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Full Tilt Poker may be the home of the biggest online cash games in the world and the high stakes FTOPS tournament series, but from October 13 through to October 27, 2013 Full Tilt Poker is the home to the Micro Turbo Online Poker Series, or MTOPS for short.

Featuring 75 events (and a Main Event) across two weeks, the MTOPS is ideal for players who do not have the bankroll to play the high buy-in FTOPS events but want to get involved an exciting online poker festival. Buy-ins start as low as 100 Full Tilt Points with the largest buy-in of the regular events being only $5.50.

The highlight of the festival has to be the Main Event. Costing an affordable $15 to enter, the MTOPS Main Event features a massive $500,000 guaranteed prize pool plus the chance to win a $100 bounty by knocking out selected Full Tilt Poker Pros such as Martins Adeniya, Dermot Blain and Viktor Blom (pictured).

All of the MTOPS events are played to Full Tilt Poker’s exclusive Multi-Entry Tournament format, which enables player to enter the same tournament several times, increasing the players’ chances of making into the money places. Some events allow four entries per player while the Main Event allows eight entries.

Throughout the MTOPS, players are automatically competing in the MTOPS Multi-Entry Challenge where tournament tickets worth over $1,900 are up for grabs. Multiple cashes in the same event are rewarded with leader board chips and the more of these chips a player earns, the better the prize is at the end of the MTOPS.

MTOPS Multi-Entry Challenge Leader board chips are awarded as follows:

Cash tice in a single event to earn one chip
Cash three times in a single event to earn three chips
Cash four times in a single event to earn six chips
Cash five times in a single event to earn ten chips
Cash six times in a single event to earn twenty chips

In addition to winning leader board chips, each time a player merges three or more stacks in an individual tournament, a $500 cash bonus is awarded for each additional merge. Two or more merge in different tournaments awards multiple $75 tournament tickets, too.

Stacks are merged in Multi-Entry tournaments when a player has more entries than there are tables remaining in the tournament. Two or more of a player’s stacks are merged into one so that they do not have more than one entry seated at the same table.

The only place to play the MTOPS is at Full Tilt Poker. Download Full Tilt Poker via PokerNews, create a free account and when you come to make your first deposit at Full Tilt Poker it will be matched 100% up to $600! In fact you first three deposits are matched 100% up to a combined maximum of $600. Plus, new players also receive a welcome package that includes 10 entries into $50,000 worth of freerolls.

What are you waiting for? Download Full Tilt Poker today and prepare for the hottest, fastest and most exciting micro stakes tournament series ever run.



Full Tilt Poker

On Monday and Tuesday, Garden City Group, Inc. (GCG) sent email notices to all Full Tilt Poker players who are potentially eligible for the Full Tilt Poker funds that were seized to file petitions for remission. GCG is the company tasked with redistribution of these funds. It identified these petitioners using data from Full Tilt Poker.

The company said that any emails that “bounced back” will be resent. Full Tilt Poker users who have been expecting the emails but are yet to receive them have been asked to give it a couple of days. “Please allow 2-3 additional days, as GCG attempts to resend emails, and then you may file a new Petition for Remission.”

Players who received the emails are requested to log on to the GCG website to get the petition process started. As from Wednesday going up to Nov. 16, 2013, GCG will be accepting Petitions for Remission. On the website is a tab that has been included on the left menu to allow for this.

As for anybody who registered on the FullTiltPokerClaims-com website but failed to be selected as a potentially eligible petitioner, they will not be receiving any emails from GCG with log on credentials.


Some Full Tilt Accounts Won't Be Paid

Severe server and network problems at Intertops disrupted play at the Revolution Gaming poker room yesterday.

According to the Intertops rep on 2+2, by now, “most services should be available again, some depositing methods (such as credit card) might still be unavailable.”

Players who encountered problems with tournaments are urged to contact support for refunds.

Interestingly, the rep added: “This is not the implementation of the new MTT schedule and we are not switching networks.”

Rumors that Intertops is not happy with Revolution have been rife. Last month Intertops opted out of all mid-stakes cash games and multi-table tournaments (MTT) leading Revolution to drop all Sunday guarantees by 20%.

Online poker’s industry leader PokerStars has announced plans to build a $10 million dollar poker room at Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino Hotel as a part of their internet partnership with the brick and mortar casino, according to an article in Press of Atlantic City.

