and lock down my future, then maybe branch out into staking people or finding different ways of coaching. I'll think more about this as the year closes I guess.



Read more: Online Chat: Jae

Cha-ching!

So went the sound of money rolling into St. George’s SunFirst Bank. Lots of it. From across the nation. Tens of millions of dollars coming in, going out. It lasted from late 2009 for almost a year. But at some point early on, the poker companies shuffling all that cash wanted assurances that processing online player payments in Utah — a state, ironically, dead set against gambling — was indeed legal, even though they already had convinced St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson, his partners and bank officials that it was.

So to whom did they turn? Perhaps even more ironically, to two of the state’s top cops: Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and his chief deputy John Swallow.

For some, including the attorney SunFirst asked to review the legal issues, the answer wasn’t in the cards, it was in the Utah Code.

"I said this is against Utah law, your bank is in Utah and Utah criminal law says gambling is [illegal], and even anything that facilitates gambling," said Scott Clark, of Salt Lake City’s Ray Quinney & Nebeker. "Utah is the last place they could do that."

The supervisor of banks for the Utah Department of Financial Institutions also expressed concerns. And the U.S. Justice Department was determined to shut down what it deemed a criminal activity.

But from Shurtleff and Swallow came silence or, at the most, qualified answers. And the two never launched investigations themselves nor informed federal authorities about the questionable poker payments.

So the money continued to flow — until federal regulators and prosecutors stepped in and all bets were off.



When chips were down, poker outlets turned to Shurtleff, Swallow | The Salt Lake Tribune

Here are a selection of some of the best poker tweets coming from your favorite pros over the past week:

Greg Mueller

How do I always end up playing these long heads up matches with @phil_hellmuth?? @ARIAPoker #IMustbeTheFish (photo)

SammyTheDentist

“@GregFBT nah, pretty sure you are a piraña #akasharkinfishclothing”

Noah j Schwartz

“I think you should tattoo AA on you somewhere next or maybe lucksac-com @Jay_Farber_LV. Wow call it de ja vu”

Doyle Brunson

“I’m not taking anything away from Riess. He is a better player than Farber, but the deck did rain on him. Riess would win most of the time..Who cares that Riess says he is the best in the world. One thing for sure, Tues night he was!#enjoythemoment”

Robert Mizrachi

“@RyanRiess1 played a great game today but definitely should be alot more humble or maybe play PHIL IVEY an 8 million freeze out!!”

Jared Bleznick

“This is best part of poker tournaments. Ppls egos after they win. Gl playing cash games it will be a tough road ahead.”

Jon Eaton

“can’t stand cash games as of late, prob bc i’ve lost my last like 11 out of 12 sessions, so i’m gonna play some MTTS on @UltimatePoker”

Adam Levy

“So I’m playing this Magic Online satty to Worlds & it crashes when I’m 6-1. Tell us restart next Saturday after 7 hours of play. #whatamess ..Basically the equivalent of being on the final table bubble and tourney crashing. Can’t even pay out in equity.”

Antonio Esfandiari

“Ty @billclinton for hosting yet another great event for @ClintonFdn last night in LA. A lot of money raised for a GREAT cause..Really enjoyed punishing @chefjoseandres in the tournament and thoroughly enjoyed bonding w @ChelseaClinton and Marc Mezvinsky #Classacts”

Sorel Mizzi

“Strategically place roulette table placed right next to my 1500€ MTT. so tilting to look over and see all my numbers hit. #opportunitycost”





Top Poker Tweets From The Pros

(State The First To Offer Online Slots, Blackjack As Well).

Delaware has become the second state in the country with statewide real-money online poker, and the first with play on other games such as slots, roulette and blackjack.

Delaware had a soft launch on Halloween, but now all eligible individuals physically within the state’s borders can log on and play state-sanctioned games.

In other words, the soft launch went well and the full product has been rolled out.

The web gambling offerings are hosted on the website’s of the state’s casinos. Delaware’s three casinos are Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway.

Online gaming site 888 is behind the software, and Scientific Games is in charge of some of the other back-end solutions like player verification.

