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CAKE POKER NETWORK SOLD?
2011-03-23
Strong rumours that online poker publication is to be the new owner
Bluff Magazine has reported that the online poker network and software provider Cake Poker will change hands within the next two weeks...and that the rumoured new owner will be the internet poker publication PokerListings.
The sale could have conflict of interest repercussions, as PokerListings carries extensive advertising for rival online poker providers.
The independent online poker monitoring website Pokerscout.com lists Cake most recently as hosting a seven day running average of over 600 real money ring game players, and ranks it as number six among those networks that accept action from US players.
The network took a major hit to its player liquidity when Doyle's Room left it earlier this year for the Yatahay Network (see previous InfoPowa reports), and year-on-year its traffic has declined by a worrying 69 percent.
Effective February this year, Cake established an association with the Poker Pros Network, enabling players to interact with a number of big names in the global player space.
Despite the growing strength of the acquisition rumours, PokerListings and Cake Poker Network have yet to make statements.
In related news, Cake's former poker room manager, the widely experienced and respected Lee Jones, has rejoined Pokerstars as Home Games manager, according to press material from the poker giant this week.
POKERSTARS FIFTY50 AN INNOVATIVE TOURNEY CONCEPT
2011-01-04
Event ends when fifty percent of the field has been busted out
Online poker giant Pokerstars has launched a new tournament concept after some months in development and testing. The newly introduced Fifty50 Sit and Go is a type of one-table event which ends when half of the entrants have been eliminated.
For example, in a 10-player Fifty50 tournament, 5 will be paid. Half of the prize pool will be distributed equally among the 5 winners, and the other half will be distributed among those same 5 players based on the chip count percentages at the end of the event.
"The 6th-10th place finishers who have been eliminated win nothing," Pokerstars clarified this week. "So in a 10-player $10+$1 Fifty50, the prize pool is $100. Each of the final 5 finishers would receive $10 each, plus a percentage of the remaining $50 in the prize pool. As a more detailed example, in a $300+$17 tournament with ten entrants, the total prize pool is $3,000. Each player starts with 1,500 chips.
To calculate the value of Player 1’s chips, multiply half the prize pool ($1500) by Player 1’s portion of the total chips in play (4300/15000), a total of $430. Adding the returned buy-in awarded to each player who cashes results in Player 1’s total prize amount of $730 ($430+$300). As a formula, an individual’s payout would be expressed as:
payout = buy-in + (ending chip count) x (0.5 x total prize pool)
(total chips in play)
The Fifty50 tournament lobby displays the approximate amount per 100 chips to be paid out when the tournament ends. The value displayed in the Fifty50 tournament lobby is rounded down to the nearest cent, but payouts are calculated so that the entire prize pool is paid out.
Due to the unique payout structure, Fifty50 tournaments are not eligible for any Tournament Leader Board points.”
ESPN AND POKERSTARS SIGN INTEGRATION DEAL
2010-11-02
PokerStars to provide software for ESPN Poker Club.
PokerStars will be joining forces with ESPN to provide its software for the ESPN Poker Club, a free-to-play poker section on ESPN.com, reports Pokernewsdaily.com.
“ESPN.com is one of the most important online sports venues, and ESPN Poker Club is entering its fifth year on the site,” said PokerStars.net North America Regional Marketing Director Joe Versaci. “This agreement will enable PokerStars to implement its superior technology and integrity in operation, and we look forward to establishing more product innovation with ESPN in the future.”
A spokesperson for ESPN said, “We’re excited to take the ESPN Poker Club to PokerStars.net, where we will be able to provide a better offering for fans, including a greater selection of games, prize options, and an improved player experience.”
The deal comes fresh after PokerStars.net teamed up with FOX this week to create a poker room on FOXSports.com which will also offer a free-to-play poker client as well as news, tournament results and poker strategy.
PKR CELEBRATES FOURTH BIRTHDAY
2010-08-18
3D online poker site is not resting on its laurels
PKR.com, the UK-based 3D online poker website, has come a long way since its historic launch on August 17, 2006 with advanced graphics and innovative proprietary software.
In the past four years the online poker company has accumulated some impressive statistics that include more than 3,750,000 registered players on the site, a total of 15,850 people playing online at once, and $2,925,816.31 given away in freerolls.
PKR.com has also achieved recognition for its work, earning Online Poker Operator of the Year 2009 at the International Gaming Awards and Poker Operator of the Year 2009 from the eGaming Review Awards.
The company has launched its own poker magazine, started its own regular TV show, and sponsored London’s first licensed live poker venue. PKR.com has also fulfilled its community promise, introducing its own bi-annual live poker event PKR LIVE, and Team PKR Pro, which is made entirely of up and coming players from the site.
