Full Tilt Poker’s parent company, the Rational Group, has confirmed that the poker site is now planning on launching casino games alongside its poker product as it seeks to diversify into the online gambling industry. As part of its re-branding, Full Tilt said it intends to drop the word “Poker” from its brand name and possibly become Full Tilt Gaming or a similar type name, instead.
Following the announcement, the Rational Group release a statement, stating: “The new games on Full Tilt will provide more options with the same high-quality player experience, integrity, security, safety, and support that players have come to expect from our brands. PokerStars will continue to offer a poker-only experience.”
The latest news has been received with surprise by the online poker industry as the site was originally branded as a poker network, and in the past Full Tilt Poker was considered a pioneer of the industry with its top of the range software, and its popular action game Rush Poker.
Speculation on the reasons behind the move, includes helping Full Tilt to facilitate entry into the U.S. market and then being able to swiftly offer casino gaming to its customers, with any site offering just poker likely to suffer from a competitive disadvantage.
Nevertheless, while some Full Tilt customers seem ok with the bold move to add casino games, others have questioned the effect it will have on the health of its poker offering. When poker “fish” go on tilt, for instance, their money is often filtered quickly through the poker ecology, but it may now simply end up in the pockets of the site as a player tries to quickly win his money back at the casino. Therefore, players in future may now be tempted to simply keep less sizable balances at Full Tilt once the casino product is released.
A recent article posted on Poker News Daily-com has revealed that former players on the old Full Tilt Poker web site will have to wait longer for their locked up funds to be returned.
The Garden City Group is the vehicle by which those reimbursements are to go through and the organization is still having problems getting to stage one in the process.
An anonymous source has reported that the organization has yet to go through the all the player information that they have obtained from the U. S. Department of Justice regarding the process. It was suggested that this could take one or two years before players begin to see their seized money returned to them.
As with most things of this nature the courts are part of the delay and there are other issues that will retard the process even further. There are two government agencies the Group must work with, the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the Department of Justice and the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Garden City Group must consider a complicated formula for the “estimated recovery” for each player. That “estimated recovery” amount may or may not be the full balance that players had in their accounts when Full Tilt Poker was shut down in September 2011. With an estimated $184 million in the reimbursement pot, there are as many as 1.3 million players who have a return coming.
Moving forward will take some time but until then poker players who are expecting to receive reimbursement from Garden City Group must register at a website, fulltiltpokerclaims-com. Once the red tape has been overcome and the calculations have been made, Garden City Group will contact players that have registered on the website and inform them of the next steps in the reimbursement process.
Online Poker Players at Old Full Tilt Wait for Funds Return
PokerStars has sent an email to New Jersey residents asking about their gaming habits, opinions on its brands, and feelings towards online poker once regulated online sites go live in the state.
The survey asks fairly common questions for a company considering entering a new market, including “If online casino games were licensed and regulated in New Jersey, how likely would you be to play these online?” and “On a scale of 0-10 how likely would you be to recommend PokerStars to a friend or colleague?”
Also on the questionnaire are two similarly phrased questions—one asking “How likely would you be to play online poker with PokerStars if they were granted a licence to offer online poker in New Jersey?”, a second question the same, but about the Full Tilt Poker brand.
PokerStars has partnered with Resorts Casino Hotel to offer online gambling in the state, although, as is the case with all other operators, it faces tough suitability hearings. The earliest go-live date in the state is November.
Rational Group recently confirmed that Full Tilt was developing “casino-style games” to be offered alongside its real-money poker offering, while clarifying that PokerStars would remain poker-only.
New Jersey will allow all forms of online gambling, including poker.
PokerStars regularly sends surveys to its customers. In September 2012, the group played down rumors that PokerStars was working on a casino and sportsbook product after speculation following questions in a 2011 survey. A spokesperson told pokerfuse that they “regularly survey [their] customers on a wide array of subjects to better understand their attitudes and activities,” although did not outright dismiss the possibility.