The plans, which are contingent on PokerStars receiving a gambling license in New Jersey, have construction on the new room set to begin immediately upon being awarded a license.

Eric Hollreiser, head of corporate communications at PokerStars’ parent company Rational Group, confirmed the plans in a statement to pokerfuse and added, “We will provide more details once these plans are finalized.”

Resorts, which has not had a live poker room since 2010, and PokerStars are hoping to build a bridge for those who would play poker online to visit and play live tournaments and cash games in the nw venue. Branded as the “PokerStars poker room at Resorts”, the live poker room would be backed by the marketing power of the largest online poker room in the world.

“PokerStars is committed to investing significant resources to put a brand new poker room at Resorts Casino Hotel. In addition to the poker room, they are committed to driving traffic to Atlantic City through their marketing,” commented William J. Pascrell III, speaking on behalf of PokerStars.

In what looks like an additional incentive for the state of New Jersey to grant PokerStars a license, the partnership is also trumpeting the creation of jobs that PokerStars and Resorts would bring to the state.

In addition to the building of the new poker room, PokerStars is planning on establishing a North American Headquarters in New Jersey, which is expected to employ approximately 150 people, and an additional 50 people to establish the systems needed to get the online site up and running would be hired immediately upon PokerStars receiving a license.

Up to 200 additional jobs may then be created next year should multi-state agreements be formed and a wider network created.

With internet gaming slated to begin in New Jersey on November 26 of this year, there are some concerns that as a result of PokerStars’ involvement in the Black Friday indictments, the online leader may be deemed unsuitable for license. Without a license, of course, the plans for the poker room would not materialize.

PokerStars and Resorts formed a partnership after PokerStars’ well publicized plans to purchase the Atlantic Club fell through. While PokerStars and the Atlantic Club are still embroiled in litigation over the money that was invested in the early stages of that agreement, PokerStars is pushing forward with the new poker room and keeping an eye on a casino of their own.

“They’re willing to talk to all of the various casinos that are for sale,” Pascrell added.

PokerStars last land based promotion on US soil was the short lived NAPT which famously concluded two days before Black Friday when Vanessa Selbst capped a victory on back-to-back NAPT Mohegan Sun titles.



PokerStars Plans $10M Atlantic City Poker Room | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

The Garden City Group (GCG), the organization in charge of the Full Tilt Poker Remission Process, updated their website on Thursday to remind the public that new petitions can be created even without Petition and Control Numbers issued to some victims via email.

Just days after their most recent update that notified the public that the remission process is well underway and all email notifications have been sent, the GCG is also clarifying how those who feel entitled to be a part of the Remission process can apply, even if they have not been contacted.

In the update the GCG notes that no one is prevented from filing a Petition for Remission. Those that have not been provided with a designated Petition and Control number are “able to “Create A New Petition directly from the website.

Once the deadline to submit a Petition for Remission passes on Saturday, November 16, the GCG will review all “confirmed, disputed and new” petitions using criteria provided by the Department of Justice.



Garden City Group Issues a Reminder About New Petitions | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

The Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival Main Event saw 32-year old Ontario resident Herni Balcazar best a record field to become its inaugural champion and take home a first place prize of $194,044.

Balcazar swiftly claimed the title after only 3 hands of heads up play, defeating local player Eric Despres who walked with $150k for his efforts.

However, before heads up play began, a three-way deal was made. Balcazar, Despres and eventual 3rd place finisher New York resident and World Poker Tour BestBet Champion, Michael Linster cut a deal that resulted in Linster, he chipleader at the time, actually walking away with the lion’s share of the prize pool, clean $200k.

The festival’s Main Event, which took place at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal, had a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the Montreal poker community, the prize pool surpassed that and reached over $1.5m.

“Full Tilt Poker was thrilled to bring a tournament of this calibre to Quebec. As the turn out for the event demonstrates, we have received amazing support from the poker community across the province and country. It was an honour to host a world class poker event for Canadian players to play close to home,” commented Geoff Fardy, Full Tilt Poker Country Manager.

The 1,625 runners helped the event set a new Canadian record for most entrants in a poker tournament with a buyin of over $1k.



