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POKER FOR THE TROOPS
2011-04-07
Top aces to head to the war zones
The USO, which provides volunteer celebrity entertainers for shows in war zones where US troops are active, has assembled an all-star poker team to teach the grunts how to play successfully and enjoy the excitement and entertainment of the game.
Posts on Twitter from the organisation advised this week that Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Tom Dwan, Phil Hellmuth and Huck Seed have all volunteered their services for the USO's inaugural poker tour.
More details will be released soon.
42ND WORLD SERIES OF POKER SCHEDULE
2011-01-25
New events and 58 bracelets up for grabs in 2011 Tournament schedule
The 2011 schedule for the 42nd World Series of Poker (WSOP) was announced this week.
The annual tournament, comprising a slate of poker's most popular variations, is set to run at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada from 31 May to 19 July 2011 and will again be televised on ESPN.
Tournament organisers have announced a total of 58 gold bracelets to be won in 2011 – one more than last year - and additional events have been added to the schedule.
Last year's tournament generated its biggest field in WSOP history of 72,966 entries from 117 different countries. Players competed for a total of $187 million and 57 championship gold bracelets. The tournament reports attendance up 20 percent year-over-year in 2010.
Pre-registration for the 2011 WSOP will be available on-site at the Main Cage of the Rio in Las Vegas and online through www.WSOP.com beginning 7 February 2011. Registration for all bracelet events will remain open through four levels of play – or until all available seats have been sold. The only exception the Main Event, which will remain open for its customary two levels (or four hours of play).
The tournament’s culmination will be held with the play of the “November Nine®” from November 5-7, before a live audience with special prime-time coverage from ESPN on Tuesday 8 November 2011.
"Something for everyone is the best way to describe the 2011 World Series of Poker schedule,” said WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel, who will oversee the event for the sixth consecutive year. "It’s staggering to think that last year alone the WSOP hosted nine of the 17 largest tournaments in poker history. We had 44 events produce more than a $1 million prize pool, so we can’t wait to get at it again and offer players at all levels the best poker action on the planet."
NEW ONLINE POKER ROOM FOR FRANCE
2010-09-14
French land gambling heavyweights partner with Spiral on Prima's dedicated French network
Spiral Solutions France, a joint venture between Spiral Solutions and the Santa Maria Group, has launched its first ARJEL licensed client in the dedicated French online poker market.
In a deal with La Société Française des Jeux sur Internet (SFJI), Spiral Solutions France has introduced the new '200% Poker' branded poker room, which joins Prima Networks Limited's dedicated French network - a joint venture between Prima, powered by Microgaming and 888 Holdings plc., which already has three other ARJEL approved operators.
SFJI is a leading association of 40 French independent land-based casinos which collectively host more than 40 million customers each year. Led by Luc Le Borgne, directeur general of Vikings-Casinos, the group will own and manage the 200% Poker brand enabling the group to extend its land-based casino businesses online and achieve new revenue streams.
Spiral Solutions France created a bespoke business plan and provided consultancy and support to SFJI from the early stages of the project, through to securing the essential ARJEL license, developing the brand and implementing the platform, a company spokesman revealed this week.
The company offers a professional B2B service to France’s emerging e-gaming market, with a full turnkey solution that empowers customers with the services and support needed to successfully operate an interactive poker offering. Services include developing a custom-made business plan, a complete back-office system, payment processing, training, web design and development, customer retention services and a dedicated French-language customer service and support centre.
Christophe Santa Maria, president of Spiral Solutions France says, “France’s online poker gaming market is set to experience massive growth, representing a tremendous opportunity for gaming and casino brands like SFJI. We’re perfectly placed to help any organisation launch an online poker offering in France. Our experience and expertise was crucial in securing the ARJEL licence and launching 200% Poker. It is without doubt one of the most exciting players in the French market.”
Luc Le Borgne, directeur general of Vikings-Casinos of SFJI said, “Our customers are keen to experience the thrill of online poker. 200% Poker extends the trust and loyalty of our group’s brand into the online world. With world-class platform and the private service we get from Spiral Solutions France, we’re confident that 200% Poker will be a great success.”
Matti Zinder, managing partner and CEO of Spiral Solutions said, “Gaining entry into newly regulated markets is not without its challenges. Our clients in France and in other newly regulated markets such as Italy, Denmark and others can capitalise on Spiral Solutions’ bespoke, private and professional interactive gaming solutions that enhance their brand and maximise their revenues.”
The new 200% Poker branded poker room will be officially unveiled at a launch event and press conference in Paris today (September 14). Hosted by SFJI and attended by leading figures from the gaming and interactive gaming worlds, dignitaries and the media, the event will signal a new interactive era for France’s leading association of independent casinos
NEW ONLINE POKER ARRIVAL
2010-07-02
Comeon.com joins Cake Poker Network
The launch of a new online poker room on the Cake Network is imminent, reports ComeOn.com, which said in a statement this week that its initial launch will include both online poker and casino products, with a sports betting operation planned for Q3, 2010.
The statement did not include operator details regarding the new internet venue, although it did disclose that the poker operation would accept U.S. action, and that the online casino would feature browser-based games from both CTXM and Net Entertainment, all integrated on one platform and using a single e-wallet system for the convenience of players.
Earlier this year (see previous InfoPowa reports) CTXM and Cake Network inked an agreement to jointly market their services to consumer facing gaming sites worldwide.
It is understood that the operation will carry out affiliate marketing activities through NetRefer.