In early 2013, the PPA surveyed New Jersey residents and found “near unanimous support” for the PokerStars brand among its player base.
PokerStars Surveys Old Player Base from New Jersey | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
Australian poker pro and the “Last Woman Standing” in the 2013 WSOP Main Event, Jackie Glazier, is vacating her spot on the Ivey Poker roster and taking her talents to 888poker in her new position as poker ambassador for the online site.
With impressive back to back years at the WSOP and over $1 million in live career tournament earnings, Glazier plans to use her new sponsorship to represent Team 888poker effective immediately, at the World Series of Poker Europe in Paris and beyond.
Team 888poker is compiled of an eclectic mix of poker players and sports stars including former November Niner Sam Holden, Australian cricketer Shane Warne and, currently, even UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre.
In conjunction with the signing of “The New Queen Of Poker”, 888poker is running a special promotion aimed at Australians as well as all female poker players, to take place on July 28th.
Jackie Glazier Joins Team 888poker | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
Full Tilt Poker has just announced the appointment of four new Red Pros who in addition to their online duties, will also be representing the site at each of the upcoming UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Main Events. The players have been named as Martins Adeniya, Sinem Melin, Dermot Blain and Ben Jenkins, and as Full Tilt Poker’s Senior Manager of Pro, Celebrity & VIP Marketing, Dustin Iannotti, explains:
“These Tour Ambassadors will help redefine what it means to represent a poker site. These players are working with us to create exciting new live experiences that will leave UKIPT players with memories that extend well beyond the felt.”
The players’ are set to undertake their first Full Tilt Poker ambassador duties at the Full Tilt Poker Galway Festival, which takes place between July 27th and August 12th with the 60 tournament series also including the €1 million guaranteed UKIPT Galway Main Event, the €2,000 UKIPT High Roller, and the €10,000 UKIPT Super High Roller.
Here’s a closer look at Full Tilt Poker’s new ambassadors:
Martins Adeniya is an English business graduate and city trader who left his former job to concentrate on playing poker and has since carved out a lucrative career for himself multi-tabling at $10/$20 NL online cash games. Adeniya also boasts $487,965 in live tournament earnings, including a 7th place finish at the 2011 London UKIPT £5k event for £86,350 ($134,964).
Dermot Blain is a poker pro from Dublin, who shot to celebrity in August, 2009, after taking down the APPT Macau Main Event for $541,100. In 2011, Blain also finished at the €10k WSOP Europe Main Event in 5th for €275,000 ($367,362), and now has $1,359,192 in live earnings.
Ben Jenkins is an English pro who by the time he finished university was making more money as a poker player than he would have at most jobs. Up until now Jenkins has won an impressive $1,175,988 playing online under the screen name “onGs08bjohnson,” to go with his $231,435 he has won from live tournaments.
Sinem Melin is one of England’s most promising female poker players, having already made final tables in 2011 at the £500 UKIPT Brighton Main Event and in 2013 at the £1k GUKPT London Main Event. Sinem Melin’s live tournament earnings so far total $45,382, but that figure is set to rise considerably after having been signed by Full Tilt.
PokerStars is nearly ready to release a new Cocoa Mac client for real money play.
The new version has been in testing on the free play PokerStars.NET for some time. The real money release is first being rolled out to regional sites and, should all go well, the new PokerStars for Mac will be available on their .COM and .EU sites next month.
The new native application is said to include “initial Retina support for text and native OS controls.”
In addition, PokerStars announced a current client update included beta versions of re-entry tournaments and new card decks plus a short list of bug fixes and improvements.
PokerStars to Roll Out New Mac Client in August | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
Full Tilt Poker has announced the names of three Tour Ambassadors that will represent the online poker site at the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT). The young Australians, Jono Karamalikis, Liam O’Rourke and Tom Grigg will participate in each ANZPT Main Event, be involved in a number of Full Tilt Poker promotions, as well as play online on Full Tilt as Red Pros.