Henri Balcazar Victorious At Full Tilt Montreal Festival | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

The internet is so jam packed with information sometimes it takes a long time to sort out the good the bad and the just plain ugly. The online gambling industry is one very busy environment and again it takes time and due diligence to sort out the riff raff from the honest punters.
Nothing makes a gambler more upset than when they have been cheated and cheating on internet poker sites is no exception. There are those dedicated to cheating the system and profiting handsomely for the effort. The risks that these cheats take and the scams they create are a constant threat to online poker operators worldwide.

PokerStars is the biggest online poker provider and it brings its product to thousands of poker players twenty four seven. The company confirmed they detected a cheat in the mid-to-high stakes Pot Limit Omaha virtual tables and that players are receiving refunds in respect of incidents.
Most registered online poker rooms keep a sharp eye on the proceeding in all the games offered and PokerStars has a stellar reputation for detecting and removing card sharks and punishing them. The firm is also known for its quick response and repayment of losses incurred during cheating sessions.

PokerStars is registered with the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission and is required to bring any incidence of wrongdoing to the attention of the Commission. The Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission can the exercise its authority and launch an investigation if necessary.
In the most recent incident with PokerStars and the cheats they have not disclosed the names of the perpetrators apparently on the advice of their legal team. Players on the site have expressed some dissatisfaction with this approach. Players reserve the right to know who the bad actors were and are resolved to finding out who they are according to some sources.



Online Poker Cheats Detected on PokerStars

The week of October 13 – 20 should see PokerStars put on its 800 millionth tournament. The world’s biggest site plans to mark the occasion with a week of tournament promotions.

After the success of its “Road to 100 Billion” cash game promotion PokerStars may be feeling that it has neglected its equivalent achievements in putting on online poker tournaments. If so, it will rectify that oversight with a “Carnival of Tournaments” featuring “$2 million in boosted guarantees, $700,000 in added giveaway prizes, and other special tournaments.”

The multi-table tournaments (MTT) will see all guarantees on “Big” tournaments increased by 50% from October 14-18. On October 19, they will be doubled, and on the 20th, all “Big” events will see guarantees tripled.

Additional bubble ticket prizes worth over $100k will also be given away during the week. The 800 millionth tournament will get special treatment. It has been pre-planned to be played on October 20 at 1pm EST. A $1m guarantee will be put up for the $109 buy in event, and for the first two hours, $100k in extra prizes will be given out at random tables.

Sit and go (SNG) tournament players won’t be left behind, as the week will also see the return of “Golden Sit and Go” tournaments. Randomly selected tables will be highlighted as one of three categories of “golden.”

The “Big” SNGs will see the prize pool doubled; “Bigger” SNGs get tripled and the “Biggest” category will see the prize pool quintupled.

The “Road to 100 Billion” finale saw the entire online poker market distorted by the huge traffic boost PokerStars received. On past performance, the week of October 13 – 20 could be a tough one for other operators.



PokerStars Soon to Reach 800 Million Tournaments | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

Just three weeks shy of its one-year anniversary following a relaunch under new ownership last November, Full Tilt Poker has tumbled to sixth place in global online poker player traffic rankings.

The two-spot fall from fourth place came as a result of cash game traffic decreasing 5% last week, according to PokerScout. Prior to its relaunch on November 6, 2012 under the direction of Rational Group, many industry observers had predicted Full Tilt would retain the second place ranking it enjoyed before the misdeeds of Ray Bitar and Howard Lederer came to light.

Indeed, Full Tilt did hold that runner-up slot behind sister site PokerStars in worldwide traffic for a good portion of the last year. However, the novelty of playing at the relaunched site that boasts perhaps the best software in the business has apparently worn off.

Players now favor the iPoker Network, 888Poker, PartyPoker, and even PokerStars' offering in Italy over the beleaguered Full Tilt, as those four poker rooms and/or networks hold down the second through fifth place rankings, respectively. Expect some new marketing initiatives to be unveiled at Full Tilt in the near future, as the most infamous poker site in online poker history is likely to attempt to win back cash game players.

iPoker has solidified its second place standing with a seven-day average player traffic count of 250 players greater than third place 888Poker. 888's advantage over PartyPoker is 100 players over the same seven-day span, 2,250 cash players to the 2,150 seen at the bwin.party offering.

PartyPoker continues to impress following its major software overhaul early last month that favors gamification. Glitches in the new software caused 8% of its players to log on elsewhere. PartyPoker software experts worked overtime to resolve the issues and their persistence has paid off. Player traffic has been climbing steadily ever since and the site now enjoys 5% more cash game action than that seen in the beginning of September.