Marketing Director Simon Prodger said this week, “We’re very proud of our achievements to date. We came against a lot of pessimism for being so innovative when we launched, but our customers have shown that they enjoy playing in our true-to-life environment and really appreciate the community feel.”
WSOP: Event 3
2010-07-02
As was expected by everyone, the $1000 buy-in event at the 2010 World Series Of Poker, was an absolutely huge event, and is stated to be the sixth largest tournament of all time, in the history of poker. The event was a 5-day marathon which kicked off on the 29th of May. It was an overwhelming sight for the players when they glanced across the never-ending swarm of tables that occupied the newly introduced Pavillion Room. There were a total of 4,345 hopefuls, and someone had to win the event, and that man was Aadam Daya. Aadam Daya, a Candian citizen bagged the cash prize of over $625k after his initial buy-in of $1000.
31-year-old, Aadam Daya, a businessman of Canadian citizenship, made his entry into the final day of the event, as the leader in chip count. Even though history suggests that the chip leader goes from strength to strength to win the game, Aadam did otherwise. He had a few twists and turns during the day, but managed to end the game emerging as the winner with some aggressive play. Daya did not lose his cool throughout the day, and once he was through with third placed Gabe Costner in what could be called a 'bracelet winning hand', he did not look back again. The Canadian brought the game to a close eventually, and won the event, after a slow and gruelling heads up battle with Deepak Bhatti. In the last hand of the game, Bhatti went all-in for his short stack with a K-5 in hand but was unfortunate to be run over by pocket Queens which Daya held. Bhatti was unlucky with the flop, turn and river and ended the event with a cash prize of $385106. You’d say “not bad” knowing that he had entered the final table, as the guy with the short stack.
Aadam Daya was delighted with his victory and explained that it was an accomplishment in poker which he had been pursuing for a long time. He also said that the cash prize was going to make things much easier for him, but would only go far enough to change his life but not him as a person. Pretty deep thoughts there, you’d say. Daya was absolutely modest in victory, and said that he realised a few moments of good fortune he had, to be able to get through a number of good players and was very lucky at times.
Before he set his on Las Vegas, Aadam Daya's only ambition was to win a WSOP bracelet, and coming into the series, just within a week he's made himself proud by doing just that, and has taken down the 3rd Event of the World Series Of Poker, for a jaw dropping amount of $652,872. Well done, Aadam Daya!
The final table positions and payouts were as follows:
1 Aadam Daya 625,872
2 Deepak Bhatti 385,106
3 Gabe Costner 279,327
4 Bart Davis 206,904
5 Nicholas Mitchell 154,425
6 Cory Brown 116,141
7 Isaac Settle 88,025
8 Dash Dudley 67,221
9 Rich Rice 51,735
Are you ready to play at the fastest growing online poker room for USA players? Get over to www.playersonly.com today and join in the action.
TECHNICAL NIGHTMARE AT FULL TILT
2009-12-29
The techies' worst - server failure on a busy Sunday
The Internet's second largest online poker site, Full Tilt Poker.com successfully overcame the techies' worst nightmare on Sunday - a server failure whilst tournaments on the busy site were going full blast.
The crash came during one of Full Tilt's heaviest traffic timeframes, when thousands of players around the planet were in action on its famous Sunday tournaments, and the stoppage impacted everyone playing on the site around 19h45 Eastern time.
Technical staff wrestled with the problem for several hours before it was sorted out, whilst the international player community bemoaned the temporary loss of the site and the disruption to their gambling activities.
"Unscheduled Maintenance In Progress: We recently experienced a network outage. We expect to be operational shortly," said one of several messages posted by site management to keep players informed. But after over two hours the site had to cancel all running tournaments.
It was not until 23h15 that Full Tilt's support unit emailed players explaining that when a tournament is cancelled before it reaches the money, according to tournament rule 31.2 (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/tourRules.php):
1) All players still in the tournament at the time of the cancellation will be refunded their tournament buy-in and tournament fee. Players will have their buy-ins refunded in the tournament prize pool currency.
2) In addition, the remaining prize pool will be divided and distributed according to chip count.
For tournaments that award non-monetary prizes, such as live tournament seat packages, Full Tilt Poker assigns a monetary value to the prize and distributes it in cash to the remaining players based on their chip counts. In ring games, the hand being played at the time of the stoppage was considered dead and all bets were returned at the point of the crash.
The crash is likely to have been expensive for Full Tilt, but operations are now back up and running normally.