Jono Karamalikis is one of Australia’s brightest poker talents with $2,114,747 in live tournament earnings, highlighted by victory at the 2012 Asia Championship of Poker High Rollers Event in Macau for $478,292. In addition, Karamalikis has won a further $4,526,431 playing online under the screen name ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’.
Next, Liam ‘RAWKZ’ O’Rourke is an accomplished pro that first started playing poker when he turned 18, with his list of accomplishments now including winning an online Triple Crown consisting of victory at the $50 Full Tilt Poker ‘Fifty-Fifty’ ($8,192), followed by a PokerStars $44 6-max tournament ($4,260) before taking down Titan Poker’s $50 Rebuy ($7,546). O’Rourke has also notched up $283,823 in live winnings since 2010, including finishing runner-up at the 2012 ANZPT Sydney Main Event for $152,426.
Finally, a few years back Canberra’s Tom Grigg left the world of academia to focus on playing poker and since 2009 has amassed $382,088 in live earnings, including a number of six-figure cashes playing at the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT).
Commenting on its new Tour Ambassadors, Dustin Iannotti, Full Tilt Poker’s Senior Manager of Pro, Celebrity & VIP Marketing, said: “Our ANZPT Tour Ambassadors represent everything Full Tilt Poker stands for. They are talented players with a passion for constantly improving their skill set, supporting grassroots poker and spreading the word about the game.”
Online poker giant PokerStars declared earlier today that August is VIP Club Month on the site, and they are going to be running a series of promotions to benefit all of their VIP Club members over the course of the next 31 days.
The marquee promotion is the $1M VIP Giveaway, in which PokerStars is slated to run a series of five “tournaments” that will give out both cash and tickets to the World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP). The difference in these special tournaments is that more of a raffle and less of a tournament, as players are forced to go all-in every hand and let luck take it’s course.
VIP Club Members have a number of ways to take advantage of the promotion, including VIP Club Happy Hours between Aug 5-11, where players can get up to 50% more FPPs, VIP Store Sales from August 9-31 and Trivia Satellites freerolls, giving away 35,000 entries to the $1M giveaway.
Finally, on August 31, the VIP Club will run a massive satellite for the WCOOP Main Event in which no less than 100 seats, worth $520k, will be given away.
PokerStars Announces "VIP Club Month" | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
American players with money stuck on Full Tilt Poker can expect to see their funds returned 'shortly' according to an update from the Garden City Group, the organisation charged with returning the cash on behalf of the US government.
This announcement comes almost a full year after PokerStars agreed to pay the SDNY $731m to settle its federal case, and acquire Full Tilt Poker in its entirety.
FTP was reopened for business in November 2012 and non-US customers were immediately given access to their accounts, and allowed to withdraw their funds.
As part of the deal with PokerStars, the Department of Justice was put in charge of paying back Full Tilt's former American customers. Since then, US customers have been playing the waiting game.
The GCG have created an FTP Claims Administration website, but so far have not sent out the emails they promise will start the claims process.
This issue has already resulted in a massive thread on the world’s largest online poker forum 2+2, which has over a quarter of a million views and over 3,000 written responses. The main complaint is in the GCG's vague use of language, and lack of clear communication regarding the timeline for the claims.
Even more worrying than the timeline though, is this statement from the GCG: “The calculation formula to be used for the Petition for Remission process will be based on players’ final balances with FTP as of April 15 2011.”
With many phantom transactions happening in and around April 15, including Full Tilt crediting players' without actually withdrawing the money from their bank accounts, there is no way of knowing if there will be enough funds to cover all the US Full Tilt account balances.
The GCG statement states: “If the forfeited funds available for distribution equal or exceed the aggregate FTP Account Balances for all eligible Petitioners, each eligible Petitioner with an approved claim will receive the entirety of his or her FTP Account Balance. If the aggregate FTP Account Balances for all eligible Petitioners exceed the funds available for distribution, payments shall be made to eligible Petitioners on a pro rata basis.”