U.S.-friendly poker sites also experienced more ring game player traffic recently. While the country's two main political parties are at loggerheads over solving budgetary concerns that have partially shutdown government offices, overall player traffic at U.S.-facing sites has risen 2%. Roughly 350,000 federal government workers have been idle during the two-week impasse and some of them are apparently playing online poker.

The online poker industry overall saw a gain of 1% in cash game traffic over numbers tabulated in the previous week. That marks an increase for two consecutive weeks, which is not uncommon for this time of the year. For those who prefer to look at the glass as half-empty, the overall market is down 10% from the same time last year.



Full Tilt Falls to 6th in Online Poker Player Traffic | PokerUpdate

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi recently addressed and confirmed the fact that he has, in fact, left his position as an ambassador for embattled US facing online poker site Lock Poker.

Speaking with Bluff Magazine from the floor of the World Series of Poker Europe, Mizrachi was asked if his picture being taken down from the Lock Poker website indicated that the relationship, which became official in January of 2013, has ended.

“Yea, yes it has,” Mizrachi tentatively replied “It has and we’ll send out a statement soon, yes.”

Hollywood Poker, the only online celebrity poker game that allows people to play their hands with their favorite celebrities, now offers a new addition to its vast online array of poker services: online slot tournaments. The pre-eminent, celebrity-centric online poker app is growing wider and getting even stronger in the gaming business. Hollywood Poker is paramount for offering the new function of play, which is available in multiple modes.

The star-studded online poker site is a leader in the gaming industry and gaining recognition still as well-known celebrities such as Dennis Quaid, James Woods, and Kevin Pollak frequent the site and play. Unlike the majority of the online gaming sites, Hollywood Poker is set apart from the competition, because it offers something distinct in the social gaming world: Hollywood Poker allows gamers to engage and become part of an uber-exclusive community. “Following the success of our one-of-a-kind celebrity social gaming experience and platform, slot tournaments felt like the next step,” said Alan Pavlish, CEO of Hollywood Poker. “The app is absolutely free and there are 3 different modes of slot play for players to choose from. This is a method of play we are pleased to offer and it pays out with large prizes.”

The gaming site has become the popular hotspot with new players joining daily with a flurry. Hollywood Poker is currently offering a “Best Value” chip package, which gives players $80 million in chips for an exchange of only $99.99, inclusive of all the fun buzz, clinking of coins, lights and jackpot action. The lowest chip package even gives players a staggering $2.2 million in chips, for a reasonable and minimal price of $4.99. Players are afforded creative control and can choose from a variety of different slot options, each draped with its own theme such as Celebrity Life, Candy Contraption and Boardwalk Blitz.

For the players that crave higher levels of competition, Hollywood Poker’s slot tournaments challenges its players to accept the quest to become the ultimate slots superstar and offers some royal rewards. Entry fees range from $25,000 to $1,000,000 in chips and doles out ultimate and not-to-miss jackpots, which reach all the way up to $60,000,000 in chips.

For more information, be sure to check out Hollywood Poker’s celebrity slot tournaments on Facebook and on the iPhone and iPad through the App Store.


Hollywood Poker Review - Free To Play on Facebook - Online Poker

Full Tilt Poker Professional, Victor “Isildur1” Blom, is planning on putting $100,000 of “his bankroll” up for grabs in a new heads up challenge for the online site. Starting on Friday, October 25 players can try and win a chance to go heads up with the online beast for a shot at a $1k freeroll payday in the Blom 100 promotion.

Full Tilt Poker will be hosting a series of freerolls between October 26-November 4 where the winner of the Flip Freeroll tournament will win the chance to go heads up with Blom for $1k of his own money.

“I’m putting up my own money for this because I like to challenge myself. It will be fun to see how many matches I win in the end. I want to win them all – that would be sick!” stated Blom emphatically in the press release.

Blom will take on 10 players a day for 10 days, each for $1,000. Players can nab up to four freeroll tickets per day when they deposit $20 or more; win a designated Sit & Go; cash in a MTT or win one of the 50 tickets that are up for grabs in the daily Twitter competitions. Details on the Twitter competitions will be made available on the official Twitter handle of FTP, @FullTiltPoker.

If a player makes it to the match with Blom, but happens to lose, they will be entered into another Blom 100 $5k freeroll as a bonus.