Right now, Delaware online poker includes no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha ring games, with stakes as high as $2-$4. There are also sit-and-gos, topping out at $100.

No multi-table tournaments were available at launch.

The state of Nevada launched online poker this spring, and currently has two sites — Ultimate Poker and WSOP-com — taking action from those within the Silver State’s borders.

New Jersey is expected to kick off games statewide by the end of this month.

Card Player recently interviewed Delaware’s lottery director about the possibility of a partnership with Nevada or New Jersey, or both.

“We have had conversations with both states, and it’s a little bit too early in the process to project how that is going to work out,” Delaware Lottery Director Vernon Kirk said.

“My guess is that, certainly with Nevada, they are definitely anxious to compact with us, and us to them likewise. Once we get up and running we will be pursuing that more aggressively. Right now we are just concentrating on getting our site up. But that will be one of the very first steps we take after launch.”




Delaware Online Poker Has Official Statewide Launch

November has historically been a pretty busy month as far as online poker is concerned, and this week is no exception.

In the latest installment of This Week in Online Poker History, we look back at Dutch Boyd’s baby, PokerSpot-com, closing its doors in November of 2001 owing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We also travel just a little bit back in time to 2009, when Patrik Antonius won the biggest pot in online poker history (at the time) at the expense of Viktor “Isildur1” Blom.
November 15, 2001: RIP PokerSpot-com

Remember PokerSpot-com? Unless you were in the poker world prior to the poker boom, chances are the answer to this question is a resounding no – or more likely, what the hell is a Pokerspot-com?

PokerSpot-com was the brainchild of a young Dutch Boyd and was the first online poker spot that offered tournaments, which led to some very early success for the venture. However, the short-lived poker room (May 2001 to November 2001) ran into payment processing issues and closed its doors owing about $400k to players.

At PokerSpot, Dutch Boyd was basically responsible for running a mini-Full Tilt Poker scheme a decade before the $300 million calamity that occurred at FTP after Black Friday. Dutch repeatedly told players everything was fine, when it fact it was not.

The entire PokerSpot fiasco was hashed out on the rec.gambling.poker forums (which are now archived in Google Groups), and during Dutch Boyd’s 2003 WSOP run there was even talk of him using any WSOP winnings to repay PokerSpot-com customers, which never came to pass.

Boyd has been a controversial figure in the poker world ever since, with black marks ranging from his time with “The Crew” and auctioning off pieces of poker memorabilia for cash to losing a lawsuit filed by 2+2 owner Mason Malumth for cyber-squatting.

November 17, 2009: The Isildur1 Chronicles

On November 17, 2009 the online railbirds at Full Tilt Poker witnessed history as Patrik Antonius and Viktor Blom played what would become the biggest pot in online poker history - for a week, anyway. It was later surpassed multiple times by more Isildur1 pots.

Isildur’s run in late 2009 saw the enigmatic high-stakes player win and lose millions of dollars in just a month’s time, during which Isildur1 decimated some of the best players in the game, but eventually gave it all back, most memorably in a $4 million session to Brian Hastings that sparked its own controversy.

In the hand with Antonius both players started with nearly $450k in a heads-up PLO match, and by the time the dust settled a full $878,958.50 made its way into the center of the table, and after making his draw Antonius collected the pot.

A week later the pair was back at it, setting the bar even higher after playing a $1.3 million pot, along with two other massive pots that would land in the top five of all time – so there is your teaser for one of next week’s entries!

Of the 10 largest pots ever played online, Isildur1 has been involved in each and every one of them, and it was pots like these that gave rise to the young Swede’s popularity in online poker forums, and people charting his every move, and debating every upswing and downswing (of which there have been many) he has been part of.