More on this story as it develops.
Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk American Full Tilt Poker Players to be Paid Back 'Shortly' - Mirror Online
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Full Tilt Poker has unveiled a new “Build Your Bonus” promotion. The new multi-tiered scheme allows for players to opt-in and, depending on many points they rack up, get both a one-time cash release bonus as well as a cash bonus requiring play-through.
Step one for Full Tilt customers is to make sure to opt-in to the promotion between now and Wednesday, August 28. If a player doesn’t specifically opt-in, they won’t get to partake. The player then needs to log-in and earn at least 1 Full Tilt Point (FTP) on five days or more between Monday, August 19 and August 28 just to qualify.
Once qualified, the real grind begins: One can now “build your bonus” by reaching a target level of FTPs, at which point the poker room will release some of the bonus as instant cash (40%) and the rest in a standard play through bonus (60%) at a rate of $1 per every 25 FTPs earned.
There are more twists to this rather complicated promo: The number of days you earn a FTP during the qualifying period is equal to the number of days you have to clear your bonus, starting on August 29. If that player doesn’t clear their entire bonus, it will be pro-rated for them.
There’s 5 tiers you can achieve from 100 FTPs up to 10k. For all the details, check out Full Tilt Launches $400 "Build Your Bonus" Promotion | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
A new poker site LiveAce has gone live in the US and will allow players in 31 states to play online poker for free but still have the chance to win real money and prizes. The site hopes to generate revenue from memberships of its “Club Live Premium”, in game advertising, and chip purchases for real money.
However, it won’t be run like standard sweepstakes tournaments, the site offers cash games only where you can buy-in for free and when a player wins the winnings are used to place bids for prizes in daily auctions.
At present the site offers No-Limit Hold’em, Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha games.
Additionally, LiveAce has signed World Poker Tour and two time WSOP bracelet winner Andy Frankenberger to be the site’s first sponsored pro.
This site gives players a base amount of chips to start a playing with; if a player goes broke they can get a free re-fill once a day. However, if players want to be the big stack at the table, or play higher buy-in games, then there is the option to purchase additional chips.
Paying for premium membership will give members additional chips, custom avatars, a real-time odds calculator, hand histories and an ad-free environment.
In a move that is sure to stir no small amount of discontent among its player base, PartyPoker has – with no official notice – added what many would consider to be a very substantial fee on cashouts using certain payment methods.
Details on the new cashout fee
Without an official statement from Party, all we have to go on are reports from players and our own experiences at the site.
When taken together, that collective pool of information suggests that PartyPoker is charging a fee for withdrawals that combines a flat fee amount with a percentage based on the amount you are cashing out.
This fee appears to only apply to cashouts made using Neteller or Skrill (Moneybookers). But the use of the word “only” in that last sentence may be a bit misleading, as Neteller and Skrill almost certainly make up the vast majority of cashout requests by total dollar volume at PartyPoker.
Several players have anecdotally confirmed conversations with PartyPoker VIP support that indicate this change is intended to be a permanent one.
News of the fee comes as players continue to await the oft-delayed launch of Party’s new online poker software.
Amount varies by location and currency of account
The flat fee is quasi-variable and depends on what currency you use at PartyPoker. For USD, the fee is $4. For EUR the fee is €3. And if your account is denominated in GBP you’re looking at a flat fee of £2.50.
Those flat fees are certainly large enough to merit some consternation on the part of players. But unfortunately in this situation they’re likely to be the lesser of two evils.
That’s because of the other component of the reported fee – the part based on the amount you choose to cash out. Reports are that Party is charging a whopping 3% on Skrill and Neteller withdrawals – with no cap.
Consider a €1000 euro withdrawal. If made by Skrill or Neteller, that will now cause players to pay €3 + €30 for the privilege of cashing out their own money.