While the value of the promotion is apparent for the everyday player looking to go heads up with the online legend, it is unclear how this would benefit Blom himself if it truly is his own bankroll.




Isildur Offers Up $100k in Full Tilt Promotion | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

Regulated Nevada online poker room Ultimate Poker has rolled out real-money Omaha cash games.

Quietly debuting in the client Wednesday night, currently only 6-max PLO tables of $1/2 and 10c/25c are spread, presumably to test the waters. Omaha 8 tables will launch soon, and more stakes could come later as Hold’em games are currently spread from 1c/2c up to $10/20.

The introduction of Omaha games addresses one of the most frequent requests from Ultimate Poker customers.

It also brings it closer in line with its first Nevada competitor, WSOP-com, which debuted with Hold’em, Omaha and Stud games when it launched last month.

Currently there are no Omaha Sit & Go or schedule tournaments, and there is no way to filter these tables in the lobby.

The poker room launched a major software update in September which fixed various software issues, and brought with it resizable tables, new avatars and its VIP program, Color Up. The poker room is now pushing out more frequent incremental updates.

Last night’s upgrade also addressed many other frequent complaints: There are new red card backs, so its clearer to see who is still in the hand, fonts have been changed in the chat box for increase legibility, and rebuy tournaments are back.

Ultimate Poker still maintains a narrow lead over WSOP in terms of average concurrent cash game players, although this gap is closing. Both are preparing to expand their online poker operations with the launch of online gaming in the state of New Jersey next month.



Ultimate Poker Adds Omaha Cash Games Tables | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

This year, fewer players are on pace to qualify for PokerStars top VIP tier.




The one million VIP points mark needed to qualify for PokerStars Supernova Elite (SNE) status is being reached by fewer people. This year 174 players are “on pace” to make it, last year 295 players qualified.

SNE is an extremely tough mark to aim for, but the benefits are substantial. VIP benefits in the year the status is acquired are at least $100k, and if the status can be maintained for the following year, those benefits increase.

According to PokerStars Caleb on 2+2, around 200 players have earned over 600k points which could add to the number of SNE qualifiers if some of those players can increase their volume.

The top five are led by George Jorj95 Lind III who became the first player to cross the 10m VPP mark in lifetime earnings in September last year. PokerStars offered him a free choice of a dream holiday to mark the achievement.

Second placed AWice was the first player to achieve the lower level of Supernova, earning the necessary 100k VPPs in the first 39 hours and 25 minutes of 2013.
Top 5 VPP Earners This Year

3,712,271 Jorj95
2,583,329 AWice
2,100,904 River Prayer
1,905,597 B3RTstare
1,890,859 daddyrnac


PokerStars Supernova Elite Gets More Elite | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

As part of the latest heads up challenge from a nose bleed poker pro who is looking for some new action, online poker legend Victor “Isuldur1” Blom, is putting up $100,000 of his own bankroll (not Full Tilt’s money). Now through November 4th, any players who thinks they have what it takes, can try their luck at the $1000 freeroll and vie for a chance to go heads up with Blom in the Blom 100 promo.

Any player who wins one of these Flip Freeroll tournaments will get a chance to win $1K of Blom’s own money. Taking on 10 players per day for 10 days straight with $1K at stake in each event, Blom, who thinks very highly of his skills and many would say rightfully so, says, “I’m putting up my own money for this because I like to challenge myself. It will be fun to see how many matches I win in the end. I want to win them all – that would be sick!”

To get four freeroll tickets per day, just deposit a minimum amount of $20. Other ways to win a chance to play against Blom include designated Sit & Gos, cash in a MTT, or win one of 50 tickets up for grabs each day via Twitter. Check @FullTiltPoker for more info on the Twitter competitions.

As a consolation prize, any player who does happen to make it to the table with Blom, but doesn’t win his money, will be given a ticket to the Blom 100 $5K freeroll.

Players like Blom (Dwan), who seemingly get bored with the same old swapping back and forth of pots that could pay off most of our houses, have been known to strike up these challenges searching for what it was about poker that excited them in the first place. Usually these challenges serve to benefit the challenger (or significantly hurt their bankrolls), but there seems to be nothing much for Blom to gain here, seeing that it is his own bankroll he’d be “saving” if he wins all the matches. Perhaps it’s losing his money to the average online poker player that excites him, but he made it clear that all he really wants out of this is to win for the sake of winning, which may be just what he needs.