"We will initially launch with full local support in English, Swedish and Serbian," a spokesman said, adding that more languages would be added in the future.
Calculate your Outs in Online Texas Holdem Poker
2010-06-10
An ‘Out’ in poker refers to a card that could appear on the turn or river that will improve your hand, for example a card that would make you a flush or a straight. Understanding outs is a key skill in Holdem as it will allow you to make ‘good’ decisions based on your chances of improving to the best hand and the odds being offered. This article looks at how to effectively calculate outs in different situations and use this information to your advantage at the tables in online poker.
We will start by looking at how to work out the number of outs you have in some common situations, covering the importance of not double-counting certain cards. Next the chances of improving based on outs as a proportion of unseen cards will be covered. Finally, a simple rule of thumb for calculating your chances of improving with one or two cards still to come is introduced.
The most common situation in which you will need to calculate outs is when you have a flush or straight draw on the flop. For example where you hold two spades and two more appear on the flop, here any additional spade has a good probability of making you the best hand in online poker.
To work out your outs you need to know how many of the unseen cards left in the deck will help your hand. In the flush example there were 13 spades to begin with and you have seen 4 of these (2 in your hand and 2 on the board), leaving 9 spades in the deck. With an open ended straight draw, for example you hold J-10 on a board of 2-K-Q then any 9 or Ace is considered to be an out – in this case there are 4 of each among the unseen cards, giving you a total of 8 outs.
Beginning players often make the mistake of double counting outs when holding a combination of draws on the flop. Take the example where you hold J-10 of diamonds on a flop of 2 (diamonds)-Q (diamonds) – K (spades). This is an excellent situation where you have outs to both a straight and a flush. Any of the 9 remaining diamonds are outs in this situation – along with the 9’s and aces. However, you have already counted the 9 of diamonds and ace of diamonds in your flush outs. This means there are only 3 * 9’s and 3* aces as additional outs to your straight, giving you a total of 15 outs.
Calculating whether to call a bet based on your outs involves knowing how many cards improve your hand as a proportion of the unseen cards in the deck. After the flop in Holdem you will have seen a total of 5 cards of the initial 52, the 2 in your hand plus the 3 on the board. This leaves a total of 47 unseen cards after the flop and 46 after the turn. Working out your chances of improving involves dividing the number out outs by the total of unseen cards. In the straight + flush draw example you have 15 outs. 15/47 means you will improve almost one time in three.
There is a simple rule that experienced players use to calculate the number of outs with one and two cards to come. This is called the ‘rule of 4’ and simply multiplies the number of outs by 4 for two remaining cards. For example if you have 10 outs with 2 cards to come then your chance of improving is approximately 40%, with just one card to come you can halve this to 20%.
To summarize, an ‘out’ in Holdem a card in the as yet unseen deck that will improve your hand. The most common examples are cards that will make you a straight or a flush on the turn or river. Calculating your chances of actually improving involve dividing your total outs (being careful not to double count) by the total of unseen cards. The ‘rule of 4’ will give you an approximation of this chance which is good for most Holdem situations in online poker.
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MANHATTAN GRAND JURY PROBE FOCUSED ON FULL TILT POKER?
2010-04-05
Top US players may be subject of indictments if this report is accurate
The American enforcement noose may be about to tighten around the Internet's second largest online poker site, Full Tilt Poker, according to reports over the weekend in the respected Financial Times newspaper in the UK.
The newspaper claims that a Manhattan federal grand jury is probing the online poker company to determine whether there has been any violation of money-laundering laws in the United States.
The speculation is that indictments could be served on top US poker players resident in the United States who have been associated with Full Tilt, such as Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer.
The FT says that one element in the Grand Jury investigations is an FBI enquiry into unspecified civil suits recently launched against Full Tilt. Although it is not known what cases are referred to, there was a high profile but unsuccessful attempt to sue Full Tilt and various named top players last year by disgruntled poker pro Clonie Gowan.
The FT notes that such indictments could mark a significant assault by the US federal government on online poker generally, and discourage the endorsement of major American professional poker players. However, the report emphasises that details of the inquiry are still unknown, with neither the Manhattan nor Justice Department enforcement officials either confirming or commenting on it so far.
POKER STRATEGY CHANGE AT MICROGAMING?
2010-01-06
More fish the objective, say observers.
Today (January 5th) will see the start of a new policy at the Microgaming Poker Network, according to several reliable sources. Observers say the policy is designed to encourage online poker sites on the network to bring in more "fish" (less experienced and therefore more likely to lose than win) players to ensure that the balance between deposits and withdrawals moves closer to the former.
Poker News, commenting on the move, reports that beginning January 5th, MPN will move from the contributed method of rake calculation, in which the operators’ rake is calculated by splitting pots between the total number of players, to the weighted method, whereby rake per room is generated proportionally according to the amount that individual players contribute to each pot.
"Although this may sound confusing to most people, it essentially means that it pays for Microgaming skins to attract players who are more likely to redeposit when they loose their cash playing. In other words, the sites recognize they won't make money from successful players who cash out winnings over the long run," is how the poker information site interprets the policy.
The Microgaming Poker Network is not the first to move in this controversial direction; the general strategy has been extensively and publicly debated by operators for some weeks and is already being implemented by major networks such as Boss Media's International Poker Network, Playtech's iPoker network and the Bodog network, which penalise skins with higher withdrawal than deposit ratios (see previous InfoPowa reports). The Merge network is also reported to be pursuing a similar policy.