Ability to withdraw without fees maintained by some players
With such outrageous fees in play, the aim of PartyPoker appears to be to shift players toward other deposit methods. Many players on TwoPlusTwo report being able to use bank transfers without paying a fee, and credit cards – assuming they were used to deposit – could also be an option. There are also alternative ewallets.
But those options are not available to players in all countries. And if your primary currency is one of the standard Party currencies – say, for example, that your base currency is Canadian dollars – you could be subject to additional currency fees on top of the new cash out fees.
Fee was thought to be limited to Russia and some other markets
News of this increase originally began circulating around online poker forums earlier in August. But at that time it was thought that the policy only applied to players from Russia.
With that understanding in hand, many players concluded that Party was simply tacking on a fee to counterbalance the high levels of payment processing fraud thought to accompany play from the Russian market for online gambling – quite high even when compared to the US online poker market and certainly well above fraud levels among UK online gamblers.
And for a time it does appear that the policy was limited to Russia and a few other countries. But as it currently stands, the policy appears to be universal, applying to all cashouts made using Skrill or Neteller – regardless of where you’re playing from or where your account home address is located.
Will Americans pay for cashouts?
It’s hard not to wonder if PartyPoker will attempt to export this policy to the regulated market for online poker in the United States, where the company is likely to play an influential role.
After all, poker players from American states like Maine and Texas are already somewhat accustomed to paying fees at unregulated US online poker sites such as Carbon Poker. That combination might suggest an environment where small cash out fees would meet with little resistance.
On the other side of that coin: Fierce competition between multiple rooms for a small player pool could quickly quash any effort to pass costs on to the end user.
Party Poker Adds Fees for Skrill, Neteller Player Cashouts
The beta test site for PartyPoker’s long anticipated new software was leaked over the weekend. The test site currently carries a notice: “Our beta version is currently offline while we are fixing bugs.”
However, a rolling slideshow shows a few glimpses of what the new software will look like and what it will do. First is the strong emphasis on making the most of poker’s social aspects: Beta versions are put out to discover any remaining glitches in the software that intensive practical use brings to light, but the announced launch window of August is rapidly closing—the summer bugs are being persistent this year.
Party Poker
PartyPoker Beta Test Site Provides First Glimpse of New Software | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
Player traffic at Full Tilt Poker has gone up because of the online poker room’s Build Your Bonus promo, which turned out to be one of the best marketing strategies ever launched by the online poker room. However, not all online poker rooms and networks have been as successful as Full Tilt Poker. Recently, Revolution Gaming lost Red Star Poker and was forced to consider new ways to build its traffic.
According to PokerScout-com, an independent tracker of online poker rooms that recently published statistics related to player traffic to various online poker rooms, player traffic to Full Tilt Poker increased by 14 percent because of the online poker site’s Build Your Bonus promo.
This increase in player traffic makes Full Tilt Poker the second largest online poker site in the world, the first largest being PokerStars, which owns Full Tilt Poker. The average 7-day traffic to Full Tilt Poker is now 2,700 players. The third largest online poker network in terms of player traffic is iPoker Network, but iPoker Network has lost a few players recently and reports an average 7-day traffic of 2,300 players to its cash games tables.
Meanwhile, player traffic to the skins on the Revolution Gaming Network has reduced by 17 percent after Red Star Poker left the network and joined Microgaming Poker Network, which was more than happy to accept the online poker room. Now that Red Star Poker has joined MPN, the online poker network stands in a position to develop strategies to increase its player traffic. Since MPN averages as many as 1,180 players in 7 days, it is on the verge of occupying the rank of Winamax, a French online poker site that currently occupies the position of ninth largest online poker room in the world.
The Beast, a promotion launched by Winning Poker Network, attracted a lot of attention, boosting player traffic to the network considerably; but now players are losing interest in this once-popular promo.
The overall growth of the online poker industry is very poor; and last week, the growth rate was just 0.2 percent. It is also worth noting that the growth rate of the online poker industry has declined by 12 percent over the last year.