Full Tilt's Blom 100 Promo Going on Now

Thanks for the information

Full Tilt Poker began a Big Bonus promotion late last week in hopes of making a run at the no. 2 slot in global rankings of online poker player traffic.

PokerScout reports that cash game action is up over 20% at PokerStars' sister site since it kicked off its promo on Friday. The number of players taking seats at ring game tables has increased each day that the promotion has been in effect.

The Big Bonus promotion is one of a personal nature, with the amounts of player bonuses varying apparently according to their past loyalty to Full Tilt. Players have until November 12 to accept their personalized offers and two weeks after that to earn the points needed to release bonus cash.

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Full Tilt's relaunch under ownership of the Rational Group. The site immediately jumped to second place in worldwide rankings following its much-heralded online return in 2012. Full Tilt managed to remain behind PokerStars much of the past year until the last few months when it has been seen waffling between second and fifth place in the rankings. FTP did actually fall to sixth place for a short spell.

But the most tumultuous change in player traffic last week occurred at the Revolution Gaming Network when Lock Poker left the troubled network to strike out on its own as an independent poker room. Crying foul over an alleged breach of contract, Lock departed the network amid promises to players of a new beginning at Lock Poker 2.0.

That new beginning began with players being routed to Pure Poker instead of Lock Poker, apparently in an effort by Revolution to thwart the exodus of players. How that situation will turn out is anybody's guess at this point. It is highly likely that legal wrangling with a lot of accusatory finger pointing will remain on the agenda between the poker site and network for quite some time.

What is known is that Lock's departure caused player traffic at the U.S.-facing network to nosedive. Cash game traffic at Revolution is down nearly 30% and the network has tumbled to 29th on the global charts. Lock, meanwhile, has about one-fourth the traffic of Revolution, which caused PokerScout to point out that "Revolution has lost more players than Lock has gained in the dispute."

Another dispute that made headlines last week was that between players and PartyPoker. The bwin.party site yielded to the threat of an organized player sit-out and decided to end its controversial segregated tables.

Perhaps better known as its "Protected Table" policy that kept skilled players from joining tables populated by players who tend to lose money, a PartyPoker rep announced on 2 + 2 that the concept would be scrapped. Also promised by the bwin.party exec was better communication between the site and its loyal following.

PokerScout reports that traffic is up substantially at PartyPoker since Thursday's announcement. The sharks are apparently ecstatic and may be in a feeding frenzy now that they may once again swim among the fish.

The online poker industry saw overall player traffic rise less than 1% last week. But an increase is better than a decrease, especially when considering that numbers are 10% lower than the same time last year.



Full Tilt Aims for Big Boost in Online Poker Player Traffic | PokerUpdate

Representatives of bwin.party’s online poker room PartyPoker have committed to a new policy of regular communication with poker players.

Last week, a frank and thorough post by Jeffrey Haas, bwin.party’s new Director of Poker, set out a clear new policy of open engagement with players.

“With my arrival I can safely say that the 'run silent, run deep’ approach has been scrapped for good,” Haas explained. “Just so it’s clear: we are truly sorry for our silence, and will do much better in the future.”

Haas himself will not be posting in the future, but other members of the poker team will be doing so regularly: “Someone in my team is cataloguing issues from this thread, and will follow-up in the 'official thread’ next week,” he explained.

The policy shift came following outrage over reported abuse of its “skill segregation” system, which hid certain tables from winners to protect new and inexperienced players.

Angry customers organized a a public “sit-out” in protest. A day before the planned demonstration, Haas announced that the end of what it called internally “Protected Tables,” leading to a postponement of the protest.

When the policy was first introduced in February, PartyPoker did not inform players of the change. When the community became suspicious, Party vaguely confirmed that some form of separation by skill had been implemented, but did not provide any details, nor did they respond to pokerfuse’s requests for comment on the issue. Players were left to speculate on the breadth of the new system.

“This speculation has been due to our own silence about the implications of this functionality on our poker room, how it was intended to work, or why we were introducing these tables,” Haas explained last week.

“We certainly had many opportunities to reply to players’ concerns, but at the time took a position that our operational decisions were proprietary and confidential. Unfortunately this resulted in misunderstanding about our intent, leading to ill will in the poker community and ultimately harm to our business.”