A Weekly Look at Online Poker History: November 11th - 17th

The number of online poker sites available is amazing and at times choosing which one to play on can be unnerving and challenging. The internet site Poker Scout estimates there are over 600 online poker sites available today with more coming online almost daily.
Networks that carry these rooms are also very plentiful with some offering unique configurations.
One such Network is the Equity Poker Network which is the world’s only Cooperative poker network. It is a fully transparent, peer-to-peer network of operators looking to add poker to their portfolio or increase their existing poker profitability. This network is a non-profit organization committed to the transparent distribution of profits on the basis of contribution to the poker network, with low fixed fees and minimum costs to the Operators who make up this poker collective.

With good reviews thus far on the network’s entrance poker room FullFlushPoker the EquityPokerNetwork has welcomed a new European facing online poker room IntegerPoker to the network.

The founder and Chief Executive Officer of Equity Poker Network, Clive Archer, commented, “IntegerPoker is a perfect fit for Equity Poker Network, and we’re excited to have them on board. Our thinking is aligned in many ways that will make working with IntegerPoker a delight. They promise their players a well-balanced online poker room with exciting promotions and tournaments, and a poker room they can always trust; that’s exactly what EPN is all about, and what we ultimately will deliver in spades,”

The IntegerPoker slogan “We are everyONE”, describes perfectly their regard for every player and their quest to make available great promotions, and a different slant on VIP benefits. Similarly EPN’s outlook stresses the importance of a balance by imposing a “Shark Tax” to protect the recreational player, and it allows IntegerPoker to self direct to configure its own tournaments and promotions. Proven scalable software puts EPN in a good position for future development on a global scale.




Equity Online Poker Network Unique in the World

At first glance, Utah doesn’t seem like the sort of state that would be looked at as a potential ‘pioneer place’ with regards to regulating online poker.

The state, which sits east of Nevada, the first state to legalise and regulate online poker, is widely seen as being an old-school conservative state with anti-gaming views. However, the Salt Lake Tribune has reported that a meeting took place in April 2010 between then state Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and members of the Poker Players Alliance.

According to Shurtleff, the meeting was held as part of an initiative to ascertain the arguments on whether poker is a game of skill or chance. However, the former Attorney General denied that the legality of processing payments from online poker sites was discussed at that meeting and that it was not brought up before the meeting took place.

"I wasn’t clear about who was [processing poker payments] or where it was being done and it wasn’t a question that was even asked of me,” he said.

The question of whether online poker payments was discussed was brought about as it was discovered that the meeting was organised by a “major campaign donor” who had been processing online poker payments at the time the meeting was arranged. However, it was stated in the Tribune that emails have been obtained that show some of those who attended the meeting had talked about the legality of payments.

The meeting in question took place around one year before the infamous Black Friday, which essentially put a halt to online poker in the US. It also led to the arrest and indictments of a number of figures, including various online poker payment processors, who had been illegally involved in providing online poker services to Americans.

That is perhaps the most controversial aspect of this story; the fact that senior members of a state government had been dealing with figures engaged in an activity that resulted in the arrest of various other figures just a year later.

Online poker in the US has made significant strides since then, however. Two states currently regulate online poker within their borders and a third, New Jersey, is slated to rollout a regulated market later this month. That may complicate the aforementioned situation in Utah as the game has become slightly more accepted since then.

Shurtleff also received advice last year from lawmakers that processing payments from online poker sites was illegal in Utah. That increases the likelihood that he genuinely was not sure of the legality of such payments during the time of the meeting.


Former Utah Attorney General Denies Online Poker Payment Meeting | PokerUpdate

Nevada’s online poker industry is over six months old. It still only has two participants; Ultimate Poker and WSOP. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Ultimate Poker

Ultimate Poker launched without any previous announcement on April 30, 2013. Considering the circumstances of it being the first of its kind in a regulated market, the grand opening went quite well, especially looking back more than six months later.

Ultimate Poker only spread No Limit and Fixed Limit Texas Hold’em at its launch. It has since added Pot Limit Omaha, Pot Limit Omaha High/Low and Fixed Limit Omaha High/Low. Online Pot Limit Omaha High/Low is exclusive to Ultimate Poker in Nevada.

Ultimate Poker’s biggest strength is its support. Whether it is through email or its sponsored forum at Two Plus Two players receive quick and correct responses to questions. The other major advantage Ultimate Poker has over its only current competitor is that players may deposit and withdraw cash at any Station Casinos cage. Other deposit options include Mastercard, check, bank wire and electronic check. In addition to cash withdrawals, players may request a check.

Ultimate Poker’s major downfall is its software. Some players still complain about crashes after multi-tabling for a few hours. There is also the issue of a cluttered cash game lobby. Now that Omaha has been added it is hard to find games easily as there is no way to filter Texas Hold’em from Omaha. The only cash game filter is low/medium/high stakes.

The sit and go and multi table tournament lobbies allow players to filter between no limit/pot limit/fixed limit so this helps in removing unwanted games from the available choices.

WSOP

WSOP has one major advantage over Ultimate Poker. Its software is far superior. It offers many features not available on its competitor’s platform. It also offers Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud High/Low; both are exclusive to WSOP in Nevada’s online poker industry.

The software is virtually free of crashes, although its geolocation is still experiences some bugs. A player that falls out of range for a short time is instantly booted from the tables.

The lack of a casino cage deposit option has been a subject of player complaints. WSOP only offers electronic checks, Mastercard and Visa deposits. Visa has a low rate of acceptance. These options have made it difficult for players to deposit large amounts of money. This has potentially hurt the site’s ability to spread higher limit games as it is difficult for some players to deposit large sums of money. WSOP players may withdraw by electronic and paper check.

WSOP is currently offering a VIP match in two ways. A player that holds a Platinum, Diamond or Seven Stars Total Rewards Card may transfer that status to WSOP. Likewise, a player that achieves that status during four straight months at WSOP-com may receive a Total Rewards Card for the same tier at brick and mortar Caesars Entertainment properties.

WSOP Claims Number One Spot

WSOP was able to overtake the number one spot in terms of cash game traffic, using stats provided by Pokerscout-com data. This took about seven weeks to accomplish. The competition is still close. WSOP averages 120 players, while Ultimate Poker averages 100 players at any given time.

Future Nevada Online Poker Sites

The next three sites on the Nevada online poker radar are the All American Poker Network, South Point Poker and Z4. The All American Poker Network will be powered by 888. It partnered with Golden Gaming, Treasure Island and Wynn. South Point Poker will be branded as Real Gaming. Z4 is closely related to the Siena Hotel Spa Casino in Reno. It is unknown which of these brands will be the next to enter the Nevada online poker market. There is also a question about how much a new entrant will dilute the current Nevada online poker industry.



Nevada Online Poker Update

Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker won $400,000 over the past seven days on Full Tilt Poker, which brings his winnings on the year on the site to $4.19 million, according to HighstakesDB.

The German is now the biggest winner on the year in the online poker world.

His performance has been incredible, since he didn’t start playing on the site in 2013 until around May, and he was actually in the hole in mid-August.

The past few months or so have made him the eighth biggest winner in online poker history.

Heinecker’s largest career online pot came in August at $400-$800 no-limit hold’em.

The action began with Heinecker ($500,000 in his stack) raising to $2,000. It was folded around to unknown MalACEsia ($200,000 stack) in the big blind. S/he made it $7,200, and Heinecker elected to call with position and huge pot odds.

The flop fell 9Spade Suit 7Spade Suit 5Diamond Suit, and MalACEsia bet $9,600. Heinecker made it $25,600, and MalACEsia four-bet to $80,000. Heinecker five-bet shoved, and MalACEsia called.

Heinecker tabled the 8Heart Suit 6Heart Suit for the nuts, while MalACEsia was drawing for a flush with the ASpade Suit QSpade Suit. According to Card Player’s hold’em odds calculator, MalACEsia wins slightly more than a third of the time. The high-stakes players ran it just once.

The turn brought the 7Club Suit, which wasn’t what MalACEsia needed. The 2Heart Suit on the river completed the board and gave the German a massive $403,000 pot.

He is having an incredible year in the live setting as well.

In June, Heinecker took down the HK 1,000,000 ($130,000 USD) buy-in event that attracted 71 entrants, 54 of whom exercised their option to rebuy. A massive HK 119 million prize pool ($15.4 million USD) was created. Heinecker captured $4.5 million of that.

If you combine the two figures, Heinecker has won around $8.7 million this year, which is more than 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess won just last week.

It is possible that the 28-year-old German is having the best year out of any poker player.



Online Poker: Niklas Heinecker Up $4.2 Million

The legalisation and regulation of online gaming is something that has been on the cards for the US state of California for quite some time now.

A number of meetings have been undertaken between State Government figures and various tribes (who operate gaming various gaming establishments in California) throughout the year. Those interactions resulted in the possibility of a proposal for the legalisation of online gaming to be put forward to the State’s congress.

Such a proposal has not been passed in the state as of yet, but the Commissioner of California’s Gambling Control Commission has expressed his optimism at online poker eventually being regulated in the state. Richard Schuetz, who has been the head of the Commission since 2011, was reported as saying that an online poker market in California could be successful in its own right.

“We have 38 million people,” he said. “We’re the eighth largest economy in the world. We’re bigger than Canada, so it’s not a case like Nevada that has 2.7 million people. We have more poker tables in the state of California than every other state in the nation.”

Mr Schuetz also said that it would be more difficult to regulate other forms of online gaming due to its potential effects on some of the tribal owned casinos in California.

While there is realistic potential for online poker to be regulated in California, it is unlikely to come anytime soon. That is because a state election is expected to be called and carried out sometime in 2014, which makes it unlikely for most major reforms to be undertaken by the Government.

The assertion that a California online poker market could be successful without interstate compacts, should a state market eventually be established and regulated, certainly has strong merit. California has a population of over 38 million people, which is more than triple the populations of Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey, the only US states that have currently legalized online poker and gaming.

If poker would be the only form of game offered online in California, the high population could help lead to decent traffic numbers on Californian poker sites, provided they are of good quality. Two poker sites –Ultimate Poker and WSOP - currently operate in the neighboring state of Nevada, which has a population of just 3.7 million people.

According to PokerScout, Ultimate Poker has a seven day player average of 100 while WSOP has an average of 120 for the same period. If those numbers, in terms of percentage, were replicated in California, it would likely mean major success for the poker sites that would operate in the state.

However, that could also lead to a greater number of companies who wish to operate in California, which could also lead in poker traffic being spread out over a wider range of sites.



Online Poker Only Industry in California a Future Possibility: Commissioner | PokerUpdate

Everest Poker is back and wants to spoil the plans of PokerStars and Winamax in the French online gambling market.

BetClic Everest Group announced at a press conference the relaunch of the Everest Poker brand in an attempt to revive its business in France after a major restructuring the last couple of years. The company wants to increase its current 8% online poker market share in France by 50% next year.

“From a strategic point of view, BetClic can say ‘we’re purely a betting operator’ or we can do more than that and we have a brand like Everest Poker and there’s really something to be done with it. It won’t be easy and the market is in a difficult place at the moment but the timing is good and when we look at what we’ve been able to do in online betting, a market that is very heavily taxed with very strict working conditions, there’s no reason we can’t succeed in poker,” BetClic Everest Group chief executive Isabelle Andres told iGamingBusiness.

The French online poker market is currently on a major downswing, according to the regulatory body Autorité de Regulation des Jeux en Ligne (ARJEL). The poker gross gambling revenue has decreased by 17% in the third quarter of 2013, down to €58 million, compared with the same period of 2012. Also, the total amount staked on online poker fell 21%, the biggest quarterly downfall since the French market opened in 2010.

“We see a decline in the poker market in France but we still think it remains a significant market. Some operators left the market so there is more room for the ones that are remaining and we definitely think there is a challenger place up for grabs,” Andres told eGamingReview.

So far, the French online poker market has two clear leaders – Winamax and PokerStars.fr. Everest has high hopes that it will defeat the other two major contenders – Partypoker.fr and PMU Poker – for third place and become a real threat to the top two. And the plan is set: a new loyalty programme, a new Everest.fr mobile application, plus a major three-month media campaign. Not to mention the successful migration to the Playtech iPoker network that will put the company in a strong position.



Everest Poker Eyes Top of French Online Poker Market | PokerUpdate

This Thursday, New Jersey’s first wave of iGaming operators will open their virtual doors to a select group of invitees – at least for a few hours – during the state’s so-called “soft launch” period for online gambling.

In a statement given to the Press of Atlantic City, NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement spokeswoman Lisa Spengler revealed that during the first two days of testing (November 21st and 22nd), NJ’s regulated gaming sites will only be operational from the hours of 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., local time.

However, when the servers reopen at 8 a.m. on the 23rd they will remain up until the conclusion of the trial at midnight on the 25th – pending unexpected developments.
Soft launch period may be extended past Nov. 25

Throughout the critical trial period, online providers will be tasked with testing their player identification systems, payment processors, geolocation technology and otherwise ensuring that their software works as expected.

If all goes according to plan, the DGE will allow full-scale operations to inaugurate on the 26th.

DGE Director David Rebuck explained the purpose of the soft launch as follows: ”The soft opening will be used to demonstrate to the division that all systems perform as required under the stress of live gaming and that operational and revenue reporting controls are effective.”

Should problems arise, the soft launch period may be extended beyond November 25th, thus delaying the public launch of NJ’s iGaming market.
The likely players

Last week, seven of Atlantic City’s 12 casino received transactional waivers, clearing them to initiate Internet gaming operations on the 21st (but not guaranteeing that they will). They are:

The Borgata
Bally’s
Caesars
Tropicana
Trump Plaza
Trump Maj Mahal
Golden Nugget

Two of Caesars Entertainment’s land-based casinos, Showboat and Harrah’s, have yet to receive waivers, as have Resorts and their online partner PokerStars.
New Jersey could suffer from a lackluster launch

Several factors are lining up that could dampen interest in NJ’s newly-christened iGaming market:

For the first 30 days after launch, promotions that incorporate a wagering requirement are prohibited. This might deter players from making deposits until after Christmas. To read more about New Jersey’s initial promotional and bonus structure guidelines, go here.
Speaking of holidays, NJ’s iGaming sites are set to go live a mere two days before the start of the holiday season. This could be bad news for online casinos, as potential players may opt to spend their disposable income on presents and traveling rather than playing online poker. On the flip side, Thanksgiving weekend might prove an ideal time to launch iGaming, as most workers will have a four-day weekend.
The Borgata Fall Poker Open ends on November 27th, one day after iGaming goes public. This could prove disastrous, as some poker players would have spent their gambling budget on live tournaments. Compounding matters, the opportunity for cross promotion between the Borgata’s brick and mortar and online poker rooms would be significantly higher if iGaming launched concurrently with the Open, not at its conclusion.



New Jersey Online Gambling Test Period Kicks Off November 21st

Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson - who spent $100 million on campaigns in the last election - is promising to bring big bucks in his fight against Internet gambling, and he set up an interesting intra-party and intra-state battle with his choice for a spokesman.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki, the last Republican to hold that seat, will be one of three people to speak out against legalizing Internet gambling, according to a Washington Post story today.

And that means Pataki will be on the opposite side of the table from Alfonse D'Amato, the last Republican U.S. senator from New York, who now chairs the Poker Players Alliance, which was formed as an industry group to fight for legalizing Internet gambling.

In some ways, however, Pataki is an odd choice for Adelson.

As governor, Pataki signed a bill in 2006 to allow New Yorkers to bet on horse races using a cell phone or the Internet.

And that same year Pataki refused to extradite Peter Dicks, a former British offshore betting-company executive arrested at JFK Airport, to Louisiana, where he faced charges of illegal online gambling.

Meanwhile, the Poker Players Alliance has its work cut out for it if it wants to keep up with Aldeson: as of June the alliance political action committee had $3,861 in cash.



High-stakes poker: Pataki v D'Amato on Internet Gambling

Having worked a regular nine-to-five job, I feel very privileged to have a level of freedom now that I previously could not have imagined. As a professional online poker player, I have the ability to work wherever, whenever and for as little or as often as I want. All I need is a laptop and an internet connection to have the ability to make money, no matter where in the world I am or what time of day or night it is.

I didn't always make the most of this level of freedom though. When I first started playing poker full time I was guilty of letting the game consume me. It was previously my hobby, and then it was my full time job and still my hobby. I loved playing and I was winning consistently, so it was all that I wanted to do.

A few years after turning pro I had made a lot of money but maybe I hadn't spent enough time having fun. I was still living in the same apartment in Scotland that I got to be close to my old job and I didn't travel much. Most of my friends were now other online poker pros that I only spoke to online. I'd gone from being in shape and fit to an overweight guy who would get out of breath climbing a single flight of stairs.

Time for a change
Basically, I was doing it wrong. My lifestyle, which can be pretty standard for online poker professionals, was absolutely awful. Since realising that I've done my best to turn it around. I feel as if I'm now making the most of the freedom that a career as an online poker pro offers by fitting poker around my life rather than fitting my life around poker.

I moved out of my apartment in Scotland and now spend a lot of time travelling around the world. Sometimes for poker events, but mostly just because I like seeing new and interesting places. I feel that the experience of being around different cultures, meeting interesting people and being subject to different situations helps me become a wiser and better person. Since I can play online poker from anywhere, and I'm a young, free and single guy, it would be pretty stupid of me not take advantage of that situation to travel while I have it. Whenever I travel for a poker festival I try to keep at least one day free to go explore or do something non poker-related, even if that means passing up on a side event or two. It would be a shame to visit some of the exciting locations that PokerStars hosts events at only to spend the whole trip inside a casino or hotel room. Among my most recent poker trips were UKIPT Galway, where I visited the stunning Cliffs of Moher after a deep run to Day 3 of the main event, EUREKA Bulgaria, where I went hiking in the mountains, and EUREKA Croatia, where I visited some Game of Thrones filming locations in Dubrovnik then took a day trip to the beautiful country of Montenegro.

All of those non-poker related things I had to do on my own. I had plenty of poker friends at each of those events but they would often rather stay in the hotel and play Open Face Chinese poker rather than actually go out and do something interesting when they they're not playing in the tournaments. Other poker players don't always make the best of friends. Even when you do get them to go out for dinner or something they are so one-dimensional that all they want to talk about is poker. So I try my best to socialise more with people outside of poker these days.

Instead of playing poker all day, every day, as I used to, I now figure out what I want to do each day and then fit my poker grind around that. The newer games on PokerStars such as Zoom cash games and Hyper Turbo SNGs make this incredibly easy. I can start and stop meaningful sessions of poker whenever I want and get a good amount of volume in even with very short sessions. That's something I couldn't do if I was playing regular tournaments that would keep me tied to my computer for endless hours at a time, or regular cash games where I'd spend so much time looking for good tables and sitting on waiting lists that trying to play short sessions would be pointless.

Life today
Yesterday was a fairly typical day in Thailand, where I am right now. I played football with friends, went swimming on the roof of my condo, out for a healthy lunch and took a girl to the cinema. In between those activities I played multiple small sessions of poker on PokerStars ranging from as short as five minutes to as long as 90 minutes. At the end of the day, I didn't even feel like I'd put in a full day of work. Short sessions actually feel more like fun and less like a grind, but they all added up to some solid volume and a nice profit to go with it.

I don't play as high volume or as high stakes as I used to and as a result I'm not making quite as much money from poker as I did in the past, but I'm fine with that. I'm not trying to impress anyone or trying to become the best poker player in the world as if it's some kind of sport. For me, poker is a fun and stress free way to make money that supports me to live life the way that I want to live it.

Right now, I'm enjoying poker as much as I was when it was a hobby and I'm enjoying life more than I ever have since turning pro. I finally feel like I'm doing it right.


Fitting poker around my life... not my life around poker - PokerStarsBlog-com