Next week, PokerScout-com is expected to publish a report on traffic changes at the US’ only licensed and regulated online poker room Ultimate Poker in Nevada after the online poker room rolled out its new software program.
Build Your Bonus Promo Increases Full Tilt Poker Traffic
Bwin.party has announced that the long-awaited relaunch of its new online poker offering is set to commence around mid-September.
Company CEO Norbert Teufelberger confirmed that the rollout will include modifications that cater to recreational players and should occur in “the next two weeks.” Part of the plan encompasses rating players according to skill level in order to strike a competitive balance on the felt.
Also on tap in the new platform will be an emphasis on socialization with fellow players, as well as a gamification strategy that is designed to entice players to climb various ladders of achievement. PartyPoker seems on course to follow the trend in online poker that currently favors casual players.
In addition, bwin.party is taking aim at gaining share of the mobile online gaming market and is preparing a new mobile sport-betting release by year's end. Bwin's mobile revenue numbers currently lag behind its competition with only 9% of its revenue derived from players on the go. The gaming company hopes to increase those numbers substantially with a goal of 50% of revenue obtained via touch devices within 28 months.
“Mobile is a big area for us,” Teulfelberger told eGR. “If we get it right in the next few months, we should be able to win back market share.”
PartyPoker has fallen behind 888Poker to fifth place in PokerScout's worldwide online poker rankings and is banking on its new online poker offering to gain player traffic. A television ad campaign will accompany the relaunch.
Bwin.party is also looking forward to the regulated online gambling launch in New Jersey that is scheduled for November 26. Bwin will supply the software for Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. The company also intends to submit an application for a gaming license in Nevada's online poker scheme.
PartyPoker to Rollout New Online Poker Product in Two Weeks | PokerUpdate
Many players of online poker in the United States have found it difficult to access real-money games in recent years, much less have they enjoyed the relatively wide array of mobile gambling options enjoyed by players who live in regulated markets in Europe and elsewhere.
A small step toward better access to mobile online poker came last week, however, when Carbon Poker announced that it has launched real-money mobile poker.
Despite the fact that the site is not yet fully functional across all devices, users in the 2+2 forums reported mostly small problems related to connectivity and such, and much of that being reported by Android users specifically.
Play money came first, then beta version, now real-money
The launch of Carbon Poker’s real-money mobile client has been some time in the making, with the company first introducing a play money online poker game before announcing testing of the app back in February of this year.
While the initial launch is relatively limited in terms of the games being offered, Carbon said last month via its website that it eventually plans to introduce additional variations.
“Those playing Carbon Mobile can look forward to both No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Hold’em cash games. At the moment, tournament play isn’t available, but this is likely to change in the future. We’d also like to add other variants to the mix such as Omaha and Pot-Limit Omaha,” a statement on the company’s web site read.
Android users will experience temporary difficulties
Though Carbon Poker is meant to be accessible across all mobile platforms as it is essentially browser-based, for the time being it is not fully compatible with Android, users of which took to 2+2 to complain about problems they were experiencing trying to play via their devices.
A rep for Carbon responded in the forum, advising that the site has yet to be fully optimized for use on Android and that they are aware of the issues being reported by players and are working on them. For the time being, users of iPhones and iPads will have the best opportunity to play Carbon Poker via their mobile devices, as Carbon’s mobile client is only fully optimized for iOS5+ as yet.
And players from NY, KY, DC, MD, MI, WA, or LA will not be able to access the real-money mobile client at Carbon as the site does not accept customers for real-money play from those states. Review a complete list of options for US poker players here.
Is mobile the answer to Carbon Poker’s traffic woes?
Traffic at the Merge Poker Network – the home of Carbon Poker – has dropped nearly in half over the last 6 months. Part of that slump has come as the industry has contracted as a whole. Part can be chalked up to the increasing competitive pressures on US-facing poker sites.
But a substantial chunk of the decline can be traced to policy decisions undertaken by Merge that motivated parts of their player base to move to competing sites like BetOnline.
Consider Merge’s unpopular decision to do away with player-to-player transfers. Or the increasing amount of player segregation the network employs from skin to skin, a policy that US market leader Bodog / Bovada recently eschewed publicly on TwoPlusTwo. While no single decision had a ruinous impact on Carbon’s traffic, the cumulative effect pushed Carbon from the leading spot among US-facing rooms down to a distant second behind Bodog.
With mobile, Carbon is obviously hoping to make up some of that surrendered market share. After all, the full launch of the mobile client leaves Carbon as the only US-facing poker site that offers such a feature.
Unfortunately for Carbon, the appeal of mobile online poker remains something of an untested proposition in the United States. Prior to Black Friday, Full Tilt Poker was the only major room to offer a US-friendly real-money mobile client. Players using the Full Tilt mobile client were limited to Rush Poker play on Android devices. Full Tilt never broke out numbers for mobile activity, but observers contended that Rush Poker player pools did not grow to any noticeable degree following the launch of the Full Tilt mobile app.
Carbon Poker Releases Much-Anticipated Mobile Online Poker Application
Full Tilt Poker launched a special online tournament this weekend alongside its sister site PokerStars. Beginning today and lasting until September 22, Full Tilt Poker is hosting the MiniFTOPS XXIII, which features a guaranteed $3 million in prizes available for the best players in the tournament.
The MiniFTOPS is a more affordable version of the FTOPS online poker tournament that went live from August 4 until August 18. But unlike the main FTOPS event, the MiniFTOPS requires only 10 percent of the buy-in for the main tournament, which in some ways makes the smaller tournament more appealing to players.
The buy-ins begin for as little as $11, but players are required to stake $75 on the final day of the MiniFTOPS tournament. The prize pool is a guaranteed minimum of $250,000 on the first day of the tournament, while the final day promises players a minimum $750,000 prize pool.
The FTOPS and MiniFTOPS events are some of Full Tilt Poker’s most popular tournaments, which could be discontinued next year. Rumours are circulating that the Rational Group, which owns Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, is rebranding the Full Tilt domain as an online casino featuring a number of classic casino games. The new casino brand could lead to the suspension or elimination of Full Tilt’s popular online poker tournaments in favour of the larger tournaments available through PokerStars.
The success of the MiniFTOPS tournament in comparison to the World Championship of Online Poker powered by PokerStars may determine whether Full Tilt Poker continues with its own branded online poker tournaments. The PokerStars event also begins today, and will continue until September 29. PokerStars accountholders can also participate in a special Freeroll tournament on September 15 by using a special bonus code in partnership with Twitter.
September is definitely a popular month for poker fans – ready to go all in?
Full Tilt Poker Launches MiniFTOPS XXIII Online Tournament | OnlineCasino.org
As the new online poker client was rolling out late last week, a bwin.party representative confirmed that the fee for withdrawals to e-wallets is a permanent change.
Late last month, PartyPoker introduced a $4+3% fee for all withdrawals to Skrill and Neteller.
There was some hope among players that the change was introduced to curb abuse of a month-long Skrill promotion, which rewarded players cashback for using the service.
However, a spokesperson for bwin.party has now confirmed that the fee will remain, and it is also now applied to withdrawals through the WebMoney ewallet. The fee was originally $4 (or €3 / £2.50 depending on the balance currency) plus an uncapped 3% of the withdrawal amount. The fixed fee has been dropped, by the 3% remains.
“Payment processors charge online gaming companies when players deposit funds in their accounts, and again when they withdraw them,” Jeffrey Haas, newly appointed Group Director of Poker, explained on the 2+2 poker forums.
'We have traditionally absorbed those transaction costs in our overhead, but changed our policy last month in respect to withdrawals by e-wallet methods only …. We still pay the fee for players funding their accounts, but now ask that players pay the fee when they withdraw using those e-wallets,” he added.
Transaction rates for large merchants at Skrill on the standard rate card are below 2% although rates for online gaming clients, which are not publicized, are understood to be slightly higher.
Depending on the player’s country, there should be a fee-free withdrawal option available, such as PayPal or credit card, but normally players need to successfully deposit first before using that cashout method. Checks by mail have a fixed $5 fee, and a 7-20 day wait period.
Argentinean Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez has been suspended from Team Pokerstars for allegedly violating the Terms and Conditions of the online poker giant.
Word began to spread this week that the oft-seen patch wearing pro was removed from the website and, while no official statement from PokerStars has been released, speculation of potential multi-accounting surfaced as a reason.
According to an interview conducted by HUSNG-com, poker professional Dan Coleman called out recent activity on Leo Fernandez’s PokerStars account as not being Leo himself, but in actuality being Uruguay’s Fabrizio “SixthSenSe19” Gonzalez. Coleman goes on to allege that “SixthSense” is “banned” from PokerStars and used Fernandez’s PokerStars account to get his fix, and subsequently lose over $400k.
Another report, from Brazilian site superpoker-com, states that Fernandez is not just suspended from Team PokerStars but from logging on and playing on both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker for a duration of 6 months.
Team PokerStars Pro Suspended | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
According to the latest report by PokerScout-com, Full Tilt Poker has now slipped to fourth place in online cash game traffic behind PokerStars, iPoker Network and 888Poker.
The battle for third place has been fiercly contested for a long time, with poker rooms trying to wrestle the spot from Full Tilt Poker in the past including PartyPokerand bwin.party.
Then back in June, 888Poker was able to climb the ranks for fourth place, although it seemed a mighty task for the company to then overtake Full Tilt for third spot. This week, however, 888 was able to make that a reality after enjoying a seven-day average of 2,150 players compared to 2,100 players playing cash-games on Full Tilt Poker over the same period.
The increase in player traffic also now puts 888Poker within a short distance of bridging the extra 150 players or so needed in order to overtake iPoker for second place.
In addition, 888Poker saw its revenue boosted by 13% to $46.9 million in H1 2013, and the company’s impressive performance may give it just the boost needed to take second spot before the year’s end.
Nevertheless, PokerStars’ position in pole position will remain secure, considering the iPoker Network in second place has a seven-day traffic average of 2,300, less than a tenth of the 20,800 players visiting the world’s biggest site over the same period.
Meanwhile, Full Tilt Poker would appear to be pulling out all the stops in order to halt its dramatic slide and is currently running a Take 2” promotion. This promotion will run through to Sunday October 6th, and enables players to earn double FTP Points anytime of the day by playing at the site’s Rush poker tables or at two or more regular cash games tables at the same time.
Following the announcement, the Rational Group release a statement, stating: “The new games on Full Tilt will provide more options with the same high-quality player experience, integrity, security, safety, and support that players have come to expect from our brands. PokerStars will continue to offer a poker-only experience.”
The latest news has been received with surprise by the online poker industry as the site was originally branded as a poker network, and in the past Full Tilt Poker was considered a pioneer of the industry with its top of the range software, and its popular action game Rush Poker.
Speculation on the reasons behind the move, includes helping Full Tilt to facilitate entry into the U.S. market and then being able to swiftly offer casino gaming to its customers, with any site offering just poker likely to suffer from a competitive disadvantage.
Nevertheless, while some Full Tilt customers seem ok with the bold move to add casino games, others have questioned the effect it will have on the health of its poker offering. When poker “fish” go on tilt, for instance, their money is often filtered quickly through the poker ecology, but it may now simply end up in the pockets of the site as a player tries to quickly win his money back at the casino. Therefore, players in future may now be tempted to simply keep less sizable balances at Full Tilt once the casino product is released.
Full Tilt Gaming To Replace Full Tilt Poker