PartyPoker Commits to Open Communication Policy with Players | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

For months, online gambling companies have been scrambling to make the roster of companies that will be allowed to offer legal gambling in New Jersey. And when the initial roster was posted on Friday, there was one major omission: PokerStars, the Isle of Man-based powerhouse with Internet business almost 10 times the size of its nearest competitor.

This is potentially disastrous news for PokerStars. New Jersey is one of the first states to legalize online gambling, and it could be even more important than Nevada, given its location on the populous East Coast. On Nov. 21, approved companies can start doing tests with play money, and five days later they can collect real cash.

The world’s biggest online gambling companies, several with histories of operating illegally in the U.S., have been elbowing to get on the state’s approved list. How willing regulators would be to let bygones be bygones was always a big open question. David Rebuck, the director of New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, acknowledged the tension in a recent interview with Marco Valerio of the Online Poker Report.
STORY: Closeted Skeletons Complicate the Legalization of Online Gambling

“I fully expect that most large corporations or businesses who have been engaged in gambling or Internet gambling in their history will have some problems that they’ve dealt with, or maybe they haven’t dealt with,” said Rebuck. He held open the possibility of granting a license to gambling companies in exchange for “significant conditions” and said the companies might have to oust people in leadership positions.

PokerStars is the trickiest case, given its prominence and history of illegal activity. The company’s current problems center on founder Isai Scheinberg, who continued to lead the company’s operations in the U.S. despite a 2006 federal law that banned online gambling. The companies that processed PokerStars’s credit card transactions during that period reclassified them under innocuous categories. Sued by the Justice Department for violating fraud and money-laundering laws, PokerStars eventually settled for $731 million without admitting wrongdoing.

The company saw the settlement as the first step on its way back into the U.S. Under the New Jersey law, online poker companies have to pair with brick-and-mortar casinos, so PokerStars tried to buy the struggling Atlantic Club Casino. The effort was stymied by regulators’ concerns over the company’s checkered past, and the Atlantic Club filed for bankruptcy Thursday.
STORY: For Now, at Least, This Online Gambling Outfit Holds All the Cards

PokerStars quickly pivoted, forming a partnership with the Resorts Casino. But in that case, the company couldn’t appeal to regulators with the hope of saving a local business, says Joe Brennan, director of the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association. “They weren’t creating 2,000 jobs or saving 500 jobs,” he says. “Now they were just a supplier, and there are plenty of those out there.”

Both PokerStars and the Division of Gaming Enforcement say the application process is still open, which may mean they’re still wrangling over details. If the company can’t figure things out soon, it could find itself shut out. In addition to the companies that were given licenses, regulators listed others that are eligible to get them (pdf)—essentially a menu of alternatives that Resorts could turn to if PokerStars isn’t ready to go.

If the games start without PokerStars, the world’s biggest poker company could be crippled in the U.S. while competitors get a head start. “I don’t want to say that this would be fatal,” says Brennan. “But it would be catastrophic for their efforts to get back into the United States.”




The Past Catches Up With PokerStars in New Jersey - Businessweek

Full Tilt Poker is still offering the opportunity for players to go heads up with FTP Professional Gus Hansen on television, but time is running out.

The new Full Tilt Poker Pro Battle TV show, a regional program aimed at players in the CIS and Baltic region, still has three seats remaining for the qualifiers to get on the show.

Players who make it through will have the opportunity to battle some of the regions’ top players including Sergey Ribachenko, Andrey Zaichenko, Konstantin Puchkov, Oleksii Kovalchuk and Dominykas Karmazinas.

The player participates in a 6-max Sit & Go against 4 professionals and another qualifier for a top prize of $12k. There are six heats with each winner then participating in a final Sit & Go for $35k and the right to battle Gus Hansen.

“This should be a great event with a lot of talented poker players. I have a lot of Russian friends in Kiev, and I look forward to making some new ones during the show, that is, if they forgive me after I beat them all.” Hansen declares of his competition.

There is only a little time left for players in the region to qualify with only two direct qualifiers remaining, the first on Sunday November 10 at 20:00 MSK (Moscow Standard Time) and the final opportunity on Saturday November 16 20:00 MSK, and the freeroll event left to take place.

While there is no doubt the programming will have the opportunity to be seen by all at some point, participation is limited to those that live in one the following regions: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus , Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia, Tajikistan, Lithuania, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova.



Full Tilt Poker Pro Battle Qualifiers Winding Down | Pokerfuse Online